Boys Don't Cry

Boys and men are generally told that they should not show soft emotions such as fear, sadness, or love. Male musicians have been the exception to this rule for decades. There is no way that you can make music without emotions behind the songs. In this segment of "The Man Boombox" I will be exploring the range of emotions that men use when writing songs and performing.

As I'm sitting here listening to music for this particular blog post a song came up that should be worth noting. This song has to be one of the greatest songs I have heard regarding a man going through heartbreak. What Made Milwaukee Famous's song, entitled "Jeopardy of Contentment" is a song about a man who decides to let go of a relationship that is already beginning to fall apart. In the song he admits that this break-up will hurt them both, but it's what's best for both of them. It's easy to hear the heartache that the singer expresses during this song:




"So, there you left me standing
to fend for myself however.
but I'm holding up,
I'm pulling through.
I'm not sure what else you expect me to do.
But I won't deny that I'm taking it hard...
I'm taking whatever's available to me.
You see, that's just the way I deal with grief."

-What Made Milwaukee Famous: "Jeopardy of Contentment"

The man singing sounds absolutely distraught over the ending of this relationship, but the lyrics show a man who's forcing himself to put on a strong mask to hide to his ex how hurt he truly is. It's the same mask that men are forced to wear every day of their lives.

Another way men wear their masks of emotions is to replace sadness with anger. Cee-lo Green's latest hit "F**k You" is a great example of this emotional mask. This song is about a boy who fell in love with a girl who would rather have the rich man over the poor man. The boy is upset with this realization of his choice of woman and decides to swear the woman off all-together. There is a verse within the song where the boy is crying to his parents and his parents don't want to hear any of the boy's crying. By the end of the song it is revealed that even though this girl in question is not a good choice for a girlfriend, the boy is still head-over-heels for her.

The boy in Cee-lo Green's song wasn't very good at keeping the strong, angry mask on in the face of heartache. The man mentioned in Travis Tritt's song "Here's a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)" puts on a stronger front though. Country music has a reputation of enforcing gender norms for both men and women. Travis Tritt's song is no exception to this trend. This particular song is about a man who has been cheated on. He breaks up with his girlfriend even though she is begging for forgiveness and wanting to come back to him. Travis Tritt then goes on to sing about how he could care less about this woman's problems and how she is a dirty cheating woman. The music video depicts him sitting at a garage sale selling all of her belongings.

I know some people deal with heartache differently, but I also know from personal accounts from my male friends what someone cheating on them does to their heartstrings. Men feel heartache, they just don't show it because society tells them that it's wrong to.

While my last two blog posts have dealt with men and their lack of emotions, my next post will focus more on the stories that male musicians decide to tell within their music. Everybody has a story to tell...