Summary Of My Music My War By Lisa Gilman

“My Music My War” is a book displaying the findings of a study done by ethnomusicologist, Lisa Gilman. Throughout the book, it gives insight to daily lives of soldiers during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only does it allow readers to explore the lives of soldiers, it also allows readers to examine how music affected the people in the midst of war. “My Music My War” exemplifies how musical listening can relate to a wide variety of topics, such as gender, politics, and trauma. In my opinion, one of the most provocative and controversial of the broader topics discussed in the book is gender. More specifically Gilman discusses the topic of gender as it relates to hyper masculinity and homophobia. Throughout the chapter titled “Music,

It teaches you that anything female is weak” (87.) As perceived in many instances not only in the army, but also in everyday living, the men were seen as the dominant beings. Even in the case of the music that was being listened to, the subject of the music was normally

I believe that not only in the military, but also in society as it is today, it is common to find instances of music being used to display a sense of masculinity and dominance. It can be seen in something as slight and minimal as who has control over what music is being played. Gilman describes that “with musical spaces everywhere, usually some people were either trusted for their musical taste or had more social power in a given situation and were thus the ones who selected the music” (95.) This same situation is common in teens in the present year. In a person’s car, the music that is listened to is decided by he who has the aux cord. The person with the aux cord is the one who has the best taste in music and is therefore seen as the most dominant. The difference in this case is that the music played on the military grounds is of a more masculine genre (metal, or rap.) Often times women didn’t have control over what music was being played either, and usually didn’t have the desire to play their music for large groups “unless they were playing music that emphasized masculinity”