Artistes react to Jerry Saltz's controversial statement

He may be a PulitzerPrize winner But art critic Jerry Saltz might have put his foot in his mouth when he said that itrsquos ldquoalmost only menrdquo who enjoy vintage rock band Steely Danrsquos musicDonald Fagen left and Walter Becker of Steely Dan PicFacebookThis stirred a hornetrsquos nest with Neitzens arguing that you canrsquot label taste in music according to gender Does Saltz actually have a point Five diverse Indian musicians give us their take on the subjectWarped thoughtI personally feel that categorising music into lsquofor menrsquo or lsquofor womenrsquo is an outdated take I feel that this guy Saltz is over 50 he is 70 years old People back then had more testosterone while dishing out an opinion mdash itrsquos like saying pink is a girly colour Or that metal music is for men and bubblegum pop is for women I think Saltz woke up on the wrong side of the bed when he said that Steely Dan is for men Their music cuts across genders But there was a need to categorise things back in the day to put them in shelves That is the crux of it though itrsquos a biased opinion Itrsquos amusing to me that someone could wake up to that thought and put it out for public consumption in the age of the Internet when we realise how much bullsht there is out there Itrsquos warpedArijit Datta Bollywood composerEveryone is equalI am often called a lsquofemale rapperrsquo but this sort of thing exists in any field whether you are in the police force or a doctor A few people have this notion that certain roles are specified for certain genders Those people are inherently sexist They have this general notion that women listen to soft songs something thatrsquos specifically true to India But that thought wouldnrsquot cross your mind if to you everyone is equal There was once a Bollywood song I was working on I wrote it in 15 minutes and my exboyfriend was in the room when I did it But when the composer came back and heard it he immediately asked my ex lsquoDid you help her write this How could she come up with it in just 15 minutesrsquo And I was like lsquoI am right here What is this stupid questionrsquoDee MC hiphop artisteAll about emotionsAt the end of the day music is going to evoke certain kinds of emotions in the listener But there are certain genres that are easier for men to identify with Itrsquos like how there are particular toys geared for boys like cars and action figures and others that are catered towards girls Thatrsquos not to say that there is no overlap mdash even boys can play with Barbies But there are certain kinds of music that attract a certain audience There is nothing wrong in that Itrsquos simply about the emotions and what you are able to identify with If you ask 100 people about Kpop sensations BTS many guys might know about it But scratch a little deeper and yoursquoll find that teenage girls have more knowledge about the bandAditya Nair metal musicianThere is no meritI have actually never heard of a classification like this But I get it because many other things are also labelled as men or womencentric It has a lot to do with stereotypes in society like saying women like softer music and men like more powerful and aggressive songs But I donrsquot feel there is merit in that I feel that every individual has their own tastes There are overlaps between genders so I donrsquot agree with this classificationAditi Ramesh vocalist and pianistA different takeAs a music producer I listen to everything that comes my way because I want to listen to and learn from the production process I consume music differently from others I listen to a lot of pop and donrsquot put thought into gender Itrsquos just about how the music resonates with peopleKaran Kanchan hiphop producer