Review

Reviewed Work(s): Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender by Sheila Whiteley
Review by: Robert Walser
Source: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Sep., 1999), pp. 103-106
Published by: Music Library Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/900475
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Book Reviews 103

among
among the
the most
most significant otic" art form in the context of American
significantcontributions
contributions
to gender-feminist
gender-feminist musicology
musicologyininrecent
recent
society in the first decades of this century.
times. Miriam K. Whaples sets the tone for the en-
Equally as important in the domain of tire volume in her leadoff essay presenting
American music is Michael V. Pisani's essay the origins of exoticism in European music
on "Indian" evocations ("I'm an Indian already in the late Middle Ages. Only thus
Too"). For almost three hundred years, do we understand the deep roots this tradi-
composers in Europe and North America tion has put down in the cultural soil of the
have sought to capture the sounds of West.

Native American music in their composi- Of course, the Japanese, the Muslims,
tions, sometimes with laughable results. A and the Chinese all had their views of
few, like Arthur Farwell, went about their Europeans as Other, framing their vision
work in a more sober fashion. These pieces the outside world in often unflattering a
all reflect the changing attitudes of whites inaccurate stereotypes. There is a commo
toward indigenous peoples. Pisani's richly ality of shared experience among all pe
textured account treats not only well- ples on this point; there is also a lesson
known "Indianists" like Edward MacDowell be learned. "To separate oneself or on
and Antonin Dvoirk, but lesser lights group-to say, 'Oh, no, we are differen
like George Frederick Bristow and is to set oneself against wholeness. To
Hans
Christian Lumbye. separate ourselves from the whole is to c
our options and erect the walls of ou
The subtleties of Native American perfor-
mance were difficult if not impossible own
to prison" (Diane K. Osbon, ed., A Jose
capture using Western instruments and Campbell Companion: Reflections on the A
musical language, but the most daunting of Living [New York: HarperCollins, 1991
challenge was faced by composers drawn 7).
to Those who appropriate and distor
the Indonesian gamelan. This topic is skill-
music of the Other imprison themselves
fully handled by Mervyn Cooke ("The Easttheir own ignorance. Anyone interest
in breaking down those walls and expe
in the West"). The slendro and pelog scales
can be reproduced only with great diffi-
encing a transformation of musical unde
culty on Western string instruments, and
standing will find no better place to beg
not at all on winds or piano. But this did
than Bellman's book. It is through this ki
not deter Debussy, Henry Cowell, Percy of work that we may finally come to a pl
Grainger, Benjamin Britten, and a hostwhere
of we see Turks, Gypsies, Indians, a
others as remarkably similar to ourselves,
others from trying, sometimes with remark-
ably convincing results. The intersectioneven
of while we celebrate our differences.
composition and ethnomusicology played a
Paradoxically, we may find ourselves enjoy-
crucial role in this history. ing "exotic" music even more for our in-
Two other essays round out the collec-
creased understanding.
tion. Gunther Schuller ('Jazz and Musical WALTER AARON CLARK
Exoticism") examines early jazz as an "ex- University of Kansas

Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender. Edited by Sheila

Whiteley. London: Routledge, 1997. [xxxvi, 353 p. ISBN 0-415-14670-4
(cloth); 0-415-14671-2 (pbk.). $75 (cloth); $22.99 (pbk.).]
Of the hundreds of books about music aspects
aspectsofof"rock
"rock
music
music
culture,"
culture,"
the second
the second
that I own, only a score or so explorefocusing
focusing
issues onon constructions
constructions
of masculinity,
of masculinity
of gender to any great extent. Quitethe third on femininities, and the fourth
a few
music scholars have labored over the past video. One of the book's main
on music
decade to make up for this neglect, andis to expand our knowledge of th
goals
Sheila Whiteley's new volume is a valuable range of femininities and masculinities tha
addition to this growing body of work.are articulated through popular music; an
Whiteley divides her book into four sec- other is to show the persistence of misog
tions, the first covering various genderedyny and homosocial bonding in the musi

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104 NOTES, September 1999

world. The collection emphasizes that gen- Will Straw's chapter on record collecting
der is an unstable, perpetually renegotiated is a loosely organized but thoughtful and
constituent of identity, a means of social informative analysis of collectors and their
categorization that positions people un- "nerdish homosociality." As a participant
equally, and thus a crucial topic for cultural himself, Straw constructs an especially
analysis. nuanced account of the complexities and
Whiteley's introduction lays out these contradictions of this peculiarly male form
themes and sets up the rest of the collec- of connoisseurship. He proposes that
tion well, except in one puzzling respect. women's absence from record-collecting
"[T]here is growing acceptance that the communities can hamper their success as
music itself must be central to any mean- musicians even when they have overcome
ingful analysis," she argues (p. xv), and she the traditions that have kept guitars out of
is proud that her contributors' research their hands. In the next chapter, Sara
"focuses attention on the musical text
Cohen analyzes the gendered aspects of the
itself" (p. xiii). Would it were so,Liverpool
but only rock "scene" (drawing upon
three of the fifteen writers (Stan Hawkins,
Barry Shank's development of that notion)
Keith Negus, and Whiteley herself) to showlive
how rock does not naturally reflect
up to this claim. The others discusssome sort of male identity but is actively
lyrics,
videos, performers, performing styles,
produced as male through networks and
scenes-everything but how thespaces
music that exclude women. While the
sounds and what that means. To neglect
Liverpool scene is shaped by and reinforces
musical sound is not unusual in larger
popular-
social conventions of gender, Cohen
music studies, of course, but Whiteley's
argues, itin-
nevertheless hosts challenges and
troduction does strike an odd note, sug- as male musicians stage their
explorations
gesting that it may have been written power but in
also their vulnerability.
advance of the collection and not revised to "Where are all the great female electric
fit the volume's actual content. guitarists?" asks Mavis Bayton (p. 37), who
Whiteley herself contributed two chap- draws upon interviews and printed materi-
ters to the book. Her first concentrates on als to delineate a variety of discouraging
Mick Jagger's sexual persona, arguing factors.
that Her answers range from male gui-
Jagger's performance style "opened uptarists'def- alienating posturing in performance
initions of gendered masculinity and sotolaid the practical restrictions of long finger-
the foundations for self-invention and sex- nails, family expectations, and even the way
ual plasticity which are now an integral thatpartan electric guitar fits-or does not fit
of contemporary youth culture" (p.-one's 67). chest. Bayton's study of articles and
Whiteley never explains why Jagger advertising
de- in guitarists' magazines is re-
serves so much credit for this-whyvealing,
we although it seems not to have
shouldn't see earlier performers such
turned upJennifer Batten, who wrote a col-
as Elvis Presley, Little Richard, or even
umn on advanced performance techniques
Rudy Vallee as having contributed to these
for heavy metal guitarists during the 1980s
changes-but she nicely dissects Jagger's
heyday of metal virtuosity. It is strange that
Bayton dates "the arrival of the electric
balance of androgyny and misogyny, strip-
tease and sadism, showing how he pro- guitar" with the Beatles, but her interviews
duced complicated sexual expressions and
thatanalysis are illuminating and moving.
Norma Coates's chapter offers an angry
appealed to multiple audiences. Whiteley's
overview
second chapter, which appears in part 4, fo- of some problems of sexism in
cuses on Madonna's recording and video rock
of culture. She argues, among other
'Justify My Love"; it combines a somewhat
things, that the pop/rock distinction ghet-
strained (and nearly superfluous) applica- toizes women and should be abolished, that
tion of Roland Barthes's narrative theory the term "women in rock" perpetuates
with classroom ethnography and close their marginalization, and that the very
analysis of musical and visual details. Her presence of women in rock threatens the
reading of these texts is a bit stiff, but mythical Otherness in relation to
genre's
mainstream culture.
mostly convincing; her earlier essay, which
contains some excellent music analysis, Along
of- with Whiteley, two other contribu-
fers considerably more in the way of tors
inter-examine popular masculinities in the
pretive insights. book's second part. Gareth Palmer usefully

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Book Reviews 105

summarizes some themes in Bruce Spring- women, they are also treated differently
steen's lyrics, but he makes no attemptwhen
to they deal with topics they have in
common with men: when the Beatles sang
address music, reception, or the historical
context of changing male identities-topics
about love, that was fine, "but when girls
that scholars like Barbara Ehrenreich have did it, it was evidence of feeble-minded-
ness" (p. 168).
analyzed so powerfully. Palmer apparently
In the following essay, Keith Negus
lacks familiarity with the great range of cor-
focuses solely on Sin6ad O'Connor to ex-
roborative sources that Whiteley used effec-
tively in discussing masculinity-as plore
the how artists' identities are produced
book's editor, she might have given him a
and performed across a wide range of mass-
bit of help with this-and he falls back on texts. Negus usefully complicates
mediated
ethnographic approaches to popular music
stereotypes, invoking "blue-collar" authen-
by stressing how interview questions force
tic masculinity, speaking one-dimensionally
answers that then become part of a star's
of Springsteen's "conservatism," and calling
performed public identity, which in turn
even mild rockers such as Bon Jovi "hyper-
macho" (p. 100). He simply hasn't done guides audiences' interpretations of their
enough research to support his conclu- songs. Stella Bruzzi takes up related issues
sions, which are vague and condescending
in tracing changes in k. d. lang's presenta-
and which he is forced to qualify with
tion of herself, from a dangerously ambigu-
phrases like "it may be that" and "this ous performance of sexual identity to a
may be." Stan Hawkins's chapter displays more conventional androgyny. Bruzzi sees
none of these flaws. The only contributor Lang's more open lesbianism as a loss-a
other than Whiteley to use music notation retreat from her earlier, more disturbing
(printed in an oddly large size), Hawkins queerness.
The two chapters on riot grrrls are
provides a musically specific analysis of how
among the book's most useful. Marion
the Pet Shop Boys disrupted stereotypical
gender codes to produce "banal" butLeonard
ex- assesses the genre's development
pressive music. He evaluates the political
in the early 1990s through the communi-
ties that formed and the fanzines that
significance of the group's gay stance, argu-
ing that their music provided an important served as lines of communication amon
and resistive alternative to the chauvinism them. She stresses the irreducible multipli
and machismo of other 1980s styles. ity of feminisms, crediting riot grrrls wit
Leading off part 3's exploration of vari- opening debates over gender but highlight
ous femininities in popular music, David ing their internal complexity and their di
Sanjek's chapter works to recover thetance for- from academic feminist thought
gotten women of 1950s rockabilly; Sanjek Mary Celeste Kearney points out that jour
writes artists such as Janis Martin and
nalists have overemphasized the move
Wanda Jackson back into the genre'sment's
his- connections to earlier punk style
and
tory not only as a matter of redress, but thus obscured its roots in feminism.
also
She also maintains that connections with
in order to examine the full range of sexual
personae that male and female singers
womyn's music have been overlooked due
alike presented. Drawing on important
to homophobia and the enduring impulse
works of social history by Elaine Tylerto
May
separate folk and rock styles. Kearney's
and Hazel Carby, Sanjek shows howthoughtful
the discussion also critiques the la-
women who performed rockabilly con-
bels "women in rock," which implies that
tested restrictive gender norms and music
rock is naturally masculine, and "postfemi-
industry sexism, often rearticulating previ-
nist," which implies that feminism's project
ously male-coded lyrics in order to present
is now either archaic or completed.
new possibilities. Charlotte Greig then Given
of- the importance of visual represen-
fers a brief but thoughtful overview in
tations of gender in popular music, and
"Female Identity and the Woman Song- since many of the contributors discuss
writer," touching on country music, folk,
music videos, album covers, and styles of
and singer-songwriters such as Joni performance and appearance, Sexing the
Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and Sinead Groove would have benefited tremendously
O'Connor. Greig maintains in particular from some pictures; their total absence is
that while women often write about sub- difficult to understand. In his analysis of
jects that are unique to their experiences
theasperforming male body in videos by the

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106 NOTES, September 1999

group
groupTake
Take
That,
That,
Paul Paul
McDonald
McDonald
obviously
obviously
commentary,
commentary,although
althoughititinexplicably
inexplicably
omits
omits
worked
workedhard
hard
to provide
to provide
detailed
detailed
descrip-descrip-
one
one of
of the
the most
mostimportant
importantprevious
previousworks
works
tions
tionsofof
the
the
spectacles
spectacles
he analyzed,
he analyzed,
but but
on
on popular
popular music
musicandandgender,
gender,Lisa
Lisa
A.A.
some
somephotographs
photographs wouldwould
have made
havehismadeLewis's
his
Lewis's Gender
GenderPolitics
Politicsand
andMTV:
MTV:Voicing
Voicing
thethe
essay
essaymore
morevivid.
vivid.
In the
In course
the course
of his discus- Difference
Difference (Philadelphia:
of his discus- (Philadelphia:Temple
TempleUniversity
University
sion of Take That's popularity among Press,
Press, 1990),
1990), as
aswell
wellasasGeorge
GeorgeLipsitz's
Lipsitz's
sev-
sev-
young female and gay male audiences, eral
eral books
books on
oncultural
culturalstudies
studiesand
and
popular
popular
McDonald fairly critiques psychoanalytic music.
music. It
It would
wouldbe
beeasy
easytotocriticize
criticize
the
the
cov-
cov-
approaches that reduce multiple perfor- erage
erage of
of Sexing
Sexingthe
theGroove
Grooveitself:
itself:
the
the
"popu-
"popu-
mances of gender to dichotomies; he also lar
lar music"
music" of
ofits
itssubtitle
subtitleisislimited
limited
toto
Anglo-
Anglo-
does a good job of defending informed tex- American
American rock
rockand
andpop,
pop,and
andeven
even
within
within
tual analysis as an illuminating method that those boundaries there is no discussion of
need not always depend upon direct ethno- hip hop, for example, and almost no men-
graphic corroboration. tion of black musicians. Although divided
Unlike McDonald, Sean Cubitt makes no evenly by gender, the contributors are
effort to describe visual images carefully,mostly British, and some of the musicians
leaving the reader unable to judge or re- they discuss are less well known in the
spond to his assertions. That is the case United States and elsewhere. But to dwell
with his entire chapter, most of which doeson such limitations would be unfair, given
not even pretend to address popular music, the great range of musical performances of
and none of which displays much concerngender that are insightfully examined here.
with other people's responses, with history,Despite Whiteley's unfulfilled promise to
or with musical signification. Cubitt speaksbring musical sound to the center of her
of "our" responses, of how "we" respond,book's analyses, she has brought together
but offers no evidence that would groundmany valuable essays and produced a useful
his assertions outside of his own reactions. and consequential collection. Sexing the
His contribution is less an analysis of social Groove is one of the most provocative, en-
meanings than a performance of his abling,
own and persuasive recent contributions
reception of gendered images. to popular-music studies.
Sexing the Groove concludes with an anno-
tated bibliography of relevant work in cul-
tural studies, gender studies, and popular ROBERT WALSER
music; it is a helpful compilation with fair University of California, Los Angeles

Most German of the Arts: Musicology and Society from the Weimar
Republic to the End of Hitler's Reich. By Pamela M. Potter. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1998. [xx, 364 p. ISBN 0-300-07228-7. $40.]
Any
Any musicologist
musicologist trained
trained
in the
in last most
the forty
last Americans, German scholars were not
forty
years
yearsknows
knows thethe
names:
names:
Friedrich
Friedrich
Blume,
Blume,
personalities but faceless authorities, stern
Heinrich Besseler, Helmuth Osthoff, Karl guarantors of standards and traditions; it
Gustav Fellerer, Josef Muller-Blattau, scarcely came to mind that much of their
Johannes Wolf, and at least a dozen or so work, along with MGG, the VW Beetle, and
more. Their articles, reviews, monographs, the autobahn, was a legacy of National
and editions, sometimes dry, unappetizing, Socialism.
pedantic, and austere, were the gluten for Time heals not through a process of for-
our first wobbly seminar papers and lent getting, but by binding trauma within the
gravitas to our footnotes, heft to our bibli- tough sinews of narrative memory. At this
ographies. And it was the heft of Die Musik century's end, Germany can look back on
in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel: Baren- four generations of rupture and disloca-
reiter, 1949-86 [MGG]), that monument tion. Three wars (two hot, one cold) and
of German scholarship and eye-strainingfive distinctly different governmental sys-
graphic design, that gave tone to our armstems have rent the fabric of its psyche and
as we wrestled with our Tonkiinstler. To its culture. If music is the most German of

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