Utilizing Critical Realism in Empirical Gender Research: The Case of Boys and the Reproduction of Male Dominance within Popular Music Life

ABSTRACT

Popular music life is permeated by a quantitative form of male dominance, and has been for several decades. Based on a recent study this article engages with the reproduction of said male dominance by attempting to understand boys’ approaches to popular music and musicians. In particular, by making use of an interdisciplinary explanatory feminist theory the article seeks to show that interacting mechanisms at different levels make the adoption of a so-called ‘identificatory’ approach attainable for boys. The potential effect of their adoption of this approach is that male dominance within popular music life is reproduced. In addition to this, however, a more general aim of this article is to illustrate the ways in which critical realism can inform empirical gender research, especially in terms of the postulation of explanatory mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• Boys
• explanation
• male dominance
• popular music
• reproduction

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers, whose remarks made me aware of all of the things I had to state more clearly and expand upon, which in the end of course made the article considerably better. Thanks also to the editors, whose warm tone, intelligent comments and thorough instructions made the revising process a lot easier to handle than it otherwise would have been. In addition, I am indebted to the participants of the Critical Realism Seminar at Örebro University, for constructively discussing and advising me on a previous version of this paper.

Notes on contributor

Victor Kvarnhall has a PhD in Musicology and is currently Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy at Mälardalen University.

ORCID

Victor Kvarnhall http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2646-6752

Notes

1 Some exceptions are Danermark et al. 2002; Carter and New 2004; Edwards, O’Mahoney, and Vincent 2014.

2 The other major theme concerned gendered musical instrument choices.

3 The shorter expression ‘male dominance’ will hereafter refer to the quantitative aspect.

4 One reason for this may be that explanation and causal analysis have positivist and deterministic connotations; see e.g. Ekström 1992; New 2005; Elder-Vass 2010a.

5 For more ‘extreme’ versions of this approach, see Frith 1996; Dibben 2002.

6 Michael Messner (2011, 138) makes a similar point, regarding men/boys and sports: ‘It is in boyhood that we can discover the roots of [men's] commitment to athletic careers.’

7 It is here worth mentioning that I believe the distinction between women/girls and men/boys as biological categories to be an ontologically valid one. For a defence of this position see e.g. Willmott 1996; Sayer 2000, 97ff.; New 2005; Hull 2006; Gunnarsson 2014. For some examples of the rejection of such distinctions, see Butler [1990] 1999; Kessler 1990; Bogren 2011; and Björck 2011 specifically concerning music research on gender.

8 Of course, this may not always be the case in critical realist empirical research, but will depend on the complexity of the research problem and the aims of a study.

9 For demonstrations of and discussions about masculinity (and femininity) as ideas/ideology, see e.g. Bird 1996; New 2001; Haywood and Mac an Ghaill 2003; Hearn 2004; New and Fleetwood 2006; Willmott 2007; Pease 2010, ch. 5; Reeser 2010; Hearn 2014.

10 New and Fleetwood (2006) make use of a similar expression – ‘gender rules’ – with basically the same meaning.

11 Hierarchy and difference, albeit intertwined, seem to be two aspects of much feminist theory; see e.g. Hartmann 1979; Harding 1986; Connell 1987, 2002; Butler [1990] 1999; Walby 1990.

12 This is by Swedish standards.

13 Naturally, personal names as well as names of places of residence are de-identified.

14 Frosh et al. 2002 observe a similar kind of dynamics.

15 For discussions on gender differences in musical taste see e.g. Frith and McRobbie [1978] 1990; Christenson and Peterson 1988; Hargreaves, Comber, and Colley 1995; Colley 2008.

16 Similar points are made by Bennett (2013) as well as New and Fleetwood (2006).