We are in a new age. This first decade of the 21st century where women are standing up in music and being counted. The industry is awash with women producers, DJ’s, flygirls, vocalists and in the fashion that evolves in music ‘serious femme artist’ is the current flavour hitting our shelves. 90’s‘Girl Power’ it seems is being taken to a whole new level. Firstly, let’s talk stats in the mainstream charts, 2008 spat out more top selling female artists then any other period in the last several years. The top 10 albums of 2008 & top digital sales (YTD) consists of no less then 5 female artists, Duffy led the album sales with ‘Rockferry’, Rihanna threw her weight in the ring with ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’, Amy Winehouse with a deluxe edition of ‘Back to Black’ done off the back of Grammy success, Leona Lewis hammered home the sales with ‘Spirit’ and Adele brought us the sweet sounds of ‘19’. Of the other 5 top selling titles Coldplay, Nickleback, Kings of Leon, Take That and Scouting For Girls are full on acclaimed bands. The independent ladies are throwing their weight against the guys guarded gauntlet in every sense. In total the actual album units sold in 2008 accounted to 7,815,403 units of this women sold 4,011,812 units and accounted for 51.3% of the sales margin on a gender basis. This was up from a market share of 39.7% in 2007 and in ‘battles’ that 1% makes all the difference. As of Sept 08 ‘Duffy’s album ‘Mercy’ had shifted an incredible 496,358 units. That said Duffy’s label Universal did have in place an ‘aggressive’ new media marketing strategy that consisted of radio campaigns, street postering, album reviews in all major publications, cross marketing as an essential new track with a number of mobile phone providers such as Vodafone & 02, promotion on blogs, forums and online music websites and a variety of competitions with a variety of media channels such as radio & print magazines. Now, apart from Leona Lewis, Rihanna, Amy Winehouse and Duffy are not your average pin up poster ‘nice girl’ indeed ‘candy floss coated girl’ is not the flavour of musical songstress the public were demanding or consuming in 2008. Katy Perry with lesbian innuendo’s to the fore quite literally ‘saved the day’ for the single format in music in 2008 with 181,792 units sold of ‘I kissed a girl’. In the US market country star Taylor Swift is the first solo female artist to score five top-10 hits from a debut CD ‘Fearless’ which knocked Britney Spears' comeback CD Circus, from the No.1 spot on Billboard's U.S. album charts into No. 2 and Beyonce Knowles into No. 3. 3 female artists topping the US charts all at once say’s something don’t you think? Great debates have taken place in electronic music production since it began but one always repeats and is controversial, are women really perceived differently then men in the electronic music sector? In 2009 is the ‘gender struggle’ a myth being created or sustained by either gender, which is holding back women’s development as artists and producers, or a recognised fact? If the mainstream is cracking with women making their mark what’s happening in electronica land? Are women progressing? In terms of sales in 2008 in the dance area Mark Ronson was the winner with 17,093 units shifted; a worthy winner but not a female. In a sector that can be anorak and more boys led then the mainstream the perceptions and ability to ‘break it as a woman have always been elevated another step up yet In the first decade of this new century all indications are suggesting that women are beginning to find a balance with the male producers out there. Yes, there is still a greater ratio of men in the sector but women like Ellen Allien, Cassy & Magda are being recognised for their production and DJ skills more so then stripping their clothes off like the recent story ran by Mixmag about a certain bunch of Russian female DJ’s. The consequent articles off the back of the Mixmag article by the likes of Bodytonic appear to be mis-judging that women in electronica use their femininity to sell themselves. Women use their femininity because that’s what makes them women the ability to use and project their sexuality is an inbred gene just as its an inbred gene for boys to be attracted to girls and girls to be attracted to boys. It’s inherently human. When all of the boys understand that and not just a small handful maybe that’s when complete balance will be obtained.
The reality is how far a woman wishes to display her femininity to the point where she is flagrantly flaunting it unnecessarily in and it becomes a threat to the opposite sex or they cannot comprehend it, which I can only think this statement in the Bodytonic article suggests “Ellen Allien, owner of Bpitch records and a previous resident at Tresor still had to go down the feminine marketing route to be accepted. ‘Berlinette’ the obviously feminine album title aside, has more pink and yellow lying around than a Miss Selfridge’s summer clearance sale. Ellen Allien has been as responsible as Richie Hawtin, Ricardo Villalobos and Sven Vath for the global exportation of techno but she’ll never reach the level of acceptance of the latter three. Women who make dance music are a long way from breaking free from their gender. Chicks On Speed, Sick Girls, Miss Kittin. How many male DJs need to identify their gender in their title? Mr. Scruff?” Boys associate with their gender too; just using their own names is identity branding enough. John Digweed is not Jane Digweed, James Zabiela is not Sandra Zabiela, Sasha is neutral and could be a boy or a girl.
Little Boots a UK songstress and DJ tells me “I don't think there's anything wrong in looking sexy and if you want to be taken seriously as a musician by anyone, not just men, you just have to work really hard and show that you actually have the knowledge and skills to write and perform songs well” Siobhan O’Dowd who works in concert promotion and production management in Pod Concerts a music venue in central Dublin say’s “If trying to get someone to like you is flirting, we're all guilty of it - if you get on well with people it makes a hard job easier and there's nothing wrong with that. If you're the only one in the venue who knows what time the soundcheck is at, or if the obscure mixer was on the tech rider then the artist will have to listen to you and if the girl who's doing artist liaison is backstage drinking and giving her mobile number to the artist then I blame her for helping to create the illusion that we're all the same!” Yes, its true the demographic is against us given that out of the top 100 DJ’s in RA only 4 were women (Anja Schneider 51, Ellen Allien 32, Cassy 25 & Magda 9) and 95% of the population of those interested in the electronic genre are male but women in the industry have always had this up-hill battle against a slew of expectations that are barraged against them by dominant ego’s in the industry. Come across softly and show your femininity in this way and you could get swallowed up by preying types who interpret your interest in music as a come on to their ego. Come across strongly and you run the risk of getting axed by those threatened egos. That said these are only characters that exists in the industry, a few bad apples in the barrel can be anywhere, any industry. With little ‘fact’ to support their summary in the articles it made me question what the women who actually are in the industry think about the perceptions being made around them and let’s be honest why a is guy writing about the ‘female perspective’ in dance music anyway? As Cassy a cutting edge Berlin based house & techno DJ and the 2nd highest woman to rank in the Resident Advisor top 100 DJ poll tells me “There is an acknowledgement of gender differences” but she chooses to channel energy into creative generation and output rather then competing against that ‘gender struggle’ evident in electronica. The real message is like every other kid in this sector be it male or female your going to have to compete and ‘they’ men or women alike will either support you or compete against you. Yes, there are a number of women producers like GoldieLocks who honestly states her opinion on her MySpace that “most females in the music industry are used, abused, and treated like rubbish (or groupies)” but then on the other side of the coin Cassy states further; “I used to be more involved in feminist theories; it seemed to never really work out for me. The music world like other professional arenas is male dominated. In our world history leaves it's marks. I don't feel in any particular way mal-treated by anyone or anything. I do what I do, because I love it and I am developing as an individual human being who happens to be a woman. There are as many good male artists as there are bad male artists. I don't feel in any way shape or form threatened by any unwritten disadvantaging gender law. Any man who should feel superior to me seems to be an unconscious challenge. Anyone who feels superior to anyone is an ass. No matter what race or sex. Recurring misunderstandings can be a particular and ongoing annoyance, but why should it stop me wasting my energy on gender discussions instead of using my time creatively”
Magda
I ask Magda“Have you ever had a guy mistreat you or expect you to do things you wouldn’t normally do just because you are a women not that I can think of. Most girls I know who are serious about music are doing what they love and I don’t hear them complaining about being mistreated or not taken seriously by men. I think its great when a woman can do her thing and be sexy but it bothers me when women pose as DJ’s just because they think its cool without knowing a thing about it. So if the artists take the angle of remaining dignified and impartial to the ‘differences’ what do the women who are working behind the scenes in production make of it all? Siobhan O’Dowd say’s “Girls can be pushed quite as far as blokes can they just deal with it in a different way. A bloke will get angry or monosyllabic, while a girl can sometimes cry. Like it or not, tears are seen as weakness so if I cry, I do it in the jacks! So should women sugar-coat and subdue their femininity and try to neutralise their gender so that they can be more like the ‘lads’ or should they project their femininity whether the lads like it or not? If girls are the first to hit the dance-floor surely a female DJ understands what the audience wants as equally as the male DJ. Realistically, a woman should never have to behave like she is not a woman and how a woman interprets her femininity is down to her. She should be comfortable in her own self and her own skin and If she chooses to stand behind the decks topless or in head to toe bin-liner that ultimately is her interpretation of comfort and being happy behind a set of decks or a console. It shouldn’t be about women aggressively projecting femininity or feminist attitudes to the point where we violate or make the other sex feel uncomfortable. When I ask Littleboots “have you had to ever act less intelligent then you are to get doors opened or to be taken seriously in the industry? She tells me; Of course not, acting stupid would certainly not help you get taken seriously, it would surely do the opposite” The main problem is that the overall demographic in dance music consumption is being outweighed by guys at the moment and until more young women are encouraged and supported to get involved and supported by other DJ’s be they male or female this is unlikely to shift a balance in how women are looked up to as role models etc in the sector. However, for the business woman or business man there is an economic argument to support this; if we look at the study by the National Statistics Office in the UK and actual market activity for 2006/2007 more women getting taken on as producers, DJ’s etc in their own right present a highly viable and lucrative market segment that electronic music artists, promoters and labels should be targeting by creating female role models for.
Women were more likely to shop in their free time than men, with three-quarters (75 per cent) doing so compared with just over half of men (53 per cent). Overall the most popular Internet purchases in the 12 months prior to interview were films, music or DVDs, yes a slightly higher proportion of men than women purchased (53 per cent and 49 per cent respectively) but its nearly equal. Conversely a higher proportion of women than men used the Internet to purchase tickets for events (36% compared with 31%) which also means women are going to events and with illegal file sharing hammering into record labels profits, the live revenue stream is a lucrative lifeblood for artists. In reality speaking to women in the sector they don’t see the mass prejudices that those outside the sector are conceiving. The stories that were ran around topless women DJ’s etc were ran by the media. So, is the media to blame for continuing with this story rather then actually looking at what’s really going on with women in the electronic sector? Magda tells me “Living in Berlin I know a lot of women who are DJ-ing and producing really great music but who will get more media attention? Them or half naked strippers pretending to play? However, after the half naked novelty act wears off the women with talent will have the spotlight” Is the onus on the media to get with the current state of play and give the women more exposure? Is their inability to pick up on what women are actually doing in music to break down the barriers creating more? Siobhan O’Dowd say’s “If the topless Russian's women’s music was their USP, they wouldn't have got the air time” I decide to ask if women open doors as much for other women in the industry or should they provide more support to other women? Littleboots tells me “I think women can open doors as much as men, I don't find anyone tried to stereotype me really I just do what I want on my own terms and if anyone tries to make me do otherwise, male or female, I just say no. Generally I find everyone who I work with respects me and my ideas/opinions a lot and will always listen to me. I would never act stupid or intelligent on purpose, I always try to make as intelligent a judgement as I possibly can and I don't see any reason to pretend otherwise’ I ask Magda her thoughts on could women do with a forum or other support? “No, I'm not really into that to be honest. I'm all for supporting other females but I don't think its necessary to exclude others because of gender. It just makes matters worse. If we want the focus to be on music and not gender then doing all-female things kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it? It just creates another barrier. The truth is yes to some degree sexism and indeed racism exists in the music industry but the reality is we are a lot further on then we were 15 years ago. The age of women standing up and being counted as serious producers in electronica is only beginning and I expect in the next few years we are going to see a few heavy hitters who are going to make that impact all the more obvious. The fans don’t have an issue a testament by the fact that Magda was voted no.9 in the RA list. It’s down to the industry to develop and support the development of role models that are female for other females to look up to and indeed to open doors for other skin colours then white and for the media to also play a positive role in what or who it puts on its covers or content.
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