Over the years, women in the music industry have struggled to earn a place in a universe that has traditionally been nominated by men. Little by little, movements in search of equality have led women to use their voices to say what they disagree with and change the status quo to continue opening the space for new generations.
From their lyrics, the genre in which they ventured, the attitude, the way of speaking, their own shows and even the way of dressing, they have been part of the struggle of artists such as Madonna, Joan Jett, Debbie Harry, Shirley Manson, Courtney Love , Beyoncé, Rihanna, Karol G, Shakira and Miley Cyrus, among many others.
The most recent example of this is undoubtedly Shakira, who in her collaboration with Bizarrap at Music Session #53 did the unthinkable —on a global mainstream level—: instead of maintaining the established forms and discretion that a woman should have before the public, infidelity of his ex-partner, the soccer player Gerard Piqué, he poured out all his emotions in a cathartic way in a three and a half minute song in which he not only sings to his ex, but also to his current girlfriend and even his mother-in-law.
WE RECOMMEND YOU: Miley Cyrus announces her second music video; will be titled River
The success of the song, which has nearly 400 million views on YouTube and nearly as many listeners on Spotify, was just the conversation that sparked around her breaking the implicit no-naming rules and leaving behind the metaphors on a subject of heartbreak. Thus, in little more than three minutes, she became the voice of millions of women who have gone through a similar process, empowering those emotions in a creative way and finding empathy in both women and men.
Although Shakira already had heartbreak songs, she had never been so clear when expressing her feelings as she was with Session 53; However, months before the arrival of this song produced by the Argentine Bizarrap, Shakira had given little glimpses of history in songs like Te felicito and Monotonía.
Just two days after the Colombian dropped the bomb, Miley Cyrus arrived with her song Flowers and the comparisons were not long in coming. What if Shakira had been much more direct and Miley had peppered her ex-partner, Liam Hemsworth, with a paean to self-love in which she does not mention it. However, Flowers appeared almost as a response to the song that Hemsworth dedicated to Miley on her wedding day: When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars, where she emphasizes that she doesn’t need a man to feel loved.
In addition to the fact that the Tennessee-born woman did not hesitate to give small references to her ex, such as the exercise session she has in the video, the house where she filmed it – where Hemsworth is supposed to have cheated on her with 14 different women – and the dress she wears, gold, in reference to the one used by actress Jennifer Lawrence – who agreed to have kissed the actor still married to Cyrus – at the Games Of Thrones premiere.
Flowers is part of Cyrus’ new album, Summer Vacation, and has become one of the most streamed songs on YouTube with 300 million views and 625 million listeners on Spotify.
In recent years, urban music, long dominated by men, has given a new generation of female singers the space to express who they are and how they want to be, regardless of social gender norms.
That is to say, characters like Karol G, who has just released the song TQG with Shakira in which he accompanies his countrywoman with a song of direct heartbreak for his ex-partners; and Cazzu, the Argentine known as La Jefa del Trap, have consolidated a place in the world of urban music for their lyrics, their attitude and mainly for their messages.
This movement is nothing new. In the 90s, the character and attitude of female artists who were an example of today’s stars was gestated. For example, Beyoncé has consolidated a place in the Olympus of music for almost three decades and it has been that privileged place that gives her the freedom to push the limits beyond what is politically correct.
In 2016, when she was the star act at halftime in the 50th edition of the Super Bowl, the singer did not hesitate for a moment to make the Black Life Matters movement visible with a show in which she evoked Malcolm X and the Black Panthers of the years 60, dressing his dancers as the political movement that highlighted the so-called black power did. It was the same dancers who, at the back of the stage, gave the fist salute in the air that the athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos did at the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968.
Rihanna, who this year starred in the Super Bowl halftime show, becoming the first pregnant woman to do so, turned down the space for many years in support of black player Colin Kaepernick, who was the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers and who, kneeling at the start of the US national anthem at NFL games, he was protesting police brutality and racial inequality in the United States.
In the 90s, women like Shirley Manson, vocalist for Garbage, and Courtney Love, founder of the band Hole, marked a generation of women with their attitude. The Edinburgh, Scotland native came into the spotlight when, in 1995, Garbage’s first album came out and songs like Only Happy When It Rains and Stupid Girl began to climb the charts on radio and television. videos.
Shirley’s image—an attractive redhead with a defiant attitude, blood-red lips, black-rimmed blue eyes, and biker boots—placed her on hundreds of magazine covers and influenced the girls of the ’90s and lasted to this day. of today in characters like Avril Lavigne, Ashley Simpson and Kelly Osbourne, who adopted elements that Manson imposed.
For her part, Courtney Love ventured into the world of grunge not only because of her marriage to Kurt Cobain —leader and vocalist of Nirvana— but also for having created a band in which all the members, except the drummer, were women who, in addition to being sexy they could make music.
Years ago, in the 1980s, characters like Debbie Harry and Joan Jett placed themselves in the eye of the storm because they simply wanted to be themselves and rock. Thus the Blondie vocalist became one of the first women to front a band made up of men, while Jett did not allow her music to be lost in the offer and songs like I Love Rock N ‘Roll remains an anthem among the rebellious girls.
MADONNA, INSPIRED BY DAVID BOWIE
The American singer has been a reference since the 80s for not only destroying the status quo and pushing the limits to the maximum, Madonna is an icon of rebellion and women’s rights who has never kept her mouth shut.
An example of this was her irruption into the world of video clips in 1984 when, dressed in a white wedding dress, she dragged herself along the floor singing the song in the most sensual way she could, which led her to be the target of criticism and applause. Years later, the New Yorker had no problem showing herself as a woman who enjoys her sexuality and then came the Blonde Ambition Tour, the book Sex and the album Erotica.
In 2012, the singer was chosen Woman of the Year by the Premios
Billboard, and, during the acceptance of the award, Madonna launched one of the most remembered speeches of the event… and one of the most far-reaching.
Today I stand before you as a doormat… oh, I mean as an entertainer. Thank you for recognizing the ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant sexism, misogyny, and constant relentless abuse. Of course I was inspired by Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde and Aretha Franklin, but my real muse was David Bowie. He embodied the masculine and feminine spirit that suited me perfectly. He was the one who made me understand that there are no rules. But I misunderstood, there are no rules if you are a man. Yes there are if you are a woman.
When you are a woman you have to play the game. You’re allowed to be cute and sexy, but don’t come across as smart. Do not have an opinion that is not aligned with the status quo. You’re allowed to be objectified by men and dress like a slut, but you can’t appropriate your slutty. And don’t ever, I repeat, don’t even think about sharing your own sexual fantasies with the world. I know what men want you to be, but more importantly, I know what other women are comfortable with for you to be around other men. And finally, don’t get old, because getting old is a sin. You are going to be criticized and denigrated and they are definitely not going to happen to you on the radio, ”she pointed out.
cva
