A Review of Hard Rock and Sexism

Roots and Some Branches of Rock Music
Rock music started to be accepted as a separate genre from Blues for the first time in the 1950s with musician Chuck Berry. Over the years, the Rock has changed, and famous musicians and bands such as Elvis Presley, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Queen have emerged. Rock music has contained different contents such as the rebellion against pop music broadcast in the 50s-60s, expressions of feelings and freedom. Over the years, sub-genres of rock music have been formed, and the values it represents have shown more diversity. But rock music has not only included rebellion and freedom throughout its history. In the lyrics of many Rock N 'Roll songs, it is emphasized that women should be docile, calm and seductive, while men should have masculine characteristics such as being aggressive, strong. These features of Rock N 'Roll continue with Hard Rock in the early 70s.
 
Hard Rock and Female Themes
The constraints imposed by the society in which some individuals live push them to be “Rebels” (Reynolds and Press, 1996) .According to Reynolds and Press (1996), “the psychological driving force of any kind of rebellion is largely, regardless of its apparent pretext or context is the intense need or urge to leave the mother ”. The women represent both the Rebel's longing for the comfort of the safe mother's lap and the values ​​that would restrain him (such as home, inhibition). The reflections of this "Woman" attitude can be seen in groups such as Rolling Stones, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Guns N 'Roses that direct rock music.
According to the Social Cognitive Learning Theory, the person interacts with his environment and learns by observing and modeling (Kytle & Bandura, 1978). The properties of the model affect the modeling behavior. The observer shows the behavior of imitating the behaviors of the observed high-status individuals more. When considered within the framework of this theory, many male artists modeled in the 60s-80s when rock music was popular with young people, the lyrics of Hard Rock songs they wrote and their distinctive hard, sharp-ended electric guitar riffs that evoke masculinity and performed during song performances in concerts. It can be said that with their masculine movements, they affect the behaviors of their audience and therefore they are effective in shaping the gender roles in society.
Music has the effect of shaping behavior and attitudes. This effect occurs in many areas. Fast-paced music is used to motivate spectators and athletes in sports competitions. In the past, military bands in armies have had the effect of demotivating enemy armies. In a longitudinal study (2015) conducted with adolescents in America by Coyne and Padilla-Walker, it was examined whether the aggressive behavior, the number of sexual partners and the pro-social behavior are related to the type of music listened to. In that study, it was found that prosocial behavior is not associated with certain types of music, but aggressive behavior is associated with listening to "harsh" music. The number of sexual partners and the frequency of having sexual intercourse were found to be associated with listening to sexually explicit music (Coyne & Padilla-Walker, 2015).
 
The Formation of Sexist Elements in Hard Rock
There are many features that distinguish Hard Rock from other music genres. Distortion, the process of distorting the guitar sound, is of great importance in Hard Rock. In Blues, the sound is softly distorted, while in Rock, distortion pedals that give sharper and sharp sounds are used to increase the power of the feeling desired to be felt. The auditory structures that increase the emotional power of the Hard Rock the most are the repeating short note ensembles, or riffs. Hard Rock has its own hard riffs. Musicologist and gender researcher Susan Fast, from Rock N 'Roll player Elvis Presley, Rocker Mick Jagger, Roger Daltrey and Led Zeppelin to Robert Plant, has made a rock-rock music that brings masculinity to the forefront. ”(Fast, 1999). "Cock-Rock"ers are known for their aggressive, dominant and monstrous characteristics. According to Fast, the characteristics of this music genre are as follows (1999): “… They wear open-front shirts and tight trousers that will highlight the male body during their shows. They use microphones and guitars as phallic symbols. Riffs are loud and constantly stimulating. Their lyrics are confident and smug… ”.
 
Aggressive and Sexist Themes in the Led Zeppelin Group
Led Zeppelin had the most important position with Deep Purple during the debut years of Hard Rock, becoming one of the longest running bands in Hard Rock history. Music critics mostly criticized this new style of Rock based on the emotions it allegedly aroused in Hard Rock listeners. To compare the performances of the guitarist Jimmy Page, regardless of his sympathy for Adolf Hitler in the early years of his career, Led Zeppelin's concerts and Nazi rallies have similar characteristics. The exaggeration of the shows that the group makes during their stadium concerts give the group a "de facto fascist" look (Reynolds, 1996).
Led Zeppelin portrayed the woman as "bogey" in some of her songs. The first of these songs is "Dazed And Confused", which is on the band's first album that bears his name. In the first part of the song in question before the chorus, she talks about the woman as follows: “Lotsa people talkin', few of them know. Soul of a woman was created below, yeah”. (Patrick and Plant, 1969). The band's lead singer Robert Plant, like many other "Rebel" rock stars, had economic difficulties, but according to him, these troubles, as in "Dazed and Confused", made "bogey" lovers go through and wished never to meet those women who came from hell in their songs. In Led Zeppelin's fourth studio album "Black Dog," Robert Plant, who was not "Dazed And Confused" with a much stronger stance, says this time: "I don't know, but I been told a big-legged woman ain't got no soul", " All I ask for when I pray a steady rollin' woman won't come my way”(Patrick et al. 1971).

Research Assistant Ali Rıfat KILIÇ