Interesting Question: Do Women Share Music Differently Than Men?
I’d never thought about it until I ran across this article from The Music.com.au:
The email popped up in that little preview rectangle on the right hand corner of my screen, several months back when I was comfortably employed in my role as a content writer in one of the least glamorous sectors of the advertising industry – daily deals.It came from one of the other two girls on my team who, although they seemed nice enough, I hadn’t really bonded with. Not through any dislike or tension or primal circling of each other, sizing one another up to see if the other is a bitch or not. It just hadn’t happened.
Not until we brought music into it. Once we opened up that little floodgate, the sharing started.
You like Solange? My workmate said. Then I think you will like Kelela, an LA based experimental electronic/R&B artist.
It was just the beginning. From that moment on, the artists began to flow back and forth between the three of us. Some we all liked, others we weren’t that into. And it wasn’t just the artists, the tastes and the opinions that were filling up my inbox; seeping through with the songs came the little personal details – about ourselves.
Continue reading. Once you’re done, I’d love your thoughts on the subject.
I’m not so sure that this is a male/female thing. I think it is more based on how much each individual enjoys music. The conversations she has had with her female friends, I have had similar conversations with both my male and female friends. These were friends who loved and understood the emotional and personal connections to music as much as I did. I have also had the friends (male and female) who didn’t really care or click with what I was trying to show them. Although men and women may have connections to different songs, artists or genres, it is their passion for music that unites them.
I agree there’s different ways of sharing music, but I really don’t think it breaks down along gender lines, if only because I’m a woman who knows mem who shares music like I do (and that’s not the way described in the article).
The only thing I can think of that’s gendered are those (thankfully rare) musical blowhards who give women playlists for the purposes of appointing themselves curaters of taste. As in, “everything you like is crap, so I’m going to give you these playlists and bully you into listening to them, and lecture you about why they’re superior to the music you like.”