One singer who talks about gender roles within her music is Beyoncé. Beyoncé’s song “If I Were A Boy”, was published in 2008 and falls into the genre of contemporary R&B. In today’s world, there is a lot of gender stereotypes about the way men or women should behave when in a relationship or just living their everyday life. The song discusses gender roles because it shows the misunderstandings of genders and how the male figure is supposed to act within a relationship. Beyonce sings the song as if she were a man and what she would do in a relationship. Except, the song is also about women empowerment and that they should be strong and hopeful. In the beginning of the song, Beyonce describes that men just wake up and get there day started, where as women take hours to get ready by doing hair and makeup. Within the music video, you see the roles reversed that Beyonce is the boy and the man is doing to females jobs. In the beginning of the music video, Beyonce rolled out of bed and came downstairs to her husband serving food and cooking. Typically, women are viewed as the ones who are supposed to be cooking and cleaning, not the men. Also, Beyonce is a cop, and typically a job like that is often depicted as a mans job and that females can’t do it. The video also shows that men flirt with other women, even if they are married. It shows that men don’t care if they are taken and still will flirt with whoever they want.

The musical characteristic is timbre. The acoustic guitar plays a main role in the song. It provides most of the background music for her and gives a very slow but beautiful sound. This allows Beyonce voice to be the main sound you hear in order to get her point across. The guitar in the background helps to understand that it’s a slow and very powerful song.