"Jag vill inte kompa dina känslor": en fallstudie av tonåringars musikutövande i relation till genusskapande

Sammanfattning: Women are less represented on the Swedish scene of popular music than men are. This fact, off course, has many explanations. With case studies among highschool students this essay strive to point out how social practices and structures of power affect girls and boys as subjects exerting music, their approaches and their possibilities and limits of action. The analytical tools are a combination of gender perspectives articulated by the gender scholar Yvonne Hirdman, and perspectives on power relations as explained by the philosopher and scholar of history of ideas Michel Foucault. Among the students and young musicians of this study, a great majority of girls are singers and an equivalent majority of boys play an instrument. The boys play in bands in greater extent than the girls, who more often choose to practice by themselves at home. Most of these young people say that role models in popular music is a crucial factor for their choice of instrument and becoming like these idols is a goal that keeps them inspired in their practicing. Most of them choose to follow role models of their own sex. The music industry is an enormous factor of power that strongly regulates the subjective actions and life choices of these young people, in patterns that reproduces division of men and women in musical contexts. The fact that the girls less often play in bands and tend to act more reserved than the boys when singing in band constellations is most likely a disadvantage for their career possibilities in popular music.