On College Radio

My sister and I had an internet radio show back in college. We certainly weren't a cultural force on campus because the station had no solid listener base, but I had fun. This brings me to something that bothers me about myself. I can't stand the sound of female radio DJs. I am totally a feminist you guys! There's just something that sounds repellent as women try to lower their voices to sound smoother. (And less feminine?) I think I read somewhere that female voices are harder to understand because their voices are higher. My favorite singers are baritone voices - maybe because they are easy on the ear. The thing is I don't think I have this same issue with women who work on radio ads. They seem to talk in their natural tones.

All this is just me rambling on about something about which I know little. I miss my radio show and I think I could be a DJ but I don't have any real training in broadcast techniques. I also lack any control over my voice. I failed utterly to modulate my voice consistently.

This is kind of related to my reading material. In the past fortnight I've read The Sex Revolts by Joy Press and Simon Reynolds as well as She Bop by Lucy O'Brien. The former decoded gender in rock and roll and the latter was a straightforward look at women's participation in the music industry. Reading both filled in the picture for me and forced me to look at the gender breakdown of the music I listen to. From a cursory glance at how many "chick bands" I listen to, the answer is few. Most of what I listen to his masculine even if it isn't cock rock. Does this make me a poor feminist? Well, no, that's stupid of my inner voice and you to even ask that. It just means I'm under educated and radio isn't exactly the way to find music made by women. Women also excel in musical genres that are not radio-friendly. It can be difficult to find good experimental stuff.

Of course that's where word of mouth can become so crucial. I have a friend who I go to when I want to talk music. She owns tons more than I do and she was interested in music that was close enough to music I listened to but different enough that it was fresh. And that's ultimately where women (and anyone, of course) find new music that's not on heavy rotation on MTV. (For all the videos that they play anymore, RIGHT?!) Historically we can look at the Riot Grrl movement for example. All the "grrls" created female networks that highlighted female acts among other things.

Now that this blog post has mutated horribly, I'll end it now.