Hearing Sexism – Analyzing Discrimination in Sound

Sexism is obviously relevant in popular music, still until now no theory or method exists to analyze sexism in the sound of popular music itself. In this paper I argue that and how sexism can be analyzed in the sound of popular music, especially in voices, applying the concept of the “male gaze” developed by Laura Mulvey for feminist film critique. Therefore different “auditive pleasures” that relate to the “visual pleasures” discussed by Mulvey are analyzed in popular music. My findings suggest that popular music not only partakes in the reproduction of sexism but also that it communicates cultural conceptions of gendered embodiment, meaning the relation of the gendered subject to her/his own body. All this is exemplified in the analysis of parts of the current popular song “Closer” by the DJ-Duo The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (Disruptor Records/Columbia 2016).