The Depiction of Gender in Moroccan Pop Lyrics

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate song lyrics within the most popular Moroccan Pop music from a cultural and a gender perspective, focusing on the depiction of both women and men. More specifically, the question that motivated the present study was: What cultural messages about women and men have been depicted to society through Moroccan song lyrics? Listening to music is the dominant hobby of a great majority of the population, as well as the fact that the lyrics of some popular songs are highly restrictive of gender roles (Weitzer & Kubrin, 2009). The study questions the way the Moroccan Pop music reflects and constructs gender in society. The study used content analysis approach and analyzed twenty Moroccan popular pop song lyrics from 2016 to 2018 based on most watched music videos on YouTube. The investigation focuses on the gender of songwriters, and the nouns the songwriter use to refer to the concept of WOMAN and MAN.