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Rush: Why the gender gap?

#1 Reason: they dont sing gooey love songs or songs about walking into a club and having everyone bow down to their hotness. Their lyrics are much more cerebral.

Also, every Rush concert I have been to (every tour since 86) there have been lots of women. Not as much as a Carrie Underwood or Madonna, but more than you would be led to believe.

x2.3

I was 1 in 86, but I've been to every one since the Vapor Trails tour, and there was never a shortage of women.

Now, unmarried women seem to be another story lol...
 
Robert Plant's voice is also hideous, yet women like him... hmmmm... :confused:)
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The Schlong Remains The Same
 
They're a "Man's Band", and that is a good thing. There are plenty: Black Flag, Motorhead, some Parliament (I'm thinking the Crazy "Sir Nose..." stuff) and some others (maybe a new thread). Think of the alternative: (The concerts that you had to attend to please your chick) Dave Matthews, Prince (great show), and The Cranberries (maybe a new thread).
We need more of it/them.

I disagree with Motorhead. There are quite a few chicks at any Motorhead concert. The reason, Lemmy=Legendary.

Also I would like to toss out a few theories. I think the overall "geeky" images tends to turn away some of the female crowd, but mainly it's just not pop music: short, simple and easy to dance to.

I would like to add of all the women I know, the one that listens to the most "guy oriented" rock acts is my mother. She's introduced me to Iron Maiden and use to regularly attend Primus, Maiden, and Motorhead concerts (along with several others) in the 80's. She said she doesn't care for Rush, but that's mainly because some pot-head that use to live in an apartment next to her use to blast Moving Pictures day and night from his stereo.
 
I don't think a lot of women will ever get it, not because of imagery, or song content or anything, it's just something they simply don't like...

Why? I think a psychologist should be chiming in next.

There are gender differences all over the place in consumer and entertainment preferences. I think it boils down to culture, peer influence, and marketing.

It is never that simple. As with many other aspects of psychology, gender differences stem from both biology and from culture.

I've read quite a few scientific articles that confirm (so far) that male and female brains are biologically wired differently. I won't go into details but it has to do with predominance of hemisphere and levels of neurotransmitters.

On the other hand, it is quite obvious that socialization of women to be, well, women (the traditional role, I mean) is still fairly strong in most cultures around the world. It has changed, but not THAT much to create a different pattern of socialization in women.

The problem with all this, though, is that it tends to be largely a generalization and not very useful on explaining short scale behavior. You can have two persons who are almost identical (e.g. identical twins) yet they will both be different in some things. Tastes would certainly be one of them.
 
It is never that simple. As with many other aspects of psychology, gender differences stem from both biology and from culture.

I've read quite a few scientific articles that confirm (so far) that male and female brains are biologically wired differently. I won't go into details but it has to do with predominance of hemisphere and levels of neurotransmitters.

On the other hand, it is quite obvious that socialization of women to be, well, women (the traditional role, I mean) is still fairly strong in most cultures around the world. It has changed, but not THAT much to create a different pattern of socialization in women.

The problem with all this, though, is that it tends to be largely a generalization and not very useful on explaining short scale behavior. You can have two persons who are almost identical (e.g. identical twins) yet they will both be different in some things. Tastes would certainly be one of them.

That's cool. I was just trying to point out that gender differences in social preferences are widespread and affected by a variety of factors.
 
When I was growing up Subdivisions was released. That song is intensely emotional and really hits home...IF you happen to be a geeky teenage male who was never part of the "in" crowd. If you were the quarterback with the rich parents and were popular, you probably won't get it. If you were a skinny Star Trek nerd you identify with it.

If you were a marginalized teenage girl who was considered an outsider you might get it, but it's really aimed at male listeners. The lyrics are nerdy because they are about the social implications of suburban life so you may not get it the first time you hear it. If the music itself doean't appeal to you you likely won't give it a second listen.

Rush is what it is. Either you like it or you don't.
 
You know, every time I listen to Rush I think this exact thing!

Those are the second worst vocals ever recorded. First place goes to a guy I heard on a 45 years ago called The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Haven't ever been able to get thru the record.

Oh and I like the color blue, pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.

The song is immediately catchy, but two weeks later you hate it. Three decades later you hear it and you smile. Hell, I heard it last week- sang along and even whistled the guitar solo. It was written to make him some quick money and it did. Everyone was entertained.

I have a bias there- It's a 70s pop tune. I will defend almost any 70s music anywhere, anytime, against any number of foes. 70s pop/rock/R&B/light country radio and TV theme songs... that plus the 50s and 60s jazz and light jazz in my parents' collection is my childhood's soundtrack.

Ok why are there all women at Barbra Streisand concerts?

I don't get why anyone goes out to hear her. She's a fantastic singer, but she hasn't sung anything that I'd go out of my way to hear live.

Why, oh why, is no one asking THAT question??!!

Fassa's the only woman to post in this thread. There just aren't that many here.
 
Most of the girls I know tend to like music that is easy to dance to. Rush doesn't exactly fit that bill.

WINNER. Chicks like to dance.

Back in '82 my (then) girlfriend tried to get into some of my interests, so we saw Rush's Signals tour. It was quite funny to see her start to dance whenever they started playing a song, only to give it up by the first chorus :D

Later, she did buy Moving Pictures and she loves it.
 
I believe there are two main types of men that really draw the most of women.

Dark broody poetic type who shares his feelings/seems deep and thoughtful, yet withdrawn, blah blah blah boo hoo guys.

and option 2...

Macho confident bad boy rebel s.o.b. archetypal d-bag.

I in no way mean this as an absolute, but these two opposite extremes tend to draw the most women from what I've seen, and I think this concept can relate to music also. Rush is neither here nor there, they represent the average middle of the road guy. I'm sure they get theirs, it just might take a bit more effort.
 
So why would Rush not be to your liking if you're a female fan of rock?

I'm not going to read this entire freakin' thread. And I don't need to actually ask any females about why they don't dig Rush's music: it's already obvious. :eyebrow:

Just think about it: Rush's music is typically fast, aggressive, complex, cerebral and technical in nature. And it's not especially sentimental - at least not in the conventionally accessible "gooey" way that the average pop love song is sentimental.

Do those sound like particularly feminine characteristics to you? Do women typically (of course there are always exceptions) gravitate toward other such activities that are fast (i.e. drag racing), aggressive (i.e. ice hockey), cerebral (i.e. philosophy), and/or technical (i.e. car repair, computer engineering)? Be honest... :eyebrow:

Of course not! That's because the female psyche is pre-wired to be oriented more toward softer, more subtle things, i.e. intuition, emotion, nurture, social relationships, etc. Again, it doesn't mean there aren't exceptions - just as there are some guys (even straight guys) who dig Celine Dion...or Ani DiFranco! :eek:

Just because a lady likes to rawk doesn't necessarily mean she likes any particular rawk band. It's a wide, broad genre - and there's a BIG difference between, say Motorhead and Fleetwood Mac... :hmm:

MM
 
Hope no one minds my bumping this thread back up to the mix. I wondered the same thing here... however, I'm a female who loves Rush. I'm a bit apprehensive in going to a Rush concert because:
a- none of my friends like Rush.
b- I'm a female.
Geddy is unbelievable to watch though. But to a female non-bassist, I guess most would prefer a Kenny Chesney-type (myself not included).
 
OK I ran this by my Honey, complete with a decent selection of videos, old and new. Let's just say both of us were still in High School during the late 70's. I was listening to Mahavishnu, Return To Forever, and 2112 a lot back then. She was listening to the radio almost exclusively in those days and still knows little-to-nothing about Rush. FWIW she's a big Eagles fan, and is way hot for Jon Bon Jovi as long as he keeps his shirt on (the rug on his chest is a deal-breaker)

The results from the distaff side are as follows:

Appearance

Young or old, Geddy "looks like a Hobbit" and no serious Package to compensate - zero hotness factor
Alex was OK when he was younger, held up reasonably well
Neil had it goin' on when he was younger, didn't age well

Tunes

Tom Sawyer ----------- "I remember this one. Pretty good song"
Fly By Night ------------ "Meh...."
Closer To The Heart --- "I like this one a lot"
2112 ------------------- "When are they going to stop showing off and sing?"
YYZ --------------------- "Yuk"
 
One thing I have always believed is that most woman want to dance and guys want to drink, watch the girls dance and watch the band. The fact is that Rush has very few songs that are danceable. This could explain why they and many other bands usually do not appeal to many women.
 
I'm not going to read this entire freakin' thread. And I don't need to actually ask any females about why they don't dig Rush's music: it's already obvious. :eyebrow:

Just think about it: Rush's music is typically fast, aggressive, complex, cerebral and technical in nature. And it's not especially sentimental - at least not in the conventionally accessible "gooey" way that the average pop love song is sentimental.

Do those sound like particularly feminine characteristics to you? Do women typically (of course there are always exceptions) gravitate toward other such activities that are fast (i.e. drag racing), aggressive (i.e. ice hockey), cerebral (i.e. philosophy), and/or technical (i.e. car repair, computer engineering)? Be honest... :eyebrow:

Of course not! That's because the female psyche is pre-wired to be oriented more toward softer, more subtle things, i.e. intuition, emotion, nurture, social relationships, etc. Again, it doesn't mean there aren't exceptions - just as there are some guys (even straight guys) who dig Celine Dion...or Ani DiFranco! :eek:

Just because a lady likes to rawk doesn't necessarily mean she likes any particular rawk band. It's a wide, broad genre - and there's a BIG difference between, say Motorhead and Fleetwood Mac... :hmm:

MM

+1.

I was thinking about it when I read this thread before, and I feel that a lot of men like very technical things, and like to see these things performed by masters of their trade. We like to compare these works of art amongst their counterparts and lift them up above based solely on the difficulty at executing the task.

Sounds kind of like an odd theory, written out like that, but I feel it's true. I've never liked plain simple paintings. A painting I see that intrigues me is one that looks real. I go up to it and look closely at every stroke in amazement at how fine the detail was. Those are the paintings that stand out, and it has nothing to do with how strong the imagery was or the emotion it conveyed.

The statues that stick out are the ones that must have taken years to complete, the ones that stand on end and defy gravity. The ones that I can't believe that someone actually did.

I've always been like this with music too. Sure, growing up, I liked the simple songs with a catch melody and still do, but once I became a musician and the magic wore off, so to speak, the more technical pieces are the ones that not only caught my attention, but became the ones I remember, the ones I play in my car as I drive to work, and then ones I hum when I'm in the shower.

I once read a study about how brains subconsciously start enjoying music that their friends or people they want to friends with listen to. It's not a fake mental decision to pretend to like the music. the brain actually starts enjoying the music on its own, if it wants to relate to the people better. Maybe that has something to do with it, wanting to relate to other musicians better, or something... I'm not sure and am speculating at this point, but the very reaons I listed in the paragraphs prior are the reasons that Rush is my favourite rock band, James Jamerson is my favourite bassist, and Jaco Pastorius is my favourite musician.

* I know Jaco and Jamerson are both musicians/bassists. But I put Jamerson in a category of what an ideal bassist should be doing. Jaco took the bass and used it differently.

I should add, to be PC, that I don't believe that all men like this and that all women are not like this. It is obviously just a general statement.
 
Hope no one minds my bumping this thread back up to the mix. I wondered the same thing here... however, I'm a female who loves Rush. I'm a bit apprehensive in going to a Rush concert because:
a- none of my friends like Rush.
b- I'm a female.
Geddy is unbelievable to watch though. But to a female non-bassist, I guess most would prefer a Kenny Chesney-type (myself not included).

I feel like I'm in the same boat as you. No one I know outside of TalkBass listens to Rush (male or female). My friends make me feel even more awkward about it, since I'm black and female. I would love to go to a Rush concert, but I would have to accept the fact that I'd be going alone. :(