What’s in a Name? Gender & Power in Popular Music,1960–2019

Abstract

Media studies reveal that popular culture often objectifies, sexualizes, and degrades women more than men. In song lyrics, these portrayals frequently stem from men’s use of slang and nicknames. But what happens when men artists sing about a particular, named woman? Does this differ from how men artists sing about a particular, named man? This study draws on four domains of power conceptualized by Patricial Hill Collins—structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, and interpersonal—to explore how men artists attribute power to named men and named women in song lyrics. Analyzing 373 songs over 60 years, we find that named men are more likely to hold and wield diverse forms of power than named women, whose power is typically tied to interpersonal relationships. These findings not only illustrate how men artists’ attribute power to named men and named women in popular music but also demonstrate how various forms of power are used to reinforce hegemonic masculinities.