Gender inequality in online music production: A qualitative content analysis comparison of online audiences’ evaluation on cover performers of metal and popular music on YouTube

Gender inequality is a current problem present throughout the music industry. There is a clear gap between men and women regarding the opportunities offered to acquire recognition and propel their music careers. Even though music consumption shifted to online spheres helping musicians to enter the music industry by covering songs and gaining broader audiences, these audiences still encourage certain gender stereotypes ingrained in metal and popular music. Therefore, this thesis analyses how online audiences evaluate cover artists in popular and music scenes to understand if gender inequality is still present in the online sphere and how it is displayed. Thus, a qualitative content analysis was conducted, specifically a thematic analysis of a total of 800 comments extracted from 40 cover songs of metal and popular music interpreted by both female and male artists. This was done to analyse if online audiences evaluate differently male and female cover artists. The main results showed that female metal covers’ audiences encourage breaking with gender rules. However, female artists still need to show that they belong to the metal scene whereas audiences usually consider that men are already part of it. Regarding popular covers, female singers had to fulfil certain popular music stereotypes to gain recognition. On the other hand, male artists usually had to be good looking and good singers at the same time. In conclusion, the main meanings found showed that metal female cover artists are acknowledged and valued as metal singers, which facilitates their access to the music industry as they are able to construct symbolic capital. However, male dominance is still present in online audiences, as the results showed gender-biased evaluation based on certain ingrained male stereotypes. Overall, it is concluded that in popular music there are better opportunities to gain legitimacy and develop a professional career both for male and female musicians. However, sexualization and male gaze evaluation are still clearly present in online music scenes, making it harder for women to propel their music careers as they are subordinate to specific stereotypes. Finally, even though gender inequality is recurrent, the findings of this thesis show progress on lessening the gap as online audiences’ evaluation can help female musicians to enter the music business.