Something that could help you narrow down your argument would be to choose a genre- or to set one genre against another. You could set one group of artists (like taylors and mileys against Kanyes and the blackeyed peas). Or, you could examine the criticism of female artists sexuality-- I don't know how old you are, but think of when Christina Aguliera(spelled that wrong, oops!) and even Brittany Spears started getting more sexual with their music and how they were criticized. Even Lady Gaga is considered controversial-- shes a female expressing her sexual desires (I wanna take a ride on your disco stick, anyone?). These female artists next to Taylor, whos still singing about Romeo and Juliet running away together have lots of research paper potential! There are so many ways you can go-- the only trouble you might have is finding book sources for a paper, but if you go to a really good library you could probably find some good stuff written in 2007-now. There should be plenty of periodicals if you spend time digging! You've intrigued me now, so if I find some digging around the internet this weekend, I'll post some links!!!

Agree with Elizabeth that you might want to get a handle on this potentially large topic by tying it down to a genre. A single recording artist, or even an often-covered song, might provide enough material for you to analyze.

I suggest looking at Elijah Wald's two books, "Escaping the Delta" and "How the Beatles Destroyed Rock & Roll." Both of them focus more explicitly on race, but have some insightful things to say about gender. The first one shows how the blues aesthetic that went on to shape rock and roll was figured (by critics and record collectors) as masculine and "tough," even though the most popular early blues performers were women -- important because the image of an "authentic," hard-drinking, womanizing male guitar player is one that still haunts rock music. The 2nd one book focuses on American pop music from the jazz age to, roughly, the late 60s. It points out a number of times that nearly all music history has been written by males, while most pop music trends have been driven by female consumers, and he gets into what the effects of this have been on the way we perceive musical quality. He traces how "female"-identified musical tastes have often determined what sells or makes hits, while critics' masculine-oriented sense of what is "authentic" determines what goes in the canon of good music.

These 2 books are scholarly works written for a general audience, and they might be helpful in getting a sense of the continuity between today's popular music & that of earlier decades. I'm not an expert on music scholarship so that's all I can think of at the moment!

I'd check out Sady Doyle's She-Pop blog over at Bitch Magazine - http://bitchmagazine.org/blogs/She-Pop. Bitch is designed to be a feminist perspective on pop culture - this blog focuses on pop music in particular. Hope this helps!

The San Francisco Haight-Ashbury scene, or sixties music as a whole was pretty relentlessly sexist. I wish I could recommend a particular book, but it would be interesting to study the gender struggles and overall dynamics that existed with leading ladies like Janis Joplin and Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane.

Thanks so much, definitely helping me get a starting point. I was originally going to go with something about how the only way female pop artists are seen as successful is if they're also "beautiful," where male musicians do not have this expectation. But I really liked the point about Christina and Britney being criticized for their sexuality, and I think I'm definitely going to include that as part of my examination of the sexuality of female pop musicians.

So, basically the double standard appears everywhere: be beautiful to be successful, be every (hetero) man's desire--but once you express desire yourself, you're shamed.

Ani Difranco who started her own label has, imo, always had interesting commentary on the music biz and women... her song "the million you never made" is pretty good commentary on it's own...

and check out this site:
http://www.ladyslipper.org/

Our Beginnings-
""Ladyslipper began in 1976 as a 4-page resource guide devoted to the musical accomplishments of women artists. The initial hope was to create a comprehensive guide to all the recordings women had ever made, and (underestimating the reality) we expected there might be hundreds of them To our surprise, when we went to our local university music libraries (with otherwise large collections) to research this project, we found virtually no recordings by women at all!! Clearly there was a need for information about Women in Music, as well as for the accessibility of these recordings.

In the past 30 years, the second wave of the women's movement grew with and alongside Ladyslipper: a movement composed of and inspired by the music, arts, culture, and ideas. Works by women are thankfully more visible and available now, but still comprise too small a percentage of many library, school, store and personal collections. The achievements of many great women musicians are still not known and recognized by large portions of the general public.""

My personal opinion, or observation or whatever, is that a lot matters on how you define successful. People, men or women, for whom the goal is 'simply' to play music or 'simply' to communicate a message are different than people for whom the goal is 'fame/money'. So right away, the people who get involved in that "music promotion" lifestyle may already be more willing to let themselves be presented in certain ways.

I think an interesting thing to consider along with 'women v. men and how media portrays them', is how media portrays 'feminine vs. masculine'. There are many male artists whose music or image doesn't conform to the masculine ideal who are also sensationalized or sexualized or portrayed as being, for example "a gay musician" instead of "a musician" in much the same way a woman is "a female musician" instead of just "a musician". What I mean is that looking at it in terms of feminine vs. masculine might make some of the sexism more obvious and easier to spot.

good luck with it :)

It depends on the kind of music you are looking to consider. However, r&b music is a great example, as you have artists like Beyonce and Mariah Carey who are pushed because of their looks whereas artists with greater talent such as Jill Scott are rarely pushed out due to her weight and looks.

Hip Hop is always a genre in which sexism is deep rooted.

Also, groups like All Time Low, push sexism to the extreme in their music and live performances, with very graphic sexualized references against women.

Good luck on your paper.

-Charley Brown

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This short essay by the poet Ruth Padel is pretty interesting. It discusses how it wasn't until quite recently in Western popular music that women actually began writing their own songs in large numbers, prior to this women mostly performed song's written by men, which presented a distorted male-fantasy-view of women's thought & feelings.

Ms. Padel writes:

Across the board - pop, rock, opera, blues, folk, from "ma man don't love me and he treats me oh so mean" to Mozart's Countess in Figaro lamenting her husband's faithlessness - men have written, produced, and directed songs that defined the female voice as vulnerable. Hurt by a man, longing for him. Abandoned. "The problem with operas", the Glyndebourne director Graham Vick told me, "is they're written by men full of notions that women can't live without them." Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Piaff did write songs, but till the Seventies (give or take trailblazers like Janis Joplin), women mostly sang men's songs, and sounded how men wanted. The difference between women's lovesong and men's was that women's was by the people it was about. Carly Simon took off that tradition in "You're So Vain" (1972).

People have already given you some amazing suggestions, but here are some comics that kind of touch on sexism in the punk scene.

http://www.mitchclem.com/nothingnice/316/
http://www.mitchclem.com/nothingnice/331/

They're just kind of funny.

Also, if you were looking to analyze how issues of sexism and racism affect women as performers, one great book that examines this is "Girls Rock! Fifty Years of Women Making Music" by Mina Julia Carson, Tisa Lewis and Susan Shaw.

Good Luck!

gotta love mitch clem.

thanks everyone!