Date of Award

1994

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Communication Studies

Keywords

Mass Communications.

Supervisor

Winter, James,

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

The songs of the fifties, sixties, and seventies are currently hailed by the contemporary music industry as "Golden" or "classics." These three decades of music are still played regularly on certain Canadian and American radio stations, which illustrates the fact that the general public still has access to this music. The problem however, is what these songs contain within their lyrics. The messages communicated to listeners are neither positive nor progressive in nature. In actuality, they are detrimental to the gains women as a sexual class have achieved over the years. This is a study of 125 "Golden Oldie" songs played over the air on CKLW in the summer of 1993. A semiotic analysis was applied to each song to determine whether or not its content was sexist in nature. Once the songs were analyzed, they were placed in theoretically-determined categories. Using a socialist feminist theoretical framework, the author grouped the songs into seven categories: Woman as Commodity/Possession, Woman as an Appendage of Man, Woman as Dependent (economically and emotionally), Woman as Having A Predetermined Place in Society, Woman as Victimized by the Sexual Double Standard, Woman as Voiceless, and a category titled "Super" Songs which includes those songs that cross over all of the categories. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Communication Studies. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1994 .P64. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 33-04, page: 1031. Supervisor: James Winter. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1994.

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