How does gender within popular music affect instrument specialization within bands today, and why can this be a negative phenomenon?  This question is very interesting to me as it deals with modern music and what effects it can have on the abilities for musicians to enter any given music scene in any given instrument.  My personal experience regarding this topic involves my time with a local music band called Personas in Columbia.  Our first bassist at the time was a girl, and after doing some research about this topic, it gave me ideas on how I could incorporate personal experiences with this report.  I am also qualified to write about this subject because of previous experiences that I have within the local music scene within the band I was in previously, as well as other local bands around Columbia.  This research affects my values, as if I were to join or start another band, I would want to consider these facts and allow any individual, whether male or female, to play the instruments that they want.

The first source that I have chosen is called When Women Play the Bass: Instrument Specialization and Gender Interpretation in Alternative Rock Music by Mary Ann Clawson.  The central claim of this article is that, although the bass allows women to join bands consisting predominantly of men, it can also create somewhat of a musical niche for women in these bands.  The author includes major evidence such as interviews with local musicians, several percentages of women who play the bass in local alternative rock bands, and examples of statistics that correlate with these observations.  The author carries credibility because of her previous research in regards to popular culture and gender.  She is also the author of Constructing Brotherhood: Class, Gender, and Fraternalism which also deals with gender roles.  This is important because it gives her credibility to write about gender roles in modern popular culture (Clawson, 193, 196).

The second source that I have chosen is called Feminist Research in Music Education from The Feminist eZine.  The central claim of this article is that there are many issues within music education dealing with gender.  Evidence of this claim includes the tendency for textbooks to present women as singers or flutists instead of percussionists or composers, exclusion of women's contributions in college textbooks, and stereotypical portrayals of girls and boys within classroom music repertoire.  The author or authors of this article have credibility in that they include many citations outlining and supporting their claims.  The authors of The Feminist EZine also establish ethos in that their website includes many other articles having to do with gender issues in areas other than music.  However, bias could exist in the seriousness of the claims brought about by these different sources, as each sources severity could be considered an opinion-based claim.  The major values for this article are women's portrayal in musical education textbooks and music education in general (The Feminist EZine).

The third and final source that I am using is called Navigating Gender Inequality in Musical Subgenres by Adria Ryan McLaughlin.  The central claim of this article is that women face many barriers when attempting to join subcultural rock genres.  Some examples of evidence include twenty-four interviews with female musicians who reflect on their musical experiences, how these musicians negotiated barriers, and factors that could potentially force these women out of the music scene.  For example, the author includes an interview of a bassist named Wendy, who discusses how she was patronized when a man told her: "'Come with me, I'm gonna show you how to hold [your instrument]'" (McLaughlin, 28).  McLaughlin then uses this statement to show how unwanted help such as the assistance previously mentioned can make women feel as though they are on a lower level when compared to male musicians.  These interviews, as well as her other research, provides a lot of varied evidence to support her claim.  The major values for this article are women's positions within subgenres of rock and roll, and the ability for women to express themselves to the fullest extent within art and music without barriers such as gender.  The credibility of this article and its author is within its sources and lack of bias within the paper, as it is an educational paper submitted to the Sociology and Anthropology Department of East Tennessee State University, and therefore must be fairly well researched.  McLaughlin also makes it a point to include her personal experiences.  She makes sure to include the fact that she has been attending rock concerts and music venues for over 20 years.  This statement, as well as her research experience, establishes an ethos around the author, which shows the reader and audience that she is knowledgeable and can discuss the topics within her paper (McLaughlin, 2).

This research question is arguable, as one could say that these sources are just a few rare examples and not reflective of all of the evidence that exists, which might reflect that instrument specialization based upon gender only exists in rare cases.  However, a good counterargument of this claim would be that all of these examples are from many various sources among many different music genres, therefore showing that this is a very broad and widespread issue that is not limited in evidence of its existence.  Most of the sources that I found agreed in the idea that many barriers exist for women in the rock subgenre, and that women were portrayed as only playing certain specific instruments.  The different perspectives presented within these sources provide many of the same observations within different genres, which further aids in cementing this as a legitimate issue within many music scenes.  A workable solution for this problem could be to portray women in more varied roles within music.  Instead of portraying percussionists as always being men within educational textbooks, try to use images of female percussionists, and vice versa; instead of portraying flutists as always being women, include male flute players in order to reduce the portrayal of instrument specialization based upon gender.  This can be said for alternative rock and other subgenres as well.  Bands could to include women in more varied roles as well as what the women themselves want to play.  That being said, in the future I may need to revise my research question in order to be more broad with my observations.  For example, I may need to include more varied subject matter than just instrument specialization in a specific genre.  I could also include portrayals of women in music education and issues within other subgenres of rock and roll such as punk rock, as I have evidence for both of these.  This would further expand and strengthen my argument.

