ABSTRACT
What does it mean to be a man, and what does it mean to be masculine? Are these questions one and the same? And how can popular music help to answer them?
Taking the last question first, in almost every instance, popular music is continually and compulsively bound up with the interrogation of gender. entire genres are named for gender-and/or sexuality-based identities – for example, girl groups, boy bands, riot grrrls, cock rock, womyn’s music, queercore and genres cultures1 operate in a network of gendered codes and institutions.2 Thus, if one wants to explore the associations, ideologies and behavioural norms that circulate around masculinity, popular music is a good place to start.
