Images of Women in Selected Songs of Contemporary Gikuyu Secular Popular Artists

Abstract

The study focuses on popular songs that were composed and performed by contemporary Gikuyu secular popular artists. The study examines aspects of style and themes that reveal popular artists’ positions as regards the images of women in popular music in Kenya. The study involves the analysis of song-texts selected from popular performing artists who engage the audience on politics of gender and the effects they had on the Kenyan contemporary situation in voicing their concerns on the relationship between men and women in society. This was done through listening to CDs and watching recorded clips video/DVDs produced by four selected Gikuyu popular music artists. The study applies stylistics, feminism and performance theories. Various tenets of feminist and cultural theories were used as interpretive lenses. Transcription, translation and transliteration were done as a means to create poetic data for analysis. This was conceived in fifteen song-texts. The study identified structure and style adopted by the Gikuyu language composers earmarked for this study. Time and space did not allow the researcher to indulge in the analysis of songs by contemporary Gikuyu secular popular artists who performed in the post-independence era. Conclusions were drawn from the analysis and interpretation of data.