SPECIALIST STUDY

HOW CAN WE FIX THE GENDER IMBALANCE IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY?

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If you’re a woman working in the music industry, you’ll have a completely different experience compared to your male coworkers. Sexism, misogyny, etc are things still very common in the industry and things women face on a daily basis when working in music roles. Whether it’s being the only female backstage or in a meeting at a label, the gender imbalance is very noticeable. Talk to any woman in the industry and they will have their own story to share about an awful experience they’ve had just from being a female in music. For my research, I’ll be using information from articles & quotes from women I’ve interviewed about this subject.

 

The imbalance applies to all aspects of the industry - top executives at companies, live music lineups, behind the scenes, and even audiences at events. Indie-rock gigs, for example, usually have an audience mostly full of men. Going to a gig as a young female teen in 2016/17 could be scary at times as you always had to be on alert as things would be tried on you and your friends. Even as an adult going to a gig, you still experience similar things - it doesn’t go away. 

 

A lack of diversity is especially common in festivals and nothing new. An analysis of 600 headline spots across 14 major festivals in 2017 by the BBC found that 8 out of 10 festival ‘top slots’ were occupied by all-male acts.

 

Take Reading & Leeds as an example. When 91 acts were announced in February 2020, only 20 of them were female (a shocking 22%). Out of the 18 acts playing the mainstage, just 3 were women (16%). 

 

To make matters worse, a 50/50 pledge for festival lineups by 2022 was introduced in 2018 by PRS Foundation and signed by 45 international music festivals. Whilst many are working towards achieving this, concerningly Reading & Leeds, one of the biggest festivals in the UK, don’t seem to be making the effort. The owner Melvin Benn has argued previously that he doesn’t know if it’s the right thing to do - “Is that the right way to go about it – to say it’s got to be 50/50? I don’t know that it is.”. He has instead launched a project called ReBalance - a project which will provide 36 female artists with one week’s studio time over the next 3 years. The argument for this is that festivals will have a “greater choice” when it comes to booking their line-ups. Whilst this is still something, it’s not a lack of female artists that’s the problem - it’s the way they’re constantly ignored by booking agents. There may be fewer female artists than male, but there’s still hundreds which could headline festivals; Wolf Alice, Lorde, Lizzo & Mabel to name a few. The argument that there ‘isn’t enough’ is invalid and a festival as big as Reading & Leeds shouldn’t be as unequal as it is.

 

For a 2020 lineup to only have ⅕ of its lineup female, it’s not hard to see how this is still such a prevalent issue. Reading’s not alone in this - Wireless (also run by Melvin Benn’s Festival Republic) has come under criticism in the past too for having only 3 female artists on their 2020 lineup with people like Lily Allen and Annie Mac speaking up about their disappointment with this. 

 

It’s not just festival lineups where there’s an issue with gender balance - behind the scenes there’s also a huge lack of females in roles. A study conducted by Women In Music concluded that over 50% of women felt like their gender had affected their music industry employment.

 

There’s also the problem of turning the blind eye at abuse of power. There are many stories of abuse from artists or people behind the scenes in the industry that have been ignored by the people in charge. A few of these stories are discussed in the BBC Documentary ‘Music’s Darkest Secrets: Women Fight Back’ presented by Tamanna Rahman - it’s not a rare thing to happen. The documentary interviews women who’ve had awful experiences in the industry by men who have abused their power, and the consequences of it. It also looks at whether things have been allowed to slide by labels who have turned a blind eye to things. 

 

But what can we do to solve the issue of gender imbalance in the music industry? The biggest solution seems to be getting more women into senior roles. Vanessa Maria, a Marketer at Sony and DJ, says we need to get more women into senior roles to see a proper change; “We need more women in senior positions where they hold power and influence. They need to have a seat at the table where they are decision makers and are not just there to fill quota or to tick a box - they actually have a say in what is happening.” It’s true - whilst there are some females in senior roles, they’re usually overlooked by their male coworkers and less likely to be taken seriously. “We find a lot of women in junior positions and it is very rare that they are presidents of labels, for example. We need to have more women in those senior positions to enable women to be at the forefront of change essentially and by being in senior positions they also bring more women up with them.”

 

She’s not wrong - there is a knock-on effect that starts at the very top of the industry. Having a lack of females in these high roles means females further down the line aren’t prioritised/given as many chances. In 2019, in the top-earning quartile of Universal Music UK’s business - only 27% of employees were female. Warner Music UK were slightly better with 30.2% of employees being female, but that’s still not good enough. It’s not just the lack of female staff - there is also the gender pay gap issue. Having more women in senior positions will allow more women to get jobs in the industry and help even out the workforce.

 

Ria Hanley, singer-songwriter, says the same - “The industry has been dominated by men for centuries. It is time to see more women on festival line-ups and filling other job roles throughout the music industry.” 

 

Charlotte Marston, a music journalist, suggests other solutions - “Men need to be more open to change and accept that sometimes they need to take a step back and let marginalised groups have opportunities. We also need to stop giving misogynists platforms and stop buying music from people who are morally dubious under the guise of "separating the art from the artist”. 

 

A recent example of this is Slowthai’s new song. In 2020, Slowthai appeared at the NME Awards and during his acceptance speech for the ‘Hero of the Year’ award, he made lewd comments towards presenter and comedian Katherine Ryan. The audience responded by shouting that he was a “misogynist” and throwing drinks at him, to which Slowthai threw his microphone off stage and jumped down into the audience to fight until he was escorted out. Whilst Slowthai did apologise after the event, he has since released a song titled ‘Cancelled’ where he pokes fun at the situation with the lyrics - How you gonna cancel me? / Twenty awards on the mantelpiece / Pyramid stage at Glastonbury / Girls in the crowd got their hands on me”. Essentially laughing at what happened and saying he’s untouchable - a common theme in the music industry as many men are allowed to get away with their actions as they are “untouchable”. It is a tiring narrative that people are sick of and yet it is still allowed to continue. The song has been given major press, even being performed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Falon, and shows how many actions do not have consequences for men in the industry.

 

Charlotte ends with these other suggestions - “Men need to be challenging other men if they see things being done unfairly etc. Men need to view women as equals.” - which again comes down to equality in job roles, festival line-ups, etc.

 

Some programmes have been set up to tackle the gender imbalance in the industry, including ‘Fightback: Grassroots Promoter’ set up by Music Venue Trust to help 100 young female promoters break the barriers and diverse the industry, as well as DICE’s ‘Girls Music Week’ which aims to inspire “young women to get into the music industry, as well as connecting them with people who could help them achieve their goals.” 

 

Things are improving and there are more and more women taking over the industry, but so much work still needs to be done. There are still many people who won’t accept there is a problem in the industry and therefore refuse to make a change. With more awareness being spread and programmes being set up, it looks as though these views could become less common and an equal split will be achieved one day. However, we all need to work together to ensure the industry is safer and fairer for everyone to ensure things continue.