Page 132 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

116 Music

Christian daughter that mothers could approve of. However, as Spears
grew up and it became clear that she was a sexually active adult (stories of
erotic liaisons with rock stars and young actors fi lled the tabloids), and as
her music and performances became more openly sexual (a televised
awards show appearance saw her dancing lewdly with a giant snake while
singing “ I ’ m a Slave 4 U ” ), public opinion turned against her, and she
became the subject of almost universal scorn and mockery. It is notewor-
thy that the attacks leveled against her were framed in the discourses of
class (she was “ White trash ” ) and psychiatry (she was a nymphomaniac or
simply insane). This is remarkably similar to Victorian - era conceptions of
sexuality, in which pronounced female desire was linked to either “ low ”
class status or biological abnormality.
In general, mainstream American music consumers demand that female
artists announce their sexual role and stick with it. They will accept
the performance of forthright sexual promiscuity (Christina Aguilera,
Madonna) or sexual modesty (Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson), but when
female artists dare to evolve into sexual maturity with all of its contradic-
tions and complexities, they are disciplined with decreased record sales and
public disparagement. For contrast, consider the career trajectory of Justin
Timberlake who, like Spears, started out as a chaste teenage performer, but
who has developed into an adult artist whose music is at times openly
lascivious, and at other times sappily romantic. Music fans and critics
neither perceived dissonance in his steady transformation from boy to
man, nor expressed hostility to work that moves erratically between the
yearning for love and the demand for sex. This is testament to signifi cant
differences in the range of identities made available to men and women
both in music and in society at large.
While this analysis of sexual performance and gender in pop music sug-

gests a conservative undercurrent that flows beneath what is in many other
respects a very progressive art form, it must be noted that a number of
successful mainstream female artists, and many more operating in under-
ground music subcultures, are currently testing the limits of what Americans

will tolerate in terms of sexual provocation and fluidity in gender role
behavior. Careful attention to popular music gives us a good sense of where
the culture is at and what direction it is headed next. Pop music is some-
times derided for its disposability, the rapidity with which faddish bands
and sounds come and go, but a correlate to this is the constant necessity
for renewal which sends artists and fans in a perpetual hunt for innovative