Reflections on a Century of Living: Gendered Differences in Mainstream Popular Songs∗

The study of popular music developed in part to correct the elitist dismissal of the popular and to validate popular music as a legitimate object of inquiry. Despite this, there is little popular music research that focuses on the most mainstream popular music. In this study we call for a return to the examination of the most mainstream popular songs and music videos through a preliminary investigation of two concurrent hits from the Adult Contemporary (AC) format: Martina McBride's “This One's for the Girls” and Five for Fighting's “100 Years.” Although both similarly focus on images and issues of life for American women and men during a century of living, they present dramatically different images of women's and men's lives in the lyrics and videos. Through examination of these songs and their accompanying videos, we call attention to the neglect of the most mainstream popular music and reiterate the importance of examining important aspects of U.S. culture, in this case gender, through its most mainstream, and seemingly mundane texts.