Music & Gender - Gender in the Music Industry

“For a female artist, it takes a lot more to be taken seriously if you’re not sat down at a piano or with a guitar, you know? For a male artist, people instantly assume they write their own music, but for women, they assume it’s all manufactured.”
- Dua Lipa

Today's modern music industry is not gender diverse, and that's not okay.

    Thousands of females in the music industry have felt underrepresented, mistreated, and not taken seriously. The Egalitarian writes, "A recent study has concluded that a staggering 81% of women say navigating the music industry is harder for them than it is for men. And it’s not just about them feeling they have to work twice as hard, either. In fact, the Be The Change: Women Making Music survey identified the main challenge for women in the industry was sexual harassment, followed by misogyny, male dominance and women finding it harder to gain recognition than men." 

    During my time of transitioning over to the contemporary music industry, I have faced many experiences of mistreatment and misogyny. One experience sticks out to me above all. I will not name the person, so the person I'll be talking about will be called "Jack". "Jack" and his partner just recently moved down from New Jersey to Greenville and they are working at the studio I was a part of. Jack is older, and he is an experienced musician and producer. The owner of the studio told me and my partner Reid that Jack would be great to help us start working on our new album and music. We were super pumped about it... until the red flags started popping up.
    
    The first meeting we had with Jack was back in September. He, the owner of the studio and the sound engineer of the studio were super excited about Reid and I wanting to get serious about writing music. The next meeting we had was in early November with my parents, Jack, Reid and the sound engineer. During that meeting, the comments Jack was making towards me and my mother were extremely misogynistic. Every time my Dad would ask a question, Jack would answer him with detail and respect, whereas when my Mom asked a question, Jack would just talk down to her: "We're not there yet" or "I don't know, you tell me?" Whenever we got to the idea of some band planning, Jack looked at me and was like "Okay, what are you going to do about your image?" He told me that to be successful in the music industry, I had to change my look: the way I dressed, the way my hair and makeup looked, and how I present myself. I understand it's important to stand out in the industry, but deep down I shouldn't have to change myself to be "marketable" - look at people like Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson... they don't dress or act any certain way, only like their true self! 

    Later on, we had an upcoming show with my studio where Jack was a part of the band for my songs. Anytime he had a question about the song, he would ask my partner Reid and not me. If I had a comment I wanted to make, I would have to let Reid say it so Jack would listen. Jack's girlfriend, who was also involved in the studio, would try to help him with something or even just tell him something, and he would snap at her and say things like "Can't you see I'm working? I'm in my zone and I need you to leave me alone." This wasn't the first time I had noticed him talking down to his own girlfriend. That show we were preparing for? My name wasn't on the program. A cover song we had worked on playing at that show? Jack cut it. Emails I had sent to Jack about working on / writing music? No response. That album we were supposed to write with Jack? He never reached out again and the owner of the studio called me a few weeks ago and said they wouldn't work with me because "they didn't have time" and that Reid and I needed to find a new studio. After Reid had been involved at the studio for 10+ years and I had ran their social media for two years and worked there for three years. 

    I know I'm not the only female in the music industry who has experienced a Jack before, and that has to change. BBC writes, "Gender diversity in the music industry is notoriously poor, especially in technical jobs like engineering and production. And even with artists like Cardi B, Adele and Dua Lipa devouring the charts, recent research shows that men account for 78% of hit singles." See the graphic below for current statistics: 22% of hit singles are written by women. 12 % of songwriters are female, and only 2% of record producers are women. 



    Madonna says it best at the Billboard Women in Music Awards in 2016. Madonna had just won Woman of the Year and she gives a chilling speech about what it truly means to be a woman in the music industry:

 NPR writes, "The music industry is nowhere near reaching gender parity. According to a new study from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, women lag behind men as artists, but the problem is particularly severe when it comes to fields such as songwriting, producing and engineering."

    It's time for women to be treated with respect not only in the music industry, but in every aspect of life. Women today are finally being heard, but this is only the start. We need more appreciation and recognition of women in the music production industry, in the marketing industry, in the songwriting industry... I hope to be a part of the generation of successful female musicians and performers who bring about the revolution of strong, influential female artists who inspire and bring about change throughout the world for all ages of women.