Musical Sexology

We’ve come a long way from Leslie Gore to Lil’ Kim. From musical lyrics, videos, imagery and even our culture. Sexuality in the music industry has made significant leaps from where it used to be. Some may say that the music over the years has made on impact on society but I would beg to differ and reverse that assumption and say that our society has made a huge impact on music. More specifically our society has changed the role of women and sexuality in music, which is changing the role of women in society.

Just as everything else in the world, when you have a culture that is constantly changing, other aspects of that participating world will change right along with it. Let’s take sexuality in the music industry. In the beginnings of music sexuality was an aspect of music that artist dared not to touch directly, not for reasons of fear but rather it was he forbidden fruit of its time. In the early years of American society, anything having to do with sex was matter that was dealt with in the homes of families. So why would this reflect any different in music. Since music is a mirror of what’s happening in the world, one would not touch on that subject, at first! Take a look at early music and music videos; the songs that were sung were about love, not lust. They were about silly romance not sex (trust me there is a difference in the two).

Let’s take a look at the video for Leslie Gore’s “It’s my Party.”  In this music video there are some things to notice, first thing are the lyrics. Leslie is singing about a boy that she had a crush on. Seeing the boy someone else other than her hurt her. She was telling the world that it is her right to cry when she is hurt, even if she is crying over a boy. The imagery of the video is really conservative. The video is your traditional black and white singers on stage everyone else is dancing below. Looking everyone is fully cloth and the dances are very non-sexual, they are not even touching one another with the exception of an occasional touching of the hands. That was the world they lived in during that time, girls shouldn’t kiss boys. They were looked down upon for doing so.

Jumping ahead to the 90’s where it was more common to display sexual forms affection outside of the home. It was regular boys and girls to hold hands, hug and kiss in public. Sex was talked about outside of the home and having sex was the up and coming popular thing to do as teenagers but women where still not to be the aggressors. They had to remain a lady and if anything did happen, the male was praised while the woman was left with the guilt. Take the “Criminal” song by Fiona Apple in 1996. The song is about her committing some sort of sexual activity and is seeking resentence for it. She makes it known exactly what she did but she is referring to herself as a “criminal” for doing it. This is interesting because I remember in the 90’s when guys would brag about the number of women they had sexual encounters with and other guys cheered them on for it, even if they had a girlfriend. On the flip side, women were seen as scandalous and promiscuous and called derogatory names for doing the same act. This video is a mirror of the world at the time.  Women did something wrong sexually and she now is seeking for forgiveness for doing it. Something to also note is the imagery in this video. The scenes are more risky than that of the Leslie Gore video. You have drunken men and women laid out half naked. Fiona shared a bathtub with another man showing the increase in sexual behavior and acceptance at this time. Even though the imagery was more acceptable, the act that was committed was not.   

The last video we looked at was Lil’ Kim’s “How Many Licks” uncensored music video. Already this is a dramatic shift because it is letting us know that there is extreme sexual content in what we are about to see, something that was not and did not have to be included in the other videos. So it by that we are already placing ourselves in a new day and age where sexuality is even more acceptable. The song is filled with sexual explicit language and imagery. The women barely have any clothing on and the men are shirtless; so over time music videos have transformed from completely clothe to barely leaving anything to the imagination. The language that Lil’ Kim is using is the complete opposite of the Leslie Gore video; Kim is not crying over and pursuing the man but rather the exact opposite. This is shown in a scene close to the end of the video where she pulls up in a car and a guy looks in, then these words appear of the screen “she does not please you. You please her” and then she pulls the guy into the car. This shows the complete shift of power with sexuality in our society. Women have taken control of what men want and now use it to their advantage. There is no longer “crying over you” or “ I feel like a criminal for doing what you do all the time” but now it’s I don’t care what you need; you will give me what I need. 

With the acceptance of sexuality and the confidence of women to use it in their music and music videos, the women in society are being reassured that what they are already doing is okay. So now you have a young lady telling a guy “if he liked it he should have put a ring on it” to artist such as Beyonce making a hit song out of the phrase; now to all the single ladies using this s their chant. They are saying “ I don’t belong to you so I can be with who I want and not “crying” or feel like a “criminal” when doing it. I believe that as the views of sexuality continue to change in our society, they will continue to change in our music with time.