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As some of you may know, I am finishing my master's thesis on women in music. Specifically, I am looking at women in the music store culture. I've been doing a ton of researching, reading, citing, stressing, and have come across many a topic, none of which surprise me about the sexism, misogyny, and general slammin' of women in the music biz.
I have also gotten some cool topic ideas for future research (yeah...because I like to torture myself) and thought this idea would be interesting: a research project about "Power Ballads." You know, "Monster Ballads," those lighter-waving, big, emotional, heartbreak songs of the hair band era. I'm listening to them right now on my favorite hair band internet radio station. Apparently, heaven isn't too far away...
Ballads are not new by any means, but that rocking, big guitar solo, falling-to-the-floor-in-agony, power ballad is its own special creature. Which makes one wonder what purpose it serves, from a cultural/rhetorical/gender script standpoint.
Perhaps they were just a revision of the traveling troubadour singing songs about his lady-love. Perhaps they were a clever marketing ploy to get more women into hair/glam/metal music (as if they didn't have enough women fainting at concerts and tossing underwear as it was.) Or, maybe from what I know about gender, power, and music, "power ballads" represent an attempt to woo and keep female listeners in the symbolically abusive relationship that is the masculine fantasy of "cock rock."
Think about it. Every hair band worth their spandex had at least one power ballad on their albums, if not more. And these hair bands were aqua-net deep in performing white-heterosexual-macho-masculinity to the max. The thrusting on stage, the stroking the microphone, the masturbating guitar solos (just look at the faces of the lead guitar solo players and you'll know what I'm talking about.) And the lyrics....oh the lyrics! Nothing but sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll, but mostly about sex. Women in these lyrics are typically objectified, simplified, and talked about as "nothing but a good time." The band goes from girl to girl, just like from town to town, notching their conquests on their black studded belts. Some songs that display this hypersexual masculinity include:
Seventeen - Winger
Cherry Pie - Warrant
Lick It Up - KISS
Sticky Sweet - Motley Crue
Let Me Put My Love Into You - AC/DC
Hot For Teacher - Van Halen
Slide It In - Whitesnake
Talk Dirty to Me - Poison
Rag Doll - Aerosmith
- Cat Scratch Fever - Ted Nugent
- Rock You Like A Hurricane- Scorpions
- Lay Your Hands On Me - Bon Jovi
- Pour Some Sugar on Me - Def Leppard
- Once Bitten, Twice Shy - Great White
- Smooth Up In Ya - Bullet Boys
- and I could keep going...
Ha, I've seen over half of these bands live. Now, nothing wrong with sexuality. Part of what makes rock & roll fun is sexuality, that connection and that force is musical awesomeness. But the sexuality depicted here is all about the man getting his jollys off at the expense of the disposable vagina (or mouth in some cases.) It is about only one person's sexuality (mens.) If not directly, or explicitly, the songs go man = hard on, women = fix. The woman wants it bad, the guys want it bad, and the dudes are all willing and able. Even if women are talked about as "wanting it" look at how it is referenced. It ends up not satisfying their needs, but the man's ego that he's a sex god. Typical male fantasy, all women want you all the time and can never get enough.
This is what various scholars in music have described as "cock rock."
The music is just straight on sex. The rhythm drives, insisting you go along, the verse-chorus make up is the foreplay arousing you to the solo (climax), then release and prompt after-sex cigarette. The vocals are demanding and haughty. The lyrics are arrogant, assertive, and aggressive. Virtuosity here is key, commanding your "instrument" be it the guitar or vox. This display shows your virility, that you're in control, you're "master of your
