With lyrics that go You don’t really want to stay, no; but you don’t really want to go-o Katy Perry’s single Hot n Cold is not what you would expect grown-up men to wave their hands to and sing along. But that’s exactly what happened at the recent IPL opening ceremony. Men, both young and old, joined the blue-haired diva, as she sang the number that topped the charts across the world. If you are still not convinced, you just need to watch the recent Dhanush-starrer 3. It’s highly unlikely you noticed it, but in the scene in which Dhanush hits his friend on the head with a beer bottle, there is a gigantic poster of pop musician Avril Lavigne, notorious for her shocking-pink hair decorating the wall. The message is loud and clear: it’s not just rock and heavy metal that men in the city listen to. There really might be nothing wrong with this, except that over the last few decades, listening to pop or punk music has not been considered ‘manly’ enough. “I used to like Backstreet Boys and Westlife. I even used to like Katy Perry,” admits Prajwal Sunil, a college student. But the key words here are “used to”. He quickly adds, “But now I’ve moved on to different kinds of music. I like Dubstep, trance and hip hop.” A popular city-based DJ, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he has analysed this typecast. He explains, “The LGBT community is often associated with feminine gestures, loud colours and exaggerated sexuality. Pop music is also associated with the same qualities and I believe this is the reason this stereotype came about.” Another college student Akshay Nagarajan, who mostly listens to rock music, explains, “I don’t like listening to such music because it’s not real, it’s too emotional. Pop musicians overdo it.” Sunil says he was never affected when his friends occasionally made fun of his music taste. But quickly adds, “I very often think back about the kind of music I used to listen to and regret it. I don’t feel great about it, and am glad to have moved on.”
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