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Running Head: Gender in The Music Industry

Gustavo Gonzalez
Genre Analysis: Gender in the Music Industry
09/29/16
RWS 1302

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Gender in The Music Industry

Gender in the Music Industry

INTRO
The music industry is one of the most influential scenes in todays modern world
and plays a huge role in cultural diversity along with different viewpoints and
perspectives. The industry, however, is not very fair as seen in the eyes of the people
involved in it, most especially, the women. There have been cases in which women are
seen as inferior to men for many reasons such as the unfair amount of income they have
(in The U.K. their salary is nearly 50% less than their male colleagues) not crediting
women for their work or engineering, and inappropriate behavior in corporate settings,
like sexual harassment and assault (MBJ P.2). Even though there are more women in the
population than men in working age, 61% of music professionals in the U.K. are male. In
sectors such as promotion, management and live music, that number rises to 70%. 1 This

will been seen by viewing two genres that inform you of some of the problems in the
industry. An article from Berkleys College of Musics The Music Business Journal
focuses on gender inequalities and its unfairness towards women and how they are seen
in the industry overall. A video by CNN, The Music Industry and Gender Inequality,
will also be used as a genre analysis, which reaches out to three women in the music
industry who speak about the unfairness and sexism towards women.

TARGET AUDIENCE
The first genre, Berkleys College of Musics The Music Business Journal, has
one main purpose, and it is to inform the viewer of the unfairness and differences

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between men and women in the music industry, how women are treated, and also the
growth of women power in the business itself. The second genre, a video by CNN, The
Music Industry and Gender Inequality focuses on informing but also focuses on
persuading the audience by showing a perspective of three women. This gives us a sense
of knowledge from three individuals that are in the industry and know their way around
the business and makes us feel more connected to the topic.
The Music Business Journal is mainly targeting any individual looking for
answers in the specific topic of women in the music industry, this could be directed
towards both males and females looking for some answers on the specific topic or that
work in that specific field. This can be assumed because of the point the article is trying
to make for the viewers (which is to inform of the inequalities that women encounter).
The CNNs Video has a broader intended audience due to it being more towards a viewer
watching the CNN broadcast or online streaming service. We could also assume that the
broadcast has been advertised by TV or could be directed towards viewers looking for
information on women inequality or information on the music industry in general. Both
genres are different with their approach towards the topic but can be very similar.
The video is about 3 minutes, and can be summarized quite quickly for the sake of
briefness, although you might need to review the information again if it does not grab our
attention. The Berkley article is a longer read and goes more in detail of different sub
topics, ideas and facts about the industry. Although it is a longer read, it is easier to focus
on the main subjects and pinpoint the main ideas of each topic easily. Even though both
genres are different, they both stick to conveying the overall message and do not stray
away from their purpose, which is to explore the different issues in the industry.

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Gender in The Music Industry
Both genres use easily understandable language, which simplifies the reading or
viewing experience for the audience. The video not only uses simplified language but
also uses easy readable text to further simplify the task. The video itself is very clean,
elegant, and stays on topic, but the actual CNN website where the video is displayed is
filled with a lot of advertisement and information on other videos or articles, which is
unnecessary and should be removed for cleanliness. Due to this advertisement strategy,
the website will move your target audience towards other subjects instead of maintaining
their interest on the presented one. The article though, provides more sophisticated
language and succeeds in maintaining its purpose throughout, it also provides a lengthy
description of the issues and gives several different viewpoints of information with
multiple people. It also presents the information in such a way that is easy to read and
understand and uses simple font with black and white contrast, but like the CNN website,
there is also a lot of unnecessary advertisement that could move your attention elsewhere.

ETHOS
Establishing that there is an issue within the music industry and using women in
the industry that have seen or experienced issues first hand shows the credibility of the
video. The video also features former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to address
how women inequality is an issue that is very important in todays modern society and
how it affects situations around us (such as the presidential elections), it also shows input
of women in the business themselves. This might be the most important factor to the
contribution of reliability due to sources within the main topic. The article proves its
reliability by providing information on different statistical information (such as the

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Gender in The Music Industry
income for men and women in the music business in the U.K. and U.S.). It also provides
credibility by mentioning Congress and its failure to approve the Paycheck Fairness Act,
giving the video multiple sources of information that could prove to be useful. This gives
us insight on not only what the articles point is but also shows that outside sources are
factors in the article itself.

PATHOS
There are multiple ways that the CNN video shows emotion and sympathy
towards the viewer, for example, video uses three women in the industry to affect our
perspective and latches to our emotions. We see the perspective of these three women and
understand their views more directly and clearly. To do this, the women show examples
of them being objectified and how men treat them unfairly. They also focus on
emphasizing that they want to create an industry where men arent the leaders which
wants to make the viewers more supportive of the womens actions. The article piece
begins by telling us that some women are indeed a big power in the music industry, like
Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Beyonc for example, but then switches the tone of the article
to a more negative aspect and how women are objectified and assaulted. It also touches
on how women arent given equal opportunities and uses viewpoints such as, uneven
distribution of genders is partly to blame on long work hours that force women to make a
choice between work and family life... (GMI P. 4) to focus our emotions to the
unfairness towards women.

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Gender in The Music Industry
LOGOS
The CNN video uses reasoning in such a way that is seen through how the three
women talk about the topics. They use facts on the specific issue of women inequalities
and the video also addresses strong opinion. The article is more focused on facts from
different sources and brings up multiple scenarios to explain its reasoning clearly and the
facts in the article are what make it coherent and logical.

DELIVERY
Delivery is structured differently in both topics, but still conveying the same
message for both genres. The CNN video tries to immediately grabs your attention by
showing information regarding the presidential debate (CNN). It also keeps the
information short yet detailed to not lose your attention and keep you informed at the
same time. On the other hand, the article from Berkley provides information but in a
much scattered way. Although the information is scattered, the article does stay on topic
throughout. Both pieces do provide a lot of support for the controversial topic.

CONCLUSION
Although both genres were different and had different sources, they both touched
on their subject efficiently. The CNN video established a good connection with the
audience and kept it short to keep the viewers interested. The article described womens
inequality in the music industry well and showed multiple viewpoints to collect
information from and made a lot of valid points. Both proved to be relevant and cohesive
with the subject of women inequality and gender discrimination in the music industry.

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Gender in The Music Industry

REFERENCES
1.
Patel, N. (2015, October). Gender in the Music Industry. Retrieved September 18,
2016, from http://www.thembj.org/2015/10/gender-inequality-in-the-music-industry/
2.
C. (n.d.). The music industry and gender equality - CNN Video. Retrieved
September 18, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/04/10/womenmusic-sexism-gender-equality-misogyny-politics-sacred-bones-music-origwx-allee.cnn

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