FEATURE:
New Waves
PHOTO CREDIT: Andre Moura/Pexels
Changing the Dynamic and Face of Music to Put Women More in the Spotlight
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I am going to write other features…
PHOTO CREDIT: Brett Sayles/Pexels
about women in music soon. Now, as I look online and still see that, in 2023, figures around equality show there is a big gap that needs filling, I wonder why we always assume that women are the ones who need to fight for that voice! Why equality is the best we can hope for. I know it has always been the way that men have been seen as dominant - and the target is to get equality. After decades of music being in the mainstream, why is the highest ambition only to get equality?! I wonder whether the narrative will ever shift so that women are the ones who lead – and it is the men who need to catch up. That may seem naive on my part, though it is always frustrating when women are not championed enough and fought for. In terms of the biggest modern tours, the best new music, and most of the effecting and incredible albums, it is the women leading. I would say out finest broadcasters are women. Look at the amazing songwriters out there and so many are women. I know there are areas of the music industry where equality and that needed parity will take longer to affect. Women in professional studies, as producers and engineers, is one example. Look at a subject I write about a lot and will come back to now: playlists and the gender make-up across the board. This is one area that can be fixed easily without compromise. If a recent Why Not Her? Report found that the statistic are moving in the right direction, one only need listen to modern commercial radio to see that there is still an issue. For stations who feature very few women or only women in collaboration with men, that is being addressed.
PHOTO CREDIT: Sound On/Pexels
Again, there is this thing that equality is the stopping point. I think that women could and should be the dominant force on radio playlists. Why is it the thing, when so much of this year’s best music has been released by women, there still such a gulf?! The fact that many stations have no issue playing a block of male artists and having playlists that are nowhere near to fifty-fifty?! It is disheartening. The fact that men will be seen as the driving force. There are incredible forces and ceremonies like Music Week’s Women in Music Awards that do show the amazing women (including trans people who identify as women) who are changing the industry and doing great things. Women are still stereotypes and under-represented. If you think about the wealth of talent out there worthy of spotlighting, the industry is definitely not doing enough to redress things. This article from The Guardian shows that there is a bit of progress being made when it comes to women artists in the U.S. – though female songwriters are definitely still struggling to get fairness and exposure:
“The amount of top-selling female artists in the US increased in 2022, but the proportion of female songwriters making any commercial impact is still dismal, a new study has shown. The sixth annual University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report reveals that while the amount of women represented in Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart – which tallies the most commercially successful songs of the year – jumped 28.7% last year, to a total of 30%, only 14% of songwriters represented on the chart were women, a slight decrease from the 2021 statistic of 14.3%. Of the 232 producers represented on the year-end chart, only 3.4% were women, and one producer was non-binary.
IN THIS PHOTO: Nicki Minaj
“There is good news for women artists this year,” said Dr Stacy L Smith, who led the report, in a statement, “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – there is still much work to be done before we can say that women have equal opportunity in the music industry.”
The 30% representation marks a new high for the amount of female artists on the year-end chart over the past decade, but the statistics for female songwriters and producers have largely stayed the same over the past 10 years. Since 2012 – the beginning of the reporting period for the Annenberg report – the amount of female songwriters represented in the Billboard year-end chart has never been higher than 14.4%, in 2019.
The peak amount of female producers represented on the chart also came in 2019, when 5% of producers on the year-end list were women. “Until women and men artists hire women songwriters and producers the numbers will not move,” said Smith. “It’s more than just allowing an artist to credit themselves on a song, it’s about identifying talent and hiring women in these roles. That’s the only way that we will see change occur.”
The majority of artists on the 2022 year-end chart were from an underrepresented racial background – a 6.6 percentage point decrease from 2021, and an 8.4 percentage point decline from 2020 – and 65% of artists from those backgrounds were women”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Blaz Erzetic/Pexels
It is going to be a long time until there is equality across the board, let alone a position where women are leading. It is angering that men still hold that dominance and it is assumed that this is okay. Figures through the industry not doing nearly enough to change this. I do hope we get to a day when women are the majority when it comes to radio playlists, chart successes, producers and on festival bills. In nearly every part of the industry, there are these figures that show more needs to be done. I don’t think it is the case that there is not the visibility of availability out there. That is the excuse we always hear! Whether it is festival line-ups, radio playlists, songwriters or artists who warrant celebration, it is perceived there are fewer viable women. The truth is actually, if you look around, the make-up of the music landscape is shifting. It has been for years. Why can’t radio stations instantly and effectively balance their playlists when there is an embarrassment of riches around?! Why do festivals struggle when there are headline-worthy women all around?! Why are those in power not doing more to ensure there is visibility of women producers and more done to ensure that studios are a more inclusive space?! Why are female songwriters and even artists not as prolific on charts and paid as much as their male equivalents?! There are a lot of questions to be answered. In some ways, things are going backwards. Perhaps there are not quick and simple answers. I just feel, when turning on the radio or looking around at festivals, award ceremonies and everywhere in music, there is this divide. Recognition that something needs to be done, yet those in a position to make big changes right away are not doing it. The industry needs to be one where women are not stereotypes, marginalised or seen as inferior. Change has got to come about…
AS soon as possible.