Music can achieve many things. Depending on what type you listen to, it can evoke a wide range of emotions. Peaceful people tend to listen to peaceful music. Hurt people need music that bleeds like they do. To me, the most astounding feeling that music can bring about is strength. Marginalised people need music that makes them feel powerful. Take the rap and hip hop scene for example. The music and the movement has gradually given a feeling of power to black people all over the world.
Up until now, women as another marginalised group, haven’t had much music to listen to that voices their feelings and gives them strength. In fact, quite the opposite. As we all know, the music industry is heavily male dominated, especially genres that typically evoke more feelings of anger and power such as rock and hip hop.
Growing up, whenever I was in a certain mood and wanted to feel like a big shot, I would listen to these genres, and find myself singing along to music that was often objectifying and disrespecting women to no end. I was forced to adopt a male perspective and feel power through that. Believe it or not, constantly listening to songs that only address your gender as a bitch or a hoe and the topic tends to solely concern you getting violently fucked isn’t so healthy in the long run!
It would be a lie to say that female artists haven’t fought back in the past. In 2001, Lil’ Kim released the hit ‘Suck My Dick’, in which she reversed the gender roles and threw it back at all the male rap stars who were (and still are) constantly subjugating women in their lyrics.
Imagine if I was dude and hittin’ cats from the back
With no strings attached
Yeah n***a, picture that!
I treat y’all n***as like y’all treat us…
Come here so I can bust in ya mouth
Look I ain’t tryin’ to suck ya
I might not even fuck ya
Just lay me on this bed and give me some head
Got the camcorder layin’ in the drawer where he can’t see
Can’t wait to show my girls he sucked the piss out my pussy
I only heard this song in 2016. When I say I listened on repeat…
The parodic style in which Kim talks about men in the way top male rappers of the time would talk about women in their songs made it clearer than ever that misogyny was completely ingrained into our society. And highlighted how extremely normalised we were to it.
Through the 2000s and 2010s women took hip hop and popular music by storm, and embraced the power in their sexuality with songs like Rihanna’s ‘S&M’, Lady GaGa’s ‘Love Game’ and Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’. Now, in the late 2010s and early 2020s female music artists have really started a movement and are completely owning their pussy power, more sexually explicit than ever before. Lil’ Kim truly kickstarted a pussy power revolution that today has finally normalised female music artists being ‘dominant’ and sexually explicit in their lyrics. In 2022, there are plenty of songs like Suck My Dick, but they’re no longer parody songs. The best example is Cardi B’s WAP (Wet Ass Pussy):
He got a beard, well, I’m tryna wet it
I let him taste it, and now he diabetic
I don’t wanna spit, I wanna gulp
I wanna gag, I wanna choke
I want you to touch that lil’ dangly thing that swing in the back of my throat
You get the vibe.
Alongside Cardi B are artists like Janelle Monae, Megan Thee Stallion and Rico Nasty, to name a few. Doja Cat is my personal fave. Her 2021 album ‘Planet Her’ focuses on the divine feminine and when many of the album singles went viral on TikTok, she seriously contributed to a whole generation of girls and young women embracing their femininity and exuding a confident ‘hot girl’ vibe.
This change of behaviour has been coined as ‘bimbofication’. Any Gen Z with social media is familiar with the term. It’s not necessarily dying your hair blonde and being ‘dumb’, it’s being a #badbitch and indulging in hyper femininity. To me, Doja embraces the era of TikTok girls today in her sexual explicitness, her confidence and strength in calling out crappy men and being funny whilst she does it:
I’m not your mommy, n***a, find a new hobby, n***a
Return, yo, ‘fore I get picked up, your shit’s in the lobby, n***a
I’m not gon’ key your car, I’ll call your fucking mom
You should have paid my rent, go get a fucking job!
I can vouch personally for the positive effect that the pussy power era of music has on young women. Since I started listening often to female hip hop artists, I honestly can say how much it alters my mindset and puts me in a confident mood, to the point where I genuinely would listen to Doja or a similar artist before an intimidating situation, because it allows me to feel confident in myself as a woman. It’s not only me, I’ve noticed a genuine shift in the behaviour of my friends and acquaintances as the pussy power era has become more prominent in our society.
Not only is the new female hip hop music important for women, but it’s incredibly important for men too. Instead of being conditioned to viewing women as objects as their male idols preach, they listen to the female perspective, and a new found respect is likely consciously or subconsciously formed.
When I say that music has so much power to influence society, it probably doesn’t sink in. These sorts of phrases have been worn out and no longer hold much weight. But there is a clear correlation between popular music and societal behaviour. And I can confirm it on a personal level after analysing myself over the years! Today, women are ruling the hip hop scene. The power that this brings to us as a gender is truly immeasurable. I hope it continues.
Iso
Iso is a writer and filmmaker based in East London. She is passionate about all things erotic and leads a sexy, shame-free life in hope that she can inspire others to do the same. Originally from a Northern seaside town, she is naturally drawn to the best things in life: candyfloss, trashy karaoke bars and heart-shaped sunglasses.
