Women in popular music and the construction of "authenticity"

This article investigates the representation of female popular music performers in regard to the construction of authenticity in popular music. Firstly, it deals with the concept of authenticity and its relationship to the construction of the creative subject. This discussion includes an investigation of the ideas of nineteenth century romanticism in relation to the artist and the separation of rock and pop into a gendered division of labour. Secondly, it focuses, via textual analysis, on three areas related to musical authenticity: the position of the musical author/composer; the female singer's role in popular music and the discussions by fans regarding certain female music performers. The main conclusion reached is that the conservative traditional values represented by the music media concerning women's participation in popular music are negotiated by fans and fan communities. Thus, the meanings and criteria attached to the label "authentic musical performer" are struggled over within media representation and, most importantly, within fan dialogue.