R-E-S-P-E-C-T: What’s being done to curb misogyny in the music industry?
From all-female music festivals to feminist punk bands, we look into the ways misogyny is facing the music in 2019.
It’s been a shaky few weeks for the ol’ music industry: singer-songwriter Ryan Adams is currently caught up in a storm of sexual misconduct allegations, resulting in the cancellation of his UK and Ireland tour; Matt Healy from The 1975 brought misogyny to the forefront of the band’s acceptance speech at this year’s Brit Awards; and in an eye-opening article, the BBC has revealed a widening gender gap in chart music since ten years ago. You know what? Shaky might not even cut it.
According to our faithful friends at the BBC, three times more males than females appeared in the top 100 singles last year. Yes, you may say that you can’t control listening habits, but in the era of collaborations (eg. [insert artist and song title] ft. Pitbull), the number of men in the charts has risen by 50% since 2008, with the amount of women in the top 100 remaining at only 30. Considering that we’re in 2019 and living in a #MeToo era, there’s clearly huge room for improvement from those running the business. But what is really being done? We look at ways in which festivals, labels and musicians alike are paving the way in the fight for equality.
Festivals: From equality to discrimination…
In 2015, Reading and Leeds Festivals were at the centre of a media storm when someone removed all male artists from their poster, leaving an embarrassingly empty resulting image, with the resulting line up looking as barren as the Fyre Festival site. And while both festivals don’t seem to have noticeably changed their attitudes since then, there are others who are willing to do more about the music industry’s gender imbalance.
In an unprecedented move, Primavera Sound in Barcelona is the first ever festival whose line up features over 50% women. Primavera are known for hitting the nail on the head each year with their eye-watering line-ups and their 2019 edition is built on equality through and through, something they admit ‘should’ve happened ages ago’. This is a perfect step in the right direction for diversity, and one that will hopefully influence other festivals to follow suit. Glastonbury, we’re looking at you next.
From performers to audiences, the female experience is finally being prioritised at live music events. An all-women festival was founded in Sweden after a wave of sexual assaults across the country’s music events, including four rapes and 23 sexual assaults at just one event in 2017. Designed to tackle the wave of sexual assaults experienced at festivals across the country, Statement festival managed to raise £47,000 from crowdfunding to allow the first edition to go ahead last year. But despite being an excellent idea in theory, it’s bad news for Statement as its ‘male-free’ messaging was recently declared discriminatory and in breach of the country’s anti-discrimination laws by Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman. You just can’t win, can you?
If there’s one band whose activism on this issue is noteworthy, it’s feminist punk outfit War On Women. Packing a sonic punch, their songs cover everything from celebrating Mexican female wrestlers to the online abuse they’ve received for their music. Check out their song called ‘YouTube Comments’ — it’s golden. This no-nonsense attitude has also seen the band promoting safer spaces in mosh pits for women, further encouraging conversation about equality in the male-dominated world of rock music.
Some artists are eschewing the industry all together and creating record labels away from the mainstream in order to showcase underrepresented voices. Florida hip-hop artist TT has launched Club Queen Records, an all-female record label that focuses on women of colour in the hip-hop, dance and RnB genres. And in a climate where new, independent record labels are thriving, there’s no reason why this exciting model could work in giving artists a platform to promote equality and instigate wider change.
In an interview, former Pixies bassist Kim Deal said that ‘the backbone of the music industry is built on misogyny’. We can only hope that this this will eventually be eradicated through labels, festivals and artists working together to promote equality. Festivals must reassess their processes and programming in order to evoke change, and streaming services must step up and make use of their democratic ability to showcase lesser-known artists to help raise the profile of underrepresented voices. Either way, there’s still a long way to go.
