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Why is this hobby enjoyed mostly by the male population?

I've been struggling to start a thread on this very topic. I've been struck by the indisputable fact that males seem to be much more into pre-recorded music (and all the stuff that goes along with it) than females, whilst the interest level for live performance music seems to be pretty even.

I even did an informal survey at a few long-term music stores in my city, and queried the owners about whether men or women seemed to more interested in recorded music. By their assessments, men have historically represented about two-thirds of their customers and over 80% of their actual music sales. I suspect these numbers hold as well historically for audio equipment, but then that's that dick thing again.

So what is it with us guys and recorded music? My wife buys all the concert tickets but I play all (well, almost all) of the music in the house, and definitely buy all the gear. In response to my question about why it's almost all young guys who get into bands when they're young, a mother on the my street said it's simple - girls, or rather attracting girls. She said females have other avenues (and tools) to bring attention to them to males, but lots of guys go into music to be attractive to girls. Interesting perspective, but not relevant in my particular case.
 
JonL said:
Actually I think it is because women have evolved (or been nurtured into) being moms first and foremost. To women, things are secondary to people. The material things that are important to women tend to be highly associated with a person important to them... their wedding ring, for example. (I don't have a theory for shoes though....) A woman's point of view might be that the music is great, the rig is the best sounding ever, but it only has importance if it involves a relationship with another person.

That's my theory presented as an overly simplistic sweeping generalization about mars/venus and all that crap. Please don't flame me too badly.
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This. Very well put. :thmbsp:
 
For all he struggle of equality between sexes, this baffles me.

I have never seen women as a lesser being because of gender.

To now claim superiority either way is a disservice to both man and woman and does nothing to further the goal of equality.


The original post has a valid question and I assume valid and supported statements befitting.

To belittle itcon basis of gender does no good but plenty of harm.
 
Hi new here so a hello to all. Oddly enough when I met my wife she had a far better set-up than I did. She also had a better collection of music, including a lot of vinyl and she has an encyclopedia like knowledge of classical music. Then again her parents are both professional musicians. Now as I obsess over every little thing she is mostly concerned with the overall impression she gets. I feel (from experience) that there are a lot of women put off by the minutiae and soldering irons but Love the sound. It could be my obsessions attract a certain type?
 
Don't take this any other way.

Women are into the software (music, relationships, emotions), not into the hardware (tools, things (mostly), the process and gear).

Having said that, there are always people of either gender who cross over to the interests and activities of the other sex.

So how many of youse guys would admit to a number of songs that yank at your heart, or make you remember HER (or your late canine/feline friend), or makes you shed a tear every time?? Or better yet, lifts your spirit in a way that nothing else (well, almost nothing else) can???


Bart
 
barkerd said:
It's a guy thing : nobody here brags about their 10w amp. / guys brag about how LOW it goes , or how HIGH it goes : it's competition , it's tools , it's about having a bigger one then the average guy........... It's what we were evolved to do ;)
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Hmm...you should hang out in Tube Audio more often. :D
 
MuthaFunk said:
It's not like it's a contact sport where the typicaly larger males would have an advantage or anything like that. Women have the same or better hearing than men. I just don't get why the whole audiophile thing doesn't apeal to more women.

My wife is very understanding of my obsession, she tolerates and even humors me about it. She can appreciate the decent sound of the vintage system and the HT she uses but it still amazes me that without my influence, she'd never have a decent stereo system.:scratch2: There are plenty of women who couldn't live without music in their life. Why don't they want these hi end systems like us.

Any thoughts??
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Exactly right. I don't understand it either. I always felt that theres no point in listening to music if you're going to listen to it on a cheap crappy system. It just doesn't do the music justice. This ESPECIALLY applies to women that are passionate about music.
 
Interesting thread, I've been wondering the same thing, lately. There are virtually no women participating in audio forums, it seems. This is markedly lower than motorcycling forums, where there are a number of women who participate and are active members of that particular online community.

I think Mech 986 had it right; they're into the Software (the music content) and not the hardware, AT ALL. One of my first serious girlfriends was kind of into it; she was very supportive of my hobby when I was first into high-end many years ago. She also had incredible ears and every time she told me something was wrong with how the system sounded, she was always right. They simply do not get caught up in how cool, trick, engineered or beautifully machined something is; their only point of consideration is if it sounds good or not. And there's no correlation, in general, to engineering "trickness" and how good something sounds. Witness the success of the Rega Planar 3.

I think audio hardware is just not part of most women's "areas of concern"; their focus is elsewhere. Yes, they love music, but the music is separate from how it is reproduced, for the most part. The connection is emotional, not analytical. Women love music for how it makes them feel, not because there are dynamic transients in a piannisimo passage that show how good the amp is at passing large amounts of current (and really, we should have the same orientation). It's the same with motorcycles, they love to ride them because of how it makes them feel; not because a Ducati has a single-sided swingarm and a titanium exhaust.

This is not to say that there are not women in the high-end industry, because there certainly are. One of the co-owners of my local store is the wife of the other principal, and she is the Queen of Tubes; listening, testing, and selecting tubes for all of the tubed equipment they sell. She knows her stuff, too; and was formerly a professional musician in an orchestra. A lot of the lines the store carries are because of her influence and ability to hear what music should sound like. Her husband tells me that he used to carry certain lines because that is what was in the magazines, and he would arrange a demo for a customer, and she'd come over to him and say, "You're not seriously going to have them listen to that, are you???", and he would say "Yes", and she would just turn and walk out of the room.

There's also Eva Manley of Manley fame...but in general, representation of women in this activity is very low.
 
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Well I've read some good threads on AK, but this is one of the best. Blokes might be overly preoccupied with the hardware, but there is some great sensitivity and insight here: particularly krowmagnum.
 
My wife is a wonderful singer, and loves Broadway music. But would she sit down and listen to it? No way, same with my daughters.They listen while doing other things. I will sit down and listen to music and read or just listen and they just shake their heads at me. They like songs but have no appreciation of musicianship, or composition. I don't watch much TV, but they will watch for long periods of time, and totaly enjoy themselves. But don't suggest the suround sound, as they all dispise it! So Yes Men and Women do view music and audio differently. At least in my house!

Now women do have their own obsessions, just check out their closets. The number of shoes and handbags in my wife's and daughter's closets is amazing, and even worse is I paid for all of them.:yikes:

That being said, I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.:D
Regards,
Jim
 
Systems always need to be respected, and need maintenanc,upgrades, re-capped etc...Or else they don't work that well.
Very much like woman.:scratch2:


SO..... Opposites attract.

That's why woman don't get into Audio,cars,woodworking like men...
 
My wife likes music, but is perfectly happy to listen to it over cheapie headphones or even over laptop speakers! :tears:

She CAN hear the difference between crappy sources and the good stuff, but just doesn't care about it. She'd be perfectly happy to have one simple system with an on/off knob and a volume control, as long as it "played music". ZERO interest in twiddly knobs and switches, engineering accomplishment, the physics behind music reproduction, etc... She just wants to "hear nice music".

I've posted at length in old threads about the sources of this difference between men and women, and won't repeat all that here.

...but as my brother has put it, "men and women are two different species, inhabiting the same planet in a symbiotic relationship. Neither species will ever truly understand the other."

...or as a gangster in a comedy movie once put it, "Women! Can't live without 'em, can't kill 'em!"

I'm delighted when I meet a woman with an interest in audio, but almost always they got into it because of a relationship with a man who was into it. I think the idea is right that they are more interested in social things, and not interested in "tools", the way men are. The reasons for this probably lie deep in evolution, as these differences (between men and women) helped the species to survive and propagate. Men went out hunting and were responsible for defence (using tools!), while women tended to stay near home raising the young (being social). It made for a more efficient division of labor, and those who were innately best suited to these roles had a distinct survival advantage. Over time, these tendencies became pronounced enough through natural selection, that they are strong and unmistakable in our species today.

The thing with women and shoes? Well, I haven't a clue how that played into survival! :dunno: To me, that's just screwy! :screwy: Maybe having good shoes helped them to run away from hubby's amorous advances when they weren't in the mood? :D [Seriously, perhaps an ability to flee quickly helps when you are less capable of fighting back? Perhaps at some level, shoes were a means to do that, so those who had a natural love of shoes tended to survive longer? Or maybe it kept their feet from becoming dirty and bruised, which made them more attractive to their caveman hubbies? Maybe that's the origin of foot/shoe fetishes? :dunno: Grasping at straws here... :D]

Whatever the explanations, the differences sure are obvious around Casa Arkay! My wife has over fifty pairs of shoes, and I have over fifty pieces of audio gear. LOL
 
JonL said:
Actually I think it is because women have evolved (or been nurtured into) being moms first and foremost. To women, things are secondary to people. The material things that are important to women tend to be highly associated with a person important to them... their wedding ring, for example. (I don't have a theory for shoes though....) A woman's point of view might be that the music is great, the rig is the best sounding ever, but it only has importance if it involves a relationship with another person.

That's my theory presented as an overly simplistic sweeping generalization about mars/venus and all that crap. Please don't flame me too badly.
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This, I agree with. As for shoes, outward appearance.
 
thedelihaus said:
For all he struggle of equality between sexes, this baffles me.

I have never seen women as a lesser being because of gender.

To now claim superiority either way is a disservice to both man and woman and does nothing to further the goal of equality.


The original post has a valid question and I assume valid and supported statements befitting.

To belittle itcon basis of gender does no good but plenty of harm.
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I agree. Women are better than men in some things and men are better than women in other things. We are physiologically different for a reason. We are hard wired in the brain differently for a reason. For that reason alone we will never be "equal" or "the same". We as a society should embrace this, but it seems that political correctness always seems to rule the day.
 
I agree with thedelihaus' comments as well. My posts about "women are smarter" and "women have more sense" were meant to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek, though I do think some of us (me, for example) can allow this hobby to become a borderline obsession and that's not particularly smart, sensible, or healthy.
 
Brother Dave

JonL said:
It's because women are smarter.
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In the words of the immortal Brother Dave Gardner: "Women are smarter. They've always posessed what men have been seeking."

My wife is wonderfully supportive. She can hear and appreciate music played on a good system. I doubt she'd go to the effort to obtain and look after one, though. That's what I'm here for!
 
Ever heard an expression "Women love with their ears"?
I guess "love with their hands" is more male thing.
Besides I never met a woman who sticks to the concept "Mine is bigger than yours"
 
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