Now before I get into this subject let me make it known that everyone should be free to listen to any type of music they like; however, with that being said I think that everyone should keep an open mind when finding new artists to listen to.
The reason that I want to talk about this is because I’ve been noticing that a lot of extremely talented and artistic musicians are being overlooked for a very simple yet ridiculous reason, their artistic style is not sexualized. It’s a problem especially here in America and it is found in every music genre from pop to Latin.
So many great artists don’t get the attention they deserve simply because they don’t conform to the social norm of sexualizing. Recently, it was brought to my attention that one of my favorite artists felt discouraged about his solo albums and music video streaming numbers not reaching its true potential.
This was strange to me as all the tracks were well written and had a good beat. I decided to compare one of those music videos with several other male artists of that particular genre that had gotten more attention. After many music videos and songs, I figured out the only difference between him and the others was that the other artists had shirtless scenes. This happens even more so with woman artists but there are a few exceptions, very few.
This is a very damaging trend because it is making it very difficult for artists with a different vision to become established and because we are contributing to society’s toxic “rule” that body image is everything.
I believe that we should listen to music for its substance and how it makes us feel rather than superficial reasons. Doing so can show that we truly support the artist for their music along their journey.