MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

This paper looks to better understand gender representation in contemporary music journalism through a discourse analysis of contemporary popular press coverage of female musicians in the era of #MeToo. Representation matters and in 2019 there are seemingly boundless opportunities for diverse identity depiction. However, time and time again, gender and genre are conflated in popular music culture by journalists, audiences, and media companies alike. As Leib (2013) argues gender identity is a prime determinate of female musician’s branding in contemporary music industry culture. We must critically consider representation as it has dire implications for future producers and consumers of media content. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to interrogate discourse concerning the contemporary intersection of gender, popular music, and journalism around. As Casey et al. (2007) explain, “Discourses are able to shape the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and power relations of the people involved in a given ‘communication event.’ This recognizes that language is a mode of action that is both socially and historically shaped and shaping” (p. 80). In other words, the dominant discourse supports and replicates cultural ideologies. Similarly, Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2006) point to the fact that discourses are “integral to the construction of social reality” (p. 293). Finally, this work is informed by Robinson’s (2005) work on gender, journalism, and equity, which situates journalist’s role in the construction of culture and argues that the work is “defined by gendered preconceptions” (p. 2). Overall, this paper argues that a shift in music journalism emerged in 2018 that happened to correlate with the mass coverage of #metoo spread virally around social media.