In this paper, I am going to analysis the language of the article “Popular music, gender and

high school pupils in Japan: personal music in school and leisure sites,” which was written by

Kyoko Koizumi and published in 2002. 1 This analysis will contain three aspects: specific

vocabulary, higher frequency of certain grammar choices, and formality or informality style.

First, in this article, the authors used some specialized vocabularies because the article is

about the relationship between popular music and gender, for instance, popular music performers/

professional musical world/ personal music tastes, music educations/ music practice/ rock bands.2

Due to the article, the author investigated how high school students talked to popular music in

different settings with relationship to gender and nature of music practice.3 Furthermore, the author

gives the meaning of popular music in various settings with a relationship to gender.4 “I show how

Japanese high school pupils struggle desperately to hide their personal musical tastes in school

settings, and how their techniques for identifying with popular music is ‘gendered’ both within

and beyond formal education.”5 It could make audiences clear about that gender makes students

think differently about popular music, and it will help the author to explain popular music in

different settings about gender.

Second, in the methods section, the author frequently used the past tense. For instance,

“Boys as performers inherited rock knowledge from their fathers or learnt it as ‘acquired capital’

1
Kyoko Koizumi, "Popular Music, Gender and High School Pupils in Japan: Personal Music in School and Leisure
Sites", Popular Music 21, no. 01 (January 2002): 107-125. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002064 (accessed
April 21, 2019).
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid.
5
Ibid, 107.
from band members who already had ‘inherited capital’.”6 “In short, music teachers regarded boys

as more able and creative composers and popular music performers than girls.”7 “These views

were echoed by the pupils themselves.”8 This information shows the author did a good deal of

research when he wrote this article. It makes this article reliable.

Finally, about formality or informality style, the author used several informal words such

as ‘I’ pronoun and ‘we’ pronoun. For example, “As I have suggested, when we ask high school

pupils today what their favourite music genres are, their responses include only artists names.”9

The author used ‘I’ and ‘we’ pronouns because he wanted to show his ideas and results to readers,

and it gives the audiences a sense of the reality of this research. The author used formal writing in

most of the article because the article does not use vague expressions such as and, etc., forth and

so. 10 Moreover, the author used negative academic forms such as no. 11 For example, “Music

classrooms are no exception to this, the sociocultural school rule.”12 The mid-position of adverbs

are placed in the article many times.13 For instance, “Green and Richards have opened our eyes to

the formerly invisible reproduction of gendered divisions through popular music practices in

6
Kyoko Koizumi, "Popular Music, Gender and High School Pupils in Japan: Personal Music in School and Leisure
Sites", Popular Music 21, no. 01 (January 2002), 122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002064 (accessed April
21, 2019).
7
Koizumi, Popular Music, 108.
8
Koizumi, Popular Music, 108.
9
John M Swales and Christine B Feak, Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rd ed. (reprint, The University of
Michigan Press, 2012).
https://www.press.umich.edu/2173936/academic_writing_for_graduate_students_3rd_edition/?s=look_inside
(accessed April 21, 2019).
10
Swales and Feak, Academic Writing.
11
Swales and Feak, Academic Writing.
12
Koizumi, Popular Music, 109.

13
Swales and Feak, Academic Writing.
school.”14 The expressions of this article were not wordy but clear to understand.15 Furthermore,

the author used active voice and the passive voice in the article, but the author avoided using the

passive voice to address the reader.16 For example, “It must be added that young listeners are not

always concerned as to which genres their favorite music belongs.”17 In this article, the author

used indirect questions instead of direct questions because this is likely more common in academic

writing.18 For instance, “This is one possible reason why boys were much less involved in standard

music in comparison with girls.”19

Overall, although this article used informal words such as ‘I’ and ‘we’ pronouns, it is an

academic article and very clear because he used specific words and formal writing rules in the

article. The author used past tense in the article, that shows the author did research when he wrote

this article, and it makes this article is reliability. This writing way inspired me. Moreover, the

article gave me an understanding the dissimilar about high school boys and girls thinking of

popular music in a different environment, and it makes me want to read more materials about this

topic.

14
Kyoko Koizumi, "Popular Music, Gender and High School Pupils in Japan: Personal Music in School and Leisure
Sites", Popular Music 21, no. 01 (January 2002), 109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002064 (accessed April
21, 2019).
15
John M Swales and Christine B Feak, Academic Writing for Graduate Students, 3rd ed. (reprint, The University of
Michigan Press, 2012).
https://www.press.umich.edu/2173936/academic_writing_for_graduate_students_3rd_edition/?s=look_inside
(accessed April 21, 2019).
16
Swales and Feak, Academic Writing.
17
Koizumi, Popular Music, 110.
18
Swales and Feak, Academic Writing.
19
Koizumi, Popular Music, 114.
References

Koizumi, Kyoko, "Popular Music, Gender and High School Pupils in Japan: Personal Music in

School and Leisure Sites", Popular Music 21, no. 01 (January 2002): 107-125.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261143002002064 (accessed April 21, 2019).

Swales, John M, and Christine B Feak. Academic Writing for Graduate Students. 3rd ed.

Reprint, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 2012.

https://www.press.umich.edu/2173936/academic_writing_for_graduate_students_

3rd_edition/?s=look_inside (accessed April 21, 2019).