Do Women Artists have to Sell Sex?
For my piece today I want to talk about the long standing question, of women and the debate of sex selling. But specifically women in music. For most female musicians and just musicians alike, regardless of the gender, they understand within the industry that one must make themselves these 'untouchable Godly figures' but in reality, they are just regular people. Interestingly enough, for artists like Ed Sheeran, he seems to be the perfect example of sex doesn't need to sell nor even an outgoing personality in the music industry, everyone would assume one needs to show an overtly sexual presence in order to be successful. But Ed Sheeran and artists like Billie Eillish, show that one does not need to be anything sexual in order to be popular. They come dressed in baggy clothing and regardless of the fact that one is man or women, does not seem to matter for either of them. What seems to matter is that they are talented and make incredible music. For most people, an artist is the whole package, the look, the persona, the friend group they have, the people they date, their personal story to tie an emotional connection to the viewers and thus, the artist becomes an entire persona. But for artists like Ed Sheeran and Billie, are they not mysterious? We don't really see their body and they're sexuality on stage. There is a message there, that inevitably the sex selling debate, is a myth. Even Taylor Swift for example, she seems like the complete wholesome singer all moms would like for their daughters to listen to, but now her new pop songs, are delving more into her sexuality. Her earlier hits were completely about these wholesome girl feelings alone, but now it seems, she's delved into more of her sexuality, is it to stay relevant? Is it to change the good girl persona and delve into another one? With artists like Nicki Minaj for example, selling sex seems inevitable in the hip hop industry, it almost seems, if the only way to be a successful female artist is to sell sex. In this article, called "Lorde is proof that women don't need to sell sex to sell records" she gives a great example of what artists have and don't need to sell in order to be successful. In the article it states, "Perry, whose Prism is her second record to hit No. 1 on the U.K. Albums charts, told NPR's Simon, "[F]emales in pop — everybody's getting naked. I mean, I've been naked before but I don't feel like I have to always get naked to be noticed .… I'm not talking about anyone in particular. I'm talking about all of them. I mean, it's like everybody's so naked. It's like put it away. We know you've got it. I got it too." It's a somewhat hypocritical statement for Perry, who despite vaguely acknowledging her role in this trend, is arguably most famous for her cheeky and brazen use of sexual innuendos, both lyrically and in her onstage costumes. "I've taken it off for — I've taken it out here and there. And I'm not necessarily judging. I'm just saying sometimes it's nice to play that card but also it's nice to play other cards. And I know I have that sexy card in my deck but I don't always have to use that card." I like that she mentions a lot of it being something fun to experiment and not necessarily feeling like she has to, but simply, just to play around as an artist and have fun. What I love within her songs is the contrast of it, some of her songs are just as she mentioned. With in terms, of what she said another artist that I would compare to playing around and seeming to do it for fun. Is Ariana Grande, she in the beginning of her career had more wholesome and girly songs like, 'Baby I' and songs like, 'The way' more playful, soft and girly. But she is the one funny enough that said, "I feel like those songs weren't really who I was" it seems like she wanted to break out into her sexuality right away and make songs like, 'dangerous women' and songs like, '34 35' which are heavily sexual songs.
And take the contrast of her earlier songs like Baby I and the fun playful beat and even notice the words and rhymes are different. No swear words or any kind of overtly sexual display, proving that it seems for most female artists in genres, selling sex or rather displaying sex seems to be a personal choice of theirs.
Take the rest of the article where Lorde, really gets into exactly what this means.
‘Women are, of course, free to choose whether to use their sexuality as part of their image or brand, but so much of our pop-culture talk focuses on those who do when, in fact, artists like Lorde — and the audiences who listen to her — are asking us to shift our focus. While the women she's vying with for popularity have tended to use their sexuality to sell their music, Lorde is proving fierce competition with her obvious lack of interest in representing herself the same way, and she's resonating with a wide range of demographics for a reason. It's still a nascent fight, but she's challenging the widely-held idea that sex alone sells through her image, songs, and lyrics. She is showing the music industry (and the pop-culture community at large) that taking anything off isn't a requisite for grabbing people's attention.” The last line where it mentions, she is showing the music industry you don’t have to show your sexuality to grab someones attention is perfect. Leading me to mention another artist, I feel has never had to be overtly sexual in order to be successful is Adele, she has never had to show off her body in any kind of way, in fact you notice, she wears Black most times and that is a slimming color for her, she says, but never does she say I don’t think I can be that successful because I don’t show my body. Many female artists show off their body and many don’t, in almost all ways it is completely fine I notice.
But take another females artists pov for example like Katy Perry who is widely successful.
Katy Perry: "Everybody's getting naked"
Katy Perry has hit the headlines for wearing skin-tight latex, see-through frocks and cupcake bras on stage in the past - but even the 'Dark Horse' singer seems fed up with the lack of clothes popstars seem to have on today.
Speaking on the radio last year, she lamented: "Everybody's getting naked. I mean, I've been naked before, but I don't feel like I have to always get naked to be noticed.
"I'm not talking about anyone in particular. I'm talking about all of them... It's like, 'Put it away. We know you've got it. I got it too'."
Katy conceded that she had worn revealing stage outfits in the past, but argued that musicians shouldn't feel pressured to play the "sexy card" constantly.
