Analyzing women's images in popular lyrics calls for measured subtlety rather than forced choices. Too often, well-intentioned ideologues have selected particular songs such as "Born a Woman" (a miserable female lament) or "Under My Thumb" (a paean to male domination) to illustrate lyric-based gender dichotomies and cultural hierarchies. This approach does a disservice to women and men alike. A more healthy perspective on lyric imagery requires consideration of entire spectrums of gender-related behavior. Sharp demarcations between beauty/ugliness, dominance/submission, or wisdom/stupidity must give way to more flexible acknowledgments of situational conditions. Stereotypes do not necessarily lack factual bases. They are simply examples of unreasoned, unreasonable extremes. Among women's images, ideas such as hateful maternal relatives ("Mother-in-Law"), overly critical wives ("Nag" and "Get a Job"), fickle girlfriends ("Paper Doll" and "Nadine [Is That You]"), and absolutely flawless beauties ("Powerful Stuff" and "My Girl") need to be tempered. The realm of popular lyrics is huge. All types of marginal and mainstream characters are featured. Numerous types of rebellious and normative behavior, along with a wide variety of attitudes, values, and beliefs related to women's roles, relationships, and responsibilities should be expected.

The bipolar viewpoint of women as either perfect or imperfect is not uncommon in popular songs. This circumstance arises because romantic involvements undergird the thematic attention of most singers and songwriters. The pursuit of the perfect mate dulls critical, factual commentary and produces "When a Man Loves a Woman" exclusions of balance. Similarly, cheating, suspicions, breakups, and divorces spawn angry, hateful, and biased views toward female emotionalism, infidelity, fickleness, and moodiness. Once recognized, the roots of such biased viewpoints should be intertwined with other more neutral images to weave a whole-cloth image of women. The complexity, diversity, and universality of human traits that emerges can then enlighten both genders.

The recent rewording of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin tune "Candle in the Wind" amply illustrates the rosy acknowledgment of a contemporary heroine. Diana Spencer, the Princess of Wales, died in 1997. Her life was a mediated mural of extremes and excesses. She was virginal, maternal, unfaithful, common, royal, troubled, happy, carefree, socially committed, quiet, outspoken, moody, radiant, obedient, rebellious, and uncertain. Her life was incredibly public--and critically documented in writing and photographs and on film. The lyrics for "Candle in the Wind--1997" attempt to honor not perfection, but an authentic life that assumed legendary proportions. The woman in question is not a fantasy. She is historical. But the singer and the listening audience are moved toward decidedly polar considerations of beauty, royalty, and death. The song is a tribute. It is the affirmation of a single woman's journey. It parallels the lyrical salutes to Billie Holiday ("Angel of Harlem") and Marilyn Monroe ("Candle in the Wind"). But the sense of life's complexity is much more vivid to the general public because of recent popular exposure to all facets of Diana's tragically triumphant life.

If popular lyrics are to provide clues to the nature of womanhood, they must be viewed over time, in the very broadest occupational context, across stylistic genres, and against the background of a culture that has historically marginalized even the best and brightest female role models. Let Bonnie Raitt give us "Something to Talk About"; let Aretha Franklin define what it means to be a "Natural Woman"; and let thousands of other male and female performers project varying images of wild witches, wonderful wives, and other wise, witty women.

Throughout the twentieth century sound recordings have provided various perspectives on the lives of women. Images vary. Sometimes females are portrayed as naive, virginal, submissive creatures in need of male protection, adoration, and direction. At other times women are cast as wily, wicked, lustful beings who are guilty of heartbreaking, home-wrecking, and all forms of lawless behavior. Gender defies simple analysis. But it is informative as well as entertaining to examine the visions of women in popular song lyrics.

Many writers have excoriated popular songs (along with artists who perform them) for too often imaging women as sex objects and passive playthings. Criticisms of music videos have commonly combined attacks on visual exploitation and lyrical misogyny. Frankly, such commentary is justified. However, there is a much broader perspective that can be investigated. How are women portrayed lyrically throughout their lifetimes of personal and social development? What is a baby girl? How is a preadolescent female educated, both formally and informally? How is sexuality explored? What is a girlfriend, a lover, a wife, a mistress, or a grandmother? How does a woman learn to become a workplace contributor, a mother within a family, a community leader, or a politician? What postfamily roles, postmarriage activities, and postmenopausal relationships should women anticipate or plan for? Few generalizations can be made about the evolution of lyrical images of women in popular songs. One thing is certain, though. The simplistic era that launched "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" and "Paper Doll" has yielded to a much more complex musical period that features greater diversity, more complexity, and dramatically mixed messages about the individual female persona and women's roles in society.

The following pages present a bibliography of 30 years' worth of research, commentary, analysis, and criticism concerning images of women in popular lyrics. While far from complete, this selected bibliography explores elements of women's participation in the song construction system, female perspectives across varying musical genres, and lyrical images of women as family members, friends, lovers, competitors, enemies, and social deviants. Biographical texts have been omitted, along with songbooks and most other general lyrical compilations. Such information is readily available in more comprehensive reference resources. This bibliography focuses directly on the gender-defining or gender-imaging process inherent in lyrical representations. Songs say things simply, directly, and (because they are played and replayed in various venues) repeatedly. They tattoo minds with images. A significant number of writers have noted that female stereotypes emerge--for either good or ill--and these same writers ponder the impact of such imagery on both women and men in American society. The bibliography includes books, articles, and unpublished papers. Hopefully, these print resources will add light to the ongoing discussion and debate concerning the role of popular music imagery in socialization processes.

Bibliography

Almost Slim. "Women in New Orleans Music." Wavelength 40 (Feb. 1984): 15-17.

Barnes, Ruth A. "Dixie's Daughters: The Country Music Females." You Wrote My Life: Lyrical Themes in Country Music. Ed. Melton A. McLaurin and Richard A. Peterson. Philadelphia, PA: Gordon and Breach, 1992. 81-112.

Barol, Bill. "Women in a Video Cage." Newsweek 105 (4 Mar. 1985): 48-57.

Bayton, Mavis. "Feminist Musical Practice: Problems and Contradictions." Rock and Popular Music: Politics/Policies Institutions. Ed. Tony Bennett, Simon Frith, Lawrence Grossberg, John Shepherd, and Graeme Turner. London: Routledge, 1993. 177-92.

Becker, Audrey. "New Lyrics by Women: A Feminist Alternative." Journal of Popular Culture 24 (Summer 1990): 1-22.

Betrock, Alan. Girl Groups: The Story of a Sound. New York: Delilah, 1982.

Bradby, Barbara. "Do-talk and Don't Talk: The Division of the Subject in Girl-Group Music." On Record: Rock, Pop, and the Written Word. Ed. Simon Frith and Andrew Goodwin. New York: Pantheon, 1990. 341-68.

--. "Sampling Sexuality: Gender, Technology, and the Body in Dance Music." Popular Music 12 (May 1993): 155-76.

Brown, Jane D., and Kenneth Campbell. "Race and Gender in Music Videos: The Same Beat but a Different Drummer." Journal of Communication 36 (Winter 1986): 94-106.

Brown, Mary Ellen, and John Fiske. "Romancing the Rock: Romance and Representation in Popular Music Videos." OneTwoThreeFour: A Rock and Roll Quarterly 5 (Spring 1987): 61-73.

Bufwack, Mary A. "Girls with Guitars--and Fringe and Sequins and Rhinestones, Silk, Lace, and Leather." Readin' Country Music: Steel Guitars, Opry Stars, and Honky Tonk Bars. Ed. Cecelia Tichi. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1995. 173-216.

Bufwack, Mary A., and Robert K. Oermann. Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music. New York: Crown, 1993.