Carole King and Carly Simon are two of very few female individuals who played critical roles in the popular music scene from the 1950s-1970s. As young women, King and Simon were limited by the social norms of relationships between men and women and stereotypes and expectation for women. While they came from dissimilar backgrounds that yielded different paths to success, it was the claiming of their independence as artists and women that helped them come into their own and allowed them to create innovative and widely relatable music.
King had long been held back by Gerry Goffin as a wife and as a songwriter, and when she left him, she was finally able to prove herself as a major player in the music industry with Tapestry, letting her point …show more content…
Her father was emotionally involved with an older woman even after he married Carly’s mother, and her mother retaliated with an affair involving a younger man. In addition, Carly always felt rejected by her father compared to her older sisters, perhaps leading to her need for approval from men with whom she was in relationships. Wanting desperately to escape what always felt “more [like] abandonment than privilege” (Weller 86), Carly dreamed of a future as a housewife with an intellectual husband (Weller …show more content…
It was a time where women were expected to be dedicated followers as their men chased career dreams, and as Carly realized her potential as a songwriter and wanted to pursue this possibility, Delbanco was offended that he would have to place his dreams on the backburner and “carry [Carly’s] guitar” (Weller 166), revealing how engrained society’s limiting view of women was during this time period. Carly’s early years forced her to turn to social norms that put her dreams on hold, and although this was painful, taking the untraditional path by leaving Delbanco and wanting to reverse societal standards for women allowed for Carly to commit to a career in songwriting and to gain inspiration for her later songs about
King had long been held back by Gerry Goffin as a wife and as a songwriter, and when she left him, she was finally able to prove herself as a major player in the music industry with Tapestry, letting her point …show more content…
Her father was emotionally involved with an older woman even after he married Carly’s mother, and her mother retaliated with an affair involving a younger man. In addition, Carly always felt rejected by her father compared to her older sisters, perhaps leading to her need for approval from men with whom she was in relationships. Wanting desperately to escape what always felt “more [like] abandonment than privilege” (Weller 86), Carly dreamed of a future as a housewife with an intellectual husband (Weller …show more content…
It was a time where women were expected to be dedicated followers as their men chased career dreams, and as Carly realized her potential as a songwriter and wanted to pursue this possibility, Delbanco was offended that he would have to place his dreams on the backburner and “carry [Carly’s] guitar” (Weller 166), revealing how engrained society’s limiting view of women was during this time period. Carly’s early years forced her to turn to social norms that put her dreams on hold, and although this was painful, taking the untraditional path by leaving Delbanco and wanting to reverse societal standards for women allowed for Carly to commit to a career in songwriting and to gain inspiration for her later songs about