Ditching the Patriarchy: A Glance Into the Misogyny of the Music Industry
Janice Fernandes
SYBSC, 2022-2023
“I’m so sick of
running as fast as I can,
Wondering if I’d
get there quicker if I was a man”
Taken from Taylor Swift’s hit single, ‘The Man’, whose music video shows Swift (as a man) throwing tantrums, being explicitly rude, and earning praise for the bare minimum while rising to success with great ease. Women have always been subjected to an unfair bias in their homes, workplaces and countries at large. In the 1800s, a majority of people perceived women’s lives as revolving around their husbands and households, whereas men were seen as the primary ‘breadwinners’. Soon after the Industrial Revolution and the advent of urbanisation, they began to realise that their position in society could and should be more than just a housewife or a mother. They began to fight for their rights and initiated social movements to secure the same. However, after all these struggles throughout the years, the glaring gap between men and women hasn't diminished enough. Women still carry the burden of discrimination on their backs in every industry, including the ever popular “music biz”.
We all love music and for the most part, pop music. It’s become a widespread sensation among teens and young adults thanks to video-streaming platforms such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. These platforms bring to light various undiscovered artists and forgotten songs through their monetized video challenges. For example, Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’ became a wondrous hit after being a part of many TikTok challenges. We look up to many of our favourite musicians while being blatantly unaware of the harsh gender norms they face in the industry. In press tours and interviews, women often grapple with sexist remarks along the lines of settling down, getting married, and having kids. It is quite evident that men never actually have to answer these kinds of questions. The media extravagantly gives them passes to a carefree, wild rock star life while caging women with unrealistic standards.
More often than not, lyrics written by male artists contain messages that objectify women and imply that it is ‘okay’ to make sexual advances towards them without their consent. For instance, the music video for ‘Blurred Lines’ by 'Robin Thicke' and 'Pharell Williams' included women who were barely clothed and were portrayed as trophies “owned” by men. The song also contained lyrics that glorified rape and encouraged sexual violence. Women have just begun to speak out more bravely against sexual harassment while men are normalising problematic behaviour in society, and this is specifically harmful to the younger, more impressionable audience. This kind of male behaviour also has an effect on the women workforce of various industries. For instance, about two-thirds of women in the music industry believe that sexual harassment and objectification is the leading concern for the continuous drop in the participation of women (Sexualisation of Women in the Music Industry – Leicester Student Magazine, 2022). According to a survey conducted by the Music Industry Research Association in the United States, as many as 67% of female musicians have experienced sexual harassment. Women are victims of exploitation and abuse inflicted on them by their male colleagues while also having to put up with endless misogynistic attitudes thrown at them.
Many male musicians and producers are quick to assume that women aren’t as skilled at their instruments in genres that are male-dominated like heavy metal and hard rock. This is because they have this foolish idea that women lack the “aggressiveness” required for these genres. They feel women are always supposed to be gentle and ‘highly emotional’ beings. As a result of this tainted mindset, women are pushed to pursue genres of music that fit their femininity and create a “pop princess” image for themselves. The notion of women being fierce and bold is still not widely accepted in the industry. Regardless of this, young women like ‘Olivia Rodrigo’, ‘Tate McRae', and ‘Girl in Red’ (Marie Ulven Ringheim) are taking the stage and creating identities of their own, inspiring young women all over the world.
A report released by Smith, Choueiti and Pieper in February 2019, analysed 600 songs in the Billboard end-of-year charts from 2012 to 2017. Their research included women on the forefront -vocalists, songwriters, musicians and producers, as well as those who work behind the scenes. The outcome obtained was that women made up only 22% of the artists and a minimum of 2% of the producers. These figures haven’t shown a sign of improvement. In fact, the 2017 report showed the least women’s inclusion. Another study done by the USS Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founded by Dr. Stacy L. Smith, on the Billboard charts from 2012 to 2021, demonstrated that out of 180 artists, women made up only 23.3%. The study also found out that there was only 1 female songwriter for roughly every 7 male songwriters in the charts. More than half of the songs incorporated in the Year-End charts did not feature female songwriters. Women producers constituted only 3.9% of all the songs in the 2021 charts, out of which 10 were women of colour. According to Dr. Smith, the figures haven’t changed significantly. She also said that women are “virtually shut out” from producing the most popular songs. The Grammys too mirrored the same results. Women’s representation is better in the categories of ‘Best New Artist’ and ‘Song of The Year’, while it drops in the category ‘Producer of The Year’.
“Being a woman, being a girl, is the most awesome thing to be. I personally feel we are the more evolved species,” said the 15-time Grammy winner Alicia Keys. “Until we’re in those rooms as equally as men are, it can’t shift. We have to infiltrate our industries. Period. We have to. That alone will shift the power balance.”
'P!nk' - another
famous face of music tweeted:
“When we celebrate and honour the talent and accomplishments of women, and how much women STEP UP every year, against all odds, we show the next generation of women and girls and boys and men what it means to be equal, and what it looks like to be fair.”
One of the most influential artists of our generation and my personal
favourite, Taylor Swift (or should I say Dr. Taylor Swift…), has been on the
forefront of the advocacy of women’s rights and exposing the existing misogyny
in the music industry. She explained how people often speculated on whether she
wrote her own songs and if there existed a man behind her success. The masters
to her music were sold by her label to Scooter Braun, not giving her the authority
to buy it back. This did not stop her. She courageously took the decision to
re-record her masters, giving rise to the ‘Taylor’s Version’ era.
This brings us to the question: Is anything really changing? Will it ever change? Well, I strongly believe that women have the potential to do anything. We have come a long way in terms of women’s participation in music, and with continued efforts, we will uplift each other and fight these tyrannical norms. A day will come when this disparity will diminish and hopefully cease to exist. You and I deserve to be seen and heard. So, let's end on this note: Let our evaluations be based solely on our abilities, not our gender.
References
Swift, T. [Taylor
Swift]. (2020, February 27). Taylor Swift- The Man (Official Video) [Video].
Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqAJLh9wuZ0
Bain, K. (2021, March 25). Sexual Harassment in Music Is Top Issue for Women: Study. Billboard.
Burnett, R. (2002). The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry. Taylor & Francis
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203137772/global-jukebox-robert-burnett
Donelly, E. (2019, August 25). Taylor Swift calls out music industry sexism: 'A man is allowed to react. A woman can only overreact. Yahoo! Entertainment.
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/taylor-swift-slams-sexism-music-industry-151302641.html
Edmonds, A., & Franklin, S. (2022, February 4). The music industry's problematic relationship with sexual assault and power dynamics. Voice Magazine.
Pizzello, C. (2019, February 7). 7 Grammy-Winning Artists Who Have Stood Up for Girls & Women. Global Citizen
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/grammy-winning-artist-feminists/
Raine, S., & Strong, C. (Eds.). (2019). Towards Gender Equality in the Music Industry: Education, Practice and Strategies for Change. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Sexualisation of Women in the Music Industry – Leicester Student Magazine. (2022, March 31). Leicester Student Magazine.
https://leicesterstudent.com/2022/03/31/sexualisation-of-women-in-the-music-industry/
Walden, N. E. (2000). Gender Bias as Related to Women in the Workplace. Xlibris US.
Whateley, D. (2022, July 7). How TikTok Is Changing the Music Industry, From Marketing to Discovery. Business Insider.
Image credits
Insider, https://www.insider.com/harry-styles-bisexual-sexuality-response-guardian-interview-2019-12
Times of India, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/english/music/news/demi-lovato-to-release-new-album-next-month/articleshow/81529390.cms
Soundcloud, https://soundcloud.com/oliviarodrigo
Seventeen, https://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/music/a12041220/taylor-swift-songs-ranked-mad/
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