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Williams Performance Showcases "Respect"
by Dorothy Marcic
"Respect:
The Musical Journey of Women" will be presented
on Thursday, February 13, at 7:30pm, in the Brooks-Rogers Recital
Hall, Bernhard Music Center, at Williams College. Admission
is free.
"Respect," which recently aired on CSPAN, is an engaging and entertaining
look at the evolving roles of women in the 20th century. Using popular Top 40
hits, music, video images, and costumes, Dr. Marcic illustrates how, in the early
part of the century, song lyrics resonated with women's dependency and submissiveness;
echoed their rebellion in the late 1960s; and reflected their independence in
the 1990s.
Currently a faculty member at Vanderbilt University in the Owen School of Management,
Dr. Marcic started investigating her musical side after leaving a position
as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Economics in Prague and moving
to Music City - Nashville.
"I started taking singing lessons to help get acclimated, to relieve my
culture shock, to learn to like it here," she relates. After months of study,
she found a way to bring music to her management leadership seminars. "I
came out dressed as Doris Day, sang a song, and people loved it."
A best-selling author and management consultant who speaks to major corporations
and business leaders about gender diversity in the workplace, Dr. Marcic illustrates
her points by belting out relevant songs. She continues: "Merely speaking
isn't always enough to make my point.
Listening to the songs helps people reflect on how they were shaped by the
music. Music is not only the soundtrack of our lives; sometimes it's the
script as well. The popular songs of each decade are indicative of our values,
our longings, what we relate to." Music speaks not only about where we
are in our lives, says Marcic, but of how far we've come.
"Music tells the whole story of women's empowerment," she writes.
Songs in the first half of the century were about dependent women, with lyrics
about victimization, neediness and rigid gender roles. The songs were all about
compliance, Marcic said: "I will follow him ... I'll do anything for
you ... just be my baby ... even if you're no good and treat me bad, just
love me and I'll stand by my man."
By the 1960s, songs were about women who rebelled and demanded respect. Women
were angry and vented that vocally in such songs as Lesley Gore's "You
Don't Own Me." Another case in point: Nancy Sinatra's "These
Boots are Made for Walking." Their anger was aimed at men, but as women
entered the workforce in greater numbers, their anger was joined by the frustration
and guilt that came with shifting roles and unequal pay, says Marcic.
The next two decades were replete with cynicism - Madonna's "Material
Girl" and Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do with It?" -
and about toughness, in songs like Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" and
Helen Reddy's anthem, "I Am Woman."
By the late 1980s, other themes such as inner strength and self-direction entered
the top 40 in songs such as Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love." That
theme perseveres to this day, along with lyrics that speak of self-confidence
and wisdom, like Alanis Morissette's "You Learn" and Paula Cole's "Where
Have All the Cowboys Gone." Love's still going bad, but women are
at least learning from their misery.
But what about the female singers of today, swaggering down the VIP carpet
at the MTV Music Video Awards in outfits that would make Kate Smith weep, singing
songs that would make Doris Day blush?
"Women want to feel power, and what better way than to wield power sexually?" Marcic
says. "As women get more equality, we'll see less of that. There is
a crop of strong independent women who are not doing sexually explicit music," she
says. Included are such artists as Alicia Keys, India Arie, Sheryl Crow, and
Sarah McLachlan.
This free public performance is sponsored by the Baha'i Club of Williams
College. Dr. Marcic's book, "Respect: Women and Popular Music" and
CD will be available for sale after the program. Her web site is: www.marcic.com. For
more information, call (413) 458-8092 or (413) 743-2401.
--Williams.com Newspaper
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