For this blog regarding gender roles, the first song that came to mind for me is Ariana Grande’s song “God is a Woman”. Ariana Grande is very well known by pretty much anyone alive in this century. In terms of genre, her music is often described as pop/ contemporary R&B. Her music is a perfect example of twentieth century music because of how modern sounding it is, as well as how up to date it is with today’s youth.

“God is a Woman” is also a great example of female empowerment and expressing the idea that women can be powerful and authoritative, which was taboo throughout all of history. Throughout history, we see womens’ authority change. For example, the woman’s suffrage movement throughout the 19th and 20th centuries focused on women fighting for the right to vote. Overtime, women began to advocate for other rights along with voting, such as equality to have careers that were seen as “too masculine,” equal pay, and equal treatment in general.

In today’s society, music is one of the many outlets for the expression of female empowerment. “God is a Woman” is a song that does just that, as it gives the message of women being powerful like a god. While this song stirred up a lot of controversy for different reasons, it does a great job at showing that women are powerful beings to the point where its godlike. Along with the fact that she is displaying such an empowering message, she is also doing so with a strong voice. Supporting her in the background are other women who are singing “God is a woman,” which emphasizes the female empowerment as well as the idea of multiple women working in harmony to showcase this message. Whenever I hear the women in the background backing her up, it makes me think of a sense of togetherness between women to help bring each other up. In terms of the musical accompaniment, the instrumental and the beat is present but it isn’t overriding Ariana’s vocals. Whenever I listen to this song, I mainly hear Ariana’s vocals along with the backup vocals, which gives them this spotlight to express the message.

Along with the song on its own, the video also succeeds in showing female empowerment. Throughout the video, Ariana is displayed as a goddess who is in a higher state of power compared to the men. There is one scene where she is holding a gavel, which shows this idea of having control to a higher degree than woman have ever had in the past. It really gives off the message that women can hold the same authority that men can, which shows how much our society has progressed in terms of how authoritative women can be viewed.