Sexuality in the music industry

Human sexuality has 5 key elements...

1. Cognitive/Intellectual - the need to share the thought aspects of one's life, to communicate with the other
2. Emotional - the need to give, and receive love & affection
3. Physical - the physical need for skin contact and sexual release
4. Moral - sexuality comes with a large bundle of codes and values
5. Social - sexuality makes us wanted, gives us identity and value in the eyes of others, defines us in social terms

Sexuality is a big part of the music industry, it has always been apart of it but over the years artists and their song lyrics have become a lot more provocative and open about sexuality.
It has now become acceptable to base a song and a music video entirely on sex. For Example - Blurred Lines.
The video and song has been talked about by many people for the fact that the video purely contains females in skimpy clothing dancing in a sexual way. The song lyrics are also controversial e.g - "The way you grab me, must wanna get nasty"
                                       

Rihanna is another artist that releases songs that are entirely about sex (e.g - 'Rudeboy' and 'S&M'). These types of songs by big artists tend to be successful in the music industry rather than criticised for their lyrics and music videos for being too provocative.

In the 50's Elvis Presley's dancing was seen to be controversial by parents as they didn't want their children to be watching unsuitable things. In comparison to music videos today Elvis' music videos are quite toned down.

Artists have now become more comfortable with releasing songs about their own sexuality. For example - 'Same Love' by Macklemore. The song lyrics talk about legalising same-sex marriage and the video for the song shows two males getting married.

The song is very popular at the moment and is appreciated by many people, however I don't think it would of had the same reaction 30 years ago. This shows how opinions about homosexuality within the music industry have changed.

Music and Adolescent Sexuality - Music is an important part of teenagers lives as it allows young people to express themselves and gives them something to relate to. For example - Many popular songs with the target audience of teenagers are about love, pain and relationships.
Heterosexual teenager boys tend to seek an alternative way of life through music by listening to genres such as rap or rock.
Whereas heterosexual teenage girls tend to listen to the non-threatening, clean cut boy bands that sing about love. For example - One Direction.