Billboard charts from the 60s show artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan dominating across demographics, with Top 40 radio formats blending rock, pop, and folk for mixed audiences. Fan mail and concert attendance studies (like those cited in music history books) show both genders flocking to these acts, though girls were often more visible in media coverage of Beatlemania or Stones concerts. The key was versatility—these artists mixed emotional vulnerability (e.g., Beatles’ “Yesterday”) with rebellion (e.g., Stones’ “Satisfaction”) or social commentary (Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind”), hitting multiple emotional and cultural touchpoints that crossed gender lines; the music wasn’t as explicitly coded as “for boys” or “for girls” as we see today.

Fast-forward to now, and there’s a clearer split. Rappers like Drake or Travis Scott often cultivate heavily male fanbases, with themes of bravado, wealth, and aggression, while pop stars like Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish skew toward female audiences with introspective, relational, or empowerment-focused lyrics. A few reasons for this:

- Genre Polarization: Modern music is more fragmented. Streaming platforms (Spotify, Apple Music) and algorithms create echo chambers, reinforcing niche tastes. Rap and hip-hop often emphasize hyper-masculine themes (e.g., dominance, hustle), which can alienate some female listeners. Pop, meanwhile, often leans into emotional narratives that resonate more with women, especially young women navigating identity or relationships. Look at Spotify Wrapped data: users’ top artists often align with these gendered trends, with men streaming more hip-hop and women favoring pop or indie. Similarly, studies show rap concerts skew 60-70% male, pop concerts 60-70% female, unlike the more balanced crowds at 60s rock shows.

- Cultural Shifts: Gender roles in media are more exaggerated now. Social media (TikTok, Instagram) amplifies personas—rappers project a “tough guy” image to appeal to young men, while pop stars craft relatable or aspirational identities for women. X posts from fans reflect this: male rappers’ comment sections are often dude-heavy with slang and bravado, while Swift’s posts draw more female-driven emotional engagement. Posts about rappers often use terms like “goat” or “hustle” (male-coded), while pop star posts lean into “empowerment” or “feels” (female-coded).

- Marketing and Fandoms: Record labels and artists target specific demographics harder than in the '60s. Boy bands like BTS or pop stars like Dua Lipa are marketed to young women through aesthetic-driven content (music videos, merch), while rappers target men via gaming tie-ins or streetwear collabs. Fandom culture on platforms like X also amplifies this—Swifties (mostly female) and, say, Kanye fans (more male) form distinct, sometimes tribal communities.

- Lyrical Content: Compare Dylan’s universal “Like a Rolling Stone” to modern tracks. A lot of rap (e.g., Lil Baby) focuses on street life or flexing, which can feel less accessible to women, while pop (e.g., Olivia Rodrigo) dives into heartbreak or self-discovery, coded as “feminine.”

Back in the 60s, the cultural context—less fragmented media, shared radio formats, and a smaller music industry—resulted in music with broader appeal while today’s hyper-specialized, algorithm-driven industry magnifies differences. Plus, the 60s counterculture blurred gender norms in ways that felt unifying (hippies, anyone?), while today’s culture often emphasizes identity-driven content.

tl;dr The music industry’s fragmentation, algorithmic curation, and targeted marketing have made fanbases more gendered than in the 60s, when shared cultural moments (Ed Sullivan Show, Woodstock) created overlap. That said, artists like The Weeknd or Post Malone still pull mixed crowds by blending pop and hip-hop, showing the divide isn’t absolute. The past was just more neutral because the industry was less segmented, and cultural rebellion was a universal draw.

this is a good analysis. i like how you broke down the fundamental fragmentation of modern music contrary to the monolithic presentation of headlining acts that we get from the 60s. you also don't present it as recency bias because the stratification of means and methods means even similar fans will consume their music different. There are so many more ways to do so after all.
however I don't think that a gender imbalance at a concert really means the music is necessarily alienated from certain audiences.

>>126696750 (OP)
I agree boomer music was just ok, but way too overrated because it was from a time when music was more important than it is now.

They had some cool bands but most of it was just generic slop, inflated by themselves.

>>126696750 (OP)
>>126696753
>>126696762
nice ChatGPT generated post