Construction of Masculinity in Kenyan Popular Music: a Close Analysis of Selected Kamba Popular Performances

Abstract

In the contemporary world popular music has become a fertile ground for the demonstration of masculine identity with artists making songs an arena for the exhibition of masculine identity. The current study, construction of masculinity in Kamba popular music endeavors to interrogate selected Kamba popular songs, showing how hegemonic masculinities are celebrated and revered. The study analyses the content of the selected songs in order to expose music as a medium for normalizing, transmitting and reinforcing the perceived male superiority versus female inferiority. The study highlights the discourses of masculinity vis a vis feminity. The impetus of the study was borne from the realization that spoken language could be used as a vehicle for the transmission of societal ideas and for the construction of a gendered identity. The study was limited to the construction of masculinity in selected Kamba popular songs. It worked on the hypothesis that there are stereotypical roles attributed to masculine and feminine genders. The artists’ choices and language used was what made the songs present both genders differently and stereotypically. Appealing language was used to refer to men whereas demeaning language was used to refer to women. Aesthetics has been established to play a vital role in the construction of gender and even women themselves play a role in the construction of a gendered identity through their sexualized dance in the music performances. The study has highlighted how popular songs disseminate messages which mirror dominant hegemonic attitudes and believes about sexuality. Young men and women who listen to this kind of music will, with time, perceive the sexual stereotypes as the norm. Performativity theory aided in the interpretation of the connotative meanings in the Kamba popular poetics. Ethnopoetics theory was also found appropriate as it privileged the literary aesthetics of the poetics. Finally, the feminist theory was used as the study touches issues to do with women.