Male musicians dominate rock so it’s reasonable to say that it is gendered male. Ninety-eight of the Rolling Stone 100 greatest guitarists were men, which raises the issue of why?
‘Male fans buy a guitar; female fans buy a poster’ (Bayton). Men aspire to be their idols whereas women fall in lust. Frith and McCobbie look at this ‘gendered’ heavy metal as ‘cock rock’. Prince (Purple Rain) used his electric guitar as a powerful phallocentric symbol and to some men is their ‘girlfriend’. Women are more successful within ‘pop and folk… predominantly that of vocalist rather than instrumentalist’ (Bayton). Janis Joplin had to become ‘one of the boys’ to succeed.
Androgynous musicians (Bowie & Motley Crue) leave little room in the market for females. Overall Rock music is masculine, ‘women's presence has been…minimal’ (Bayton). However since female 'rockers' like Avril Lavigne females appear more in rock. Rock music is changing.
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This has quite a lot of reference to the material used in the lecture but it reads more as a list than a well constructed argument.
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