Publication Date

1978

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Department

Department of Communication

Abstract

A three dimensional content analysis system was designed to examine the lyrics of contemporary women's music tape recorded from two 1977 women's music festivals. The class dimension was designed to categorize the topics of the songs. The valence dimension consisting of the positive, neutral, and negative elements was designed to categorize the attitude of the performer toward the topic of the song. The function dimension consisting of the expressive and magnetic elements was designed to categorize the purpose of the song. Intercoder reliability was checked using four coders and ten randomly sampled songs. The instrument was valid at the 97.1 percent level of reliability. One hundred randomly sampled songs were used for the content analysis. Songs which were coded as miscellaneous in class were not coded for valence and function. Seventy-eight songs were coded for class, valence, and function and were songs which reflected women's lives on various levels of existence. Forty-three songs were coded as positive in valence, 12 as neutral in valence, and 23 as negative in valence. Seventy-four songs were coded as expressive in function, and four songs were coded as magnetic, in function. It was concluded that -women’s music reflects women's lives, concerns, and the ideology of the women's movement. Women's music is primarily celebratory and reinforcing in nature and assumes that women (and men) are significant, autonomous human beings, who should not be expected to fulfill traditional roles unless consciously chosen, and who should have equal social, economic, and political rights. Specific songs are discussed which illustrate rhetorical strategies utilized in women's music as they occur in various class, valence, and function combinations. Implications for future research are also discussed.

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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