Unsurprisingly, new study shows females are underrepresented in music business
Earlier this week, Wireless Festival in London came under fire for their initial festival lineup—including only three women on the festival's three-day lineup.
Sadly, it's not even a surprise to see the words “women are missing in the music industry” in a new study published by USC Annenberg.
Read more: Another festival under fire for lack of women on lineup
The study examined the gender balance among performers, songwriters and producers of top-charting songs on the Billboard Hot 100 charts from 2012 to 2017, which included a full 1,239 solo performers, duos and bands.
And the imbalance is massive.
According to their study, 22.4 percent of artists on the charts were women, only 12.3 percent of songwriters were women and a baffling two percent of producers were women.
In fact, in 2017's Billboard top 600 songs, 83.2 percent of artists were men and only 16.8 percent were women. And of the 899 individuals nominated for Grammy Awards between 2013 and 2018, 90.7 percent were male and only 9.3 percent were female.
By genre, the top two for both male and female performers were pop and hip‐hop/rap. The third ranked genre for men was alternative, and for women it was dance/electronic.
“Our vision is a first‐ever effort to combine research, industry engagement and advocacy to study inclusion in music,” study directors Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Leah Fischman write.
“We believe that everyone should be seen and heard and proportional representation is just the first step in that process. The goal here is to create measureable change in hiring practices for women and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups across all facets of the music industry—on both the artistic and business sides.”
Read more: Op-Ed: We’re not listening to women in music—and that’s a huge problem
Sadly, from production to festival stages, the news of imbalance isn't really new at all. Last year, U.K.'s Reading & Leeds festival came under fire after announcing their first round of performers, containing 57 male performers and only one woman: Chrissy Costanza.
“I'm not gonna tiptoe around the issue, because I genuinely want the issue to be resolved, I want there to be change,” Costanza said when we spoke to her last year. “If that means having to say the things that are a little bit more uncomfortable, then I'm willing to say that.”
Earlier this year, Halsey called out Firefly festival for their lack of female representation, too. “Damn guys come onnnnnn. Where the women at. This was one of my favorite festivals I’ve ever played and it’s a shame there’s not more females on the bill. With the exception of (the amazing) Sza, the first like 20 acts on the bill are men. It’s 2018, do better!!!”
Damn guys come onnnnnn. Where the women at. This was one of my favorite festivals I’ve ever played and it’s a shame there’s not more females on the bill. With the exception of (the amazing) Sza, the first like 20 acts on the bill are men. It’s 2018, do better!!! https://t.co/8tmeac8mVu
— h (@halsey) January 11, 2018
And we agree: It's 2018, and the music world can do better.
