Words Overheard:

A Study of Gender Roles and Power Dynamics in Popular Music

By Corey Highberg, 2019

Amiee Mann’s “Voices Carry” video from 1984 is an vital and underappreciated story about a woman’s expression in a patriarchal world, and a man trapped in the stereotype of masculinity and control he was raised in.  Amiee is a lead singer and bass player in a rock band and her boyfriend is an upper class young white man who disapproves of her life choices.  His disdain is not limited to her music or activities, but extends to criticisms about her hairstyle, conduct, and affections towards him.  While on the surface, this seems like a shallow, selfish and egotistical pattern of behavior towards Aimee, her boyfriend is actually confused and fearful of her behavior, a reaction based on his disorientation of the perceived gender role he views her displaying and his lack of social training to cope properly with her actions.  He is not alone, and many males in the late 20th century began to acquire new social skill sets as equality and social molds continued to re-align in active ways. Feminine roles that challenge gender norms in heterosexual relationships in turn cause identity realignments in masculinity that permeate in a variety of ways, including confusion, disorientation, argumentative response, repression, and violent or emotionally abusive reaction  as noted by Kevin Goddard in "Looks Maketh the Man": The Female Gaze and the Construction of Masculinity[1] and depicted in Aimee Mann’s “Voices Carry” music video from 1984 which show the masculine path to re-alignments in gender power dynamics in music are just as confusing to men as they are frustrating to women.

The story content of the video relates to the academic article by Kevin Goddard referenced above.  Supportive statements from Rolling Stones Magazine help develop the conclusions of the continued conflicts in gender relations.  The delicate aspects existing from the male perspective in treating female gender roles in modern pop music in the 1980’s reveals itself throughout these sources. This will not be in order to analyze specific musical content or sonic properties of the song other than to mention here that this is a pop-rock composition that was a top ten release in the genre of rock and roll in 1984.  It has a driving beat, captivating vocals, and features Aimee Mann predominantly in the video, surrounding a story about her emotionally abusive relationship with her boyfriend.  While unpacking Aimee Mann’s song, “Voices Carry”, we can show how her story is an crucial one in this time period by helping both male and female genders navigate their roles in an evolving power dynamic of late 20th century feminism. 

              The story that is constructed is intended to highlight personal identity and struggle to assert in a societal structure that views a female counter-culture individuality as conflicted and outside the norm.  Aimee is a lead singer, and a bass player in a rock band, both being characteristically non-female roles for 1984, when the video takes place.  In addition, she treats both these roles seriously and adheres to a schedule, and places priority on these ‘jobs’ over her relationship.  This might be accepted if she were the man in this relationship, or if she were participating in a more conservative job role, or both. The male conflict with accepting female identity requires the understanding of their new gender roles within this world.  As Kevin Goddard notes, “The "liberated" man of the early twenty-first century trying to redefine his role as a man often finds that he is acceding to a stereotype created by one or more feminisms (or by his own perception of feminism) rather than shaping his own self as an equal.”[2] This idea of ‘acceding’ is referring to compromise that genders are often asking each other to make in order to develop relationships. This concept relates to the acquiescence of a projected expectation, such as the ‘dominate male, or in the case of this music video, ‘the abusively dominate male’. The man in the video is a realistic depiction from Aimee’s perspective, and likely a very different person from the man’s perspective. This boyfriend’s view is one that we don’t get to see.  We are only shown the story through the lens of Aimee’s expectations. As Aimee Man herself identifies in an interview with Gary Drevitch in August of 2017, “It's hard to be self-aware. It's certainly hard to deal with somebody who doesn't care about self-awareness or doesn't have it or isn't working toward it-it's kind of impossible.”[3] These insights, particularly in reference to the story of suppressed power undercurrents that Aimee is telling, shows a familiar struggle in 1980s feminism and a stereotypical reaction from Aimee’s boyfriend in her video. The ‘boyfriend’ reacts with hostility when he is placed second over her chosen career, a career that he views as trivial and unrealistic for a woman to pursue.  This is how he is portrayed in the video. The depiction of this aloof partner and his denial of her choices and desires is significant because it is showing a necessary barrier to overcome when pursuing equality in societal participation, but it is complicated, because it creates an expectation from the men watching that this is how they are expected to behave, and the necessary struggle that women must overcome to attain their goals, as opposed to a behavior that is discouraged and something that shouldn’t be happening in the first place.  Women are advocating and taking on roles in music that they should have a right to, and men are still written as ignorant, oppressive and afraid.

              Rolling Stones’ book, “Troubled Girls” references Amie Mann as part of a group of female singers from her era as “these women resist stereotypes and, naturally, laudably, try to have it all ways.”[4]  The article continues saying later to comment that of Mann and her contemporaries; “This new wave of females are not naifs. They’ve been around, they’re assertive, unafraid to be quirky, sexual, defiant, loud”[5] This indication that women have been prevented from telling the whole picture can be seen with additional inferences from record companies of the time. Female singers from the late 20th century were often met with resistance like this one from the same book: “Back in the day when female artists were parceled into stricter musical slots there seemed to be an alarming quota from record companies. What, she plays acoustic guitar? We got one of those on our label, okay? Her name’s Joni Mitchell. Now get the hell out of here.”[6]

This story that Aimee is telling is not new, untrue, or done, though it holds a few interesting paradoxes.  Aimee’s boyfriend is real.  She isn’t telling an implausible story, and what happens to her in the rejection of her identity, violent reaction to frustrations, and strange attraction to the conflict are all realities in relationships, even today.  The romanticism over this conflicted struggle of gender equality, confusions of masculine identity, and the inability for compromise isn’t a tale that is being told because we necessarily long for answers to it. Katie Barclay writes of this conflict, “I would argue that this pain is a reflection of competing demands on the lover, from the expectations of the modern individual to be independent, autonomous, whole, and the demand for devotion that requires the individual to be transformed by love and to sacrifice his or her independent self to experience love.”[7] Amie Mann’s video is representative of this image of male stereotype as necessary for the female stereotypical journey for personhood and meaning.  It’s not to say that these problems and conflicts aren’t real and are being fabricated to highlight a situation that is in the story teller’s mind, but the retelling of this expectation helps perpetuate it. 

                             Amiee Mann’s “Voices Carry” video is from 1984 yet remains relevant.  Gender equality still sits on the horizon, and while great strides are being made, there is the ever present paradox of nostalgia and affinity for retelling the challenges of overcoming adversity that often helps perpetuate the models and molds that these stories claim they so desperately want to break.  Kevin Goddard expresses this in his research of the male identity in regards to fatherhood roles in the 21st century, “Father’s image of fathering is taken from the traditional picture of what women do— since men of the previous generation never stayed at home or seldom took active care of children.”[8] This romantic tale of the male identity being oppressive and violent while the woman struggles to overcome will one day become a story of the past.  Unfortunately, the more we tell it as a condition we experience today, the longer it will take for it to become part of history.

               Nostalgic retellings are the name of the game in modern media.  There have been countless remakes and revisions to popular movies, songs, and stories in the 21st century.  People are prone to patterns, and everybody loves a good chorus.  There are important stories that need to be told for us to learn from the past and change our destinies.  Amiee Mann’s video is a classic case of this.  Her song wasn’t a pop hit by pure chance. As Rolling Stones put it, “Mann’s career has been closely followed by bouquet-tossing critics, but for unfathomable reasons she has yet to reach the level of recognition that she had with ‘Till Tuesday.”[9] This song meant a great deal to millions of people because it is a true story for many of them, and a compelling one for the rest that deserves retelling.  It is with caution though, that we, the listener must not fall into the trap of engaging with these stories to recreate them as our own reality.  If we don’t engage in these stories as challenges to overcome instead of archetypes we wish to inhabit, these roles are ones that we will simply continue to project upon ourselves.  Goddard continues in this vein, “Narcissism may lead me to desire to fill the lack I detect in myself by projecting that lack onto another, or the potential for fulfilling that lack in me onto another—often my partner, or my child.”[10] The danger of obsessing in self-care, and projected expectations on to others, especially critical expectations or ones that show undesired behaviors, is that often we get what we expect. By showing a mirror rather than a doorway, we can potentially create more undesired behaviors rather than showing a path to new expectations. In conclusion, artists like Aimee should keep telling about this struggle of fighting for gender equality, defending equality of power dynamics in relationships and fighting abusive partners, but be careful; voices carry.

Sources for this article:

1.      K. Goddard, “Looks Maketh the Man”: The Female Gaze and the Construction of Masculinity; First Published October 1, 2000 Research Article, p. 37

2.      Drevitch, Gary, The bard of self-awareness: three decades into her career, singer/songwriter Aimee Mann continues to release albums full of people who know what they want but struggle to ask for it; Psychology Today (Vol. 50, Issue 4); July-August 2017

3.      O'Dair, Barbara. Trouble Girls : The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1997. P. 522

4.      J. Dennis Fortenberry. (2019) Trust, Sexual Trust, and Sexual Health: An Interrogative Review. The Journal of Sex Research 56:4-5, pages 425-439.

“Voices Carry”, ‘Til Tuesday, 1984

https://youtu.be/uejh-bHa4To

[1] Goddard, Kevin. Journal of Men's Studies; Thousand Oaks Vol. 9, Iss. 1,  (Oct 31, 2000)

[2] Goddard, Kevin. Journal of Men's Studies; Thousand Oaks Vol. 9, Iss. 1,  (Oct 31, 2000)

[3] Drevitch, Gary, The bard of self-awareness: three decades into her career, singer/songwriter Aimee Mann continues to release albums full of people who know what they want but struggle to ask for it; Psychology Today (Vol. 50, Issue 4); July-August 2017

[4] O'Dair, Barbara. Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1997. P. 413

[5] O'Dair, Barbara. Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1997. P.  518

[6] O'Dair, Barbara. Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1997. P.  518

[7] J. Dennis Fortenberry. (2019) Trust, Sexual Trust, and Sexual Health: An Interrogative Review. The Journal of Sex Research 56:4-5, pages 425-439.

[8] K. Goddard, “Looks Maketh the Man”: The Female Gaze and the Construction of Masculinity; First Published October 1, 2000 Research Article, p. 37, https://doi-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/10.3149/jms.0901.23

[9] O'Dair, Barbara. Trouble Girls : The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. 1st ed. New York: Random House, 1997. P. 522

[10] K. Goddard, “Looks Maketh the Man”: The Female Gaze and the Construction of Masculinity; First Published October 1, 2000 Research Article, p. 37, https://doi-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/10.3149/jms.0901.23