Bachelorarbeit, 2018
50 Seiten, Note: 2,7
I. Introduction
II.
1. The Power of Habit
2. Canon Wars
3. The Importance of Role Models
III.
1. Forms of Sexism
2. Microaggressions
3. The Female Body
IV. Conclusion
Bibliography
Annex
In 1978 American singer Chaka Khan released her debut solo studio album “Chaka” with the single “I'm every woman” at Warner Bros. Records. Little did she - or we as a matter of fact - know then that the prominent title of her successful song would describe the present situation of women in music today in a shockingly accurate way. “I'm every woman”: one representing all should be sufficient enough. One might think that during the course of forty years the ratio must have certainly changed, yet this is unfortunately not the case. During the whole seventies, the members at Warner Bros Records, ranging from vice president to A&R managers and staff producers, were exclusively male just as is the case today with three men sharing the highest positions at WBR.1 Khan's producer, as well as the producer for her later remix album were also men, as well as one of the two songwriters who composed “I'm every woman”. If management, production and song-writing is mostly executed by men, where do women fit in then? Before going solo, Mrs. Khan was a member of the band Rufus, who in their original composition consisted of five men and two women, which both and solely held the position as singers. Later, the band had seven men and one singer left, namely Mrs. Khan.2 It seemed like women in a band were there as singers and singers only. Unfortunately, in 2018 this again has not really altered. Stirred by numerous movements like the #meToo campaign in the film industry and the resulting Time's Up against not only sexual harassment but also misrepresentation, times are literally a-changin' for women in music. The pillars of the predominantly male music world are beginning to tremble and it is mandatory to not only acknowledge the change but to dare to rethink the industry machinery.
[...] [Admit] that the waters around you have grown and accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth savin' then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin'. [...] The line is drawn the curse it is cast, the slow one now will later be fast. As the present now will later be past the order is rapidly fadin'. And the first one now will later be last, for the times they are a-changin'. (Bob Dylan, The Times Are A-Changin. 1964, © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. Audiam. Inc)
Hopefully, it will become more and more difficult for the music industry if they are not willing to make the necessary changes because one thing is for certain: women will and are in fact taking matters in their own hands. In times of digital music distribution, it has never been easier for a female artist to record, release and promote her music independently from a label whilst holding on to all the rights and gaining the entire profit. The current embodiment of this development is most definitely the young German-Irish singer-songwriter Alice Merton, whose debut single “No Roots” reached platinum and was released within her own founded record label Paper Plane Records International. It remains guesswork when Mrs. Merton would have been discovered by a major label, how she would have been promoted and if this would have taken place according to her artistic vision, but one thing can be agreed on: instead of staying passive and waiting to be noticed to worked with, she took the reins and decides exactly how she wishes her career to proceed. Certainly, not every female musician will have such a lightening breakthrough in her career, but more and more are trying, and this in a very fierce manner. During the course of the monthly theme of the cultural event “Oh yeah! Popmusik in Deutschland” taking place in April at the Museum of Communication in Berlin, I attended a panel discussion on women in pop music.3 Representing the management position, Mr. Norbert Rudnitzky, a former label manager at Warner Music and founder of Downbeat Records, emphasized the notion of wanting and struggling to find adequate female musicians, wondering just where all of them were.
This thesis has the purpose to attend to questions of the likes. Where are all the female musicians? Are there really so little of them or are they simply underrepresented? How are female musicians represented and portrayed if they are successful or trying to gain success? All of these questions above are heavily drenched with more or less visible sexism. The first part of the thesis focuses on explaining how the current status quo has developed and what is keeping it firmly in its place. The second part deals with the various existing forms of sexism, examining carefully the forms that are more difficult to recognize such as microaggressions and microinsults. The final part looks closely at the female body and how it is used, portrayed and exploited, arguing that the female body is a social construction, shaped and used for clear purposes. Possible ways out are examined as well as the difficulty in seeking a transformation of representation since oftentimes solutions stem from the same source that created the problems in the first place. The purpose of this thesis is neither to shame men nor condemn the industry altogether, although I will be critical and harsh of things that must be eyed critically. I attempt to shine a light on a new path that not only female artists have to take, but one that can and should be created hand in hand with record labels, managers and all people involved in the music business. Female artists and the music industry will have to work together so that existing inequalities and social injustices can be eliminated. By doing so, the possibility arises to seize all the potential in the beauty of diversity and talent throughout female singer-songwriters and musicians. In order to be able to stay within the spatial limits of this thesis I have decided to write in the spheres of pop music, concentrating a little more on the subject of the female body towards the end since it seemed to be a big platform for sexism as well as a means of not only identifying female musicians but also categorizing and undervaluing them. With this paper, I want to show how limiting this is, not only for female artists but for the music industry as well. When the focus is shifted towards art itself and away from limiting exclusion criteria, a richer abundance of creativity and people who consciously want to enjoy and consume it, will rise.
Man is a creature of habit. The power of habit is deeply anchored into our everyday life and decision making. Provost professor of psychology and business Wendy Wood at the University of Southern California focuses on how people form and change their habits, the influence of social groups and the origins of gender differences in social behavior. In one of her researches, she found that up to 40-45% of the decisions made each day aren't decisions but in fact habits. That means that “half the tasks we perform daily are things we do without thinking.”4 When something is done through a habit, the human brain is actually working less and running on an automatized mode which very easily becomes a pattern that is repeated over and over again. Breaking this pattern seems quite difficult then. Wood, as well as Charles Duhigg, the New York Times best-selling author of “The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in Life and Business” argue that there are three things to consider when you want to actually change an established pattern. First, you have to stop in your tracks before allowing an automatic behavior to flow and create a possible opportunity to act on your new intentions. Second, keep in mind that it will need a numerous amount of repetition for it to become a new habit and third, the context cues must be stable so that the new habit can establish itself.5 A cue is part of the so- called habit loop. The habit loop is a neurological pattern that drives any custom, consisting of three elements: a cue, a routine, and a reward. The loop always starts with a cue, which is a trigger that transfers the brain into a mode that automatically chooses which manner to use. At its center, there is a mental, emotional or physical routine. The third element is a reward, which makes or breaks whether this particular loop is worth remembering and repeating for the future.6 The intention of changing something is not enough, one must premeditate on the cues and rewards, that is, decide ahead of time what you are going to do when you see that trigger and what your reward will be. As we can see, change is oftentimes stopped right in its tracks because people wrongly focus on their intent instead of the necessary course of action to bring about change. We learned that action repeated over and over again becomes routine. Creative choices, in fact, as well. The numbers of successful female musicians, let alone producers or sound technicians are so alarming, that one cannot but assume that the process of choosing which artists are promoted, get a contract etc. and which applicants get the job and thus shape the work environment of the music industry might be running on a male dominant type of autopilot. Producers, managers, and consumers of music likewise are so used to not only hearing, but also seeing male musicians, producers, label head managers, instrumentalists or sound technicians all around. Putting aside a few female musicians that might immediately come to mind as a defiant objection to the previous statement, such as Beyoncé, Taylor Swift or Adèle, a vast imbalance exists, and it has actually reached a low point in 2017. Early in January 2018, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a well-known institution of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, released a report on “Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters, and Producers across 600 Popular Songs 2012-2017.”7 The result of their inaugural study in the music spheres caused ripples throughout the entertainment landscape and has instantly taken the #meToo debates from the film industry to music industry. Their goal is to create a national conversation around the topic of inclusion in music, embedded in the strong belief that everyone has the right to be seen and heard in a fair and proportional representative manner. (see AII, p.2) Further, the Initiative wishes “to create measurable change in hiring practices for women and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups across all facets of the music industry - on both the artistic and business side.” (AII, p.2) The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that in the five years of their analysis, the percentage of female artists never exceeded the mark of 30 percent, in fact, last year it only made 16.8%. The ratio of male to female artists is 3.5 to 1 in a total number of 1239 artists. With 32.5% the results showed further that female musicians are, if at all, more likely to succeed as solo artists as for instance as a duo act with 5.1% or in bands with 8.7%. When shifting the gaze from performing to writing songs, the number is even bigger. Only 12.3% of the songwriters were female. That means that almost 90% of the songs were written by men and more than 80% are performed by them. That does put the few strong names that came to mind as a try of objection look more than feeble. One positive aspect to be found, though, is the fact that across the 600 songs during the five years of analyzing, 42% of the artists were actually from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. The Initiative also looked into the field of producing, they limited the scope of songs examined on 300 though. They found that the ratio of male to female producers is 49 to 1. Thus, it is truly no exaggeration when the statement is being made that women are strongly missing in the music industry with 22.4% artists, 12.3% songwriters, and 2% producers. When looking at underrepresented females in production, the relatively good score they obtained in performing drastically drops to only 2 out of 651 producers. In terms of credit for songwriting, the numbers speak loudly as well. The top male writer has 36 credits whereas the top female writer has 15. It is no wonder, then, that the gender gap at the famous Grammy's® is striking. Only 9.3% of the nominees from 2013 to 2017 were females, the rest were male. During this period of time, not one single woman was nominated for producer of the year. Clearly, “the employment opportunities for female songwriters and producers are grim [...] [and] female producers face an epidemic of invisibility when it comes to working in the top leadership positions inside the recording industry.” (AII, p. 20-21) For that reason, 2017 represented a six-year low for female artists, which is as such a little unexpected since women seem to take hold of some of the cultural conversation as is easy to be seen throughout #meToo. Furthermore, it's quite interesting that “females from underrepresented/ethical groups represented 38,5% of all female artists, and appeared with greater frequency than their White female counterparts.” (AII, p.25) Another finding was that the genre of a song plays a role in a woman's career. The concentration lies heavily on pop music, whether it is in the fields of performing or creating songs and thus this is exactly where most of the opportunity lies, on the one hand, on the other, it also shows a missing flexibility that the males do not encounter. The Initiative states that the lack of women in roles responsible for creative direction across visual and audio entertainment is troubling [and it] appears to reflect deeply- held biases related to women and leadership. [. ] Addressing these beliefs is paramount to opening doors for women in all creative roles, and offering females a chance to shape the cultural narratives and landscape in which entertainment is made. (AII, p.25)
Evidently, this report has its limitations, as the AII readily acknowledges themselves but it is, however, a striking study that should be kept in mind and one that serves as a first important step into further exploring and understanding “the nature, causes and solutions to inequality in music.” (AII, p.27) One of their future goals is to continue and expand the cataloguing of gender differences throughout the industry. This implicates not only those individuals involved in the creation of songs, but the executive ranks where talent is identified and nurtured. The artistic aspects of making music do not happen in isolation from business decisions - thus it will be important to understand the profile of the decision-makers whose opinions and beliefs dictate who is signed, promoted, and ultimately succeeds in this industry. (AII, p.26-27)
Identifying the numbers is clearly just only the first step towards change. It does, however, quite effectively, show how urgent the strive towards equal representation for women throughout the music landscape is and proves that it is equally important to not only call out inequality but also actively act on it and break the patterns of habit. Prof. Dr. Hartmut Fladt, composer and scholar for the Institute of Music at the Universität der Kuenste Berlin, has not only contributed various compositions but also released numerous researches on music theory and the effect that popular music has on society and what values are transmitted.8 Every week he analyzes pop songs for Radioeins Berlin. During his lecture for the Berlin.Pop.Women event this May, Mr. Fladt put emphasis on the power of habit in music production and consumption. According to his experience, the recipe for success for a song to be a hit is to “use the old and sell it as new”.9 We can easily see how this is problematic since the old consists of predominantly male musicians, songwriters, producers, and managers. The pop music industry definitely seems to be in the habit of excluding females, or, to put it differently: to allow just as many female musicians in as absolutely necessary. This rather accusing statement has to be understood as a reaction to the quite overtly rude suggestion given in an interview for Country AirCheck by radio programming consultant Keith Hill, where he advises his colleagues to take females out if they want to improve their ratings.10 He literally warns against playing too many females, especially not back to back, which seems to be a no-go.
If you want to make ratings in Country radio, take females out[.] [...]
The expectation is we're principally a male format with a smaller female component. I've got about 40 music databases in front of me and the percentage of females in the one with the most is 19%. Trust me, I play great female records and we've got some right now; they're just not the lettuce in our salad. [. ] The tomatoes of our salad are the females. (Hill, Country AirCheck journal, p.8)
The percentage stated does roughly match the ones that have previously been shown, and although this was a short digression away from pop music, there is reason enough to believe that this expectation, as Hill called it, roams throughout various music genres. Underrepresentation on the radio is as well fact. Elissa Hiersemann, acclaimed music editor and critic at Radioeins Berlin hosts several music specials and was one of the panel discussion members for Berlin.Pop.Women. She recounts numerous situations in which she has received perplexed or sometimes complaintive comments on playing too many women artists in a row or even only women during one of her programs. This, Hiersemann notes, never happens when male musicians are being played successively.11 Rufus Kain, former musician, and journalist for De Correspondent in the Netherlands has summarized a year of radio programming (from April 1st, 2016 to April 1st, 2017) in order to find out how many female artists were aired on the radio across six big Dutch radio stations. The numbers were clear: most artists that are heard on Dutch radio are men. Although the stations differed a little, only one had 30% of female artists, three out of the six stations examined barely reached 20%. The only comfort in those numbers was that the most-played artist overall was in fact, Adele.12 The Netherlands was not the only country interested in investigating how women in music are represented. In 2015, Australian Contemporary Music Victoria Inc. (Music Victoria), an independent, non-profit organization and the state peak body for contemporary music, released a discussion paper considering the issues that confront women in the contemporary music industry in Victoria. Their focus was to look into gender equality and career development for women in the music industry. Before that though, they went about analyzing the representation of women, since Victoria's contemporary music industry is dynamic, diverse and vibrant. The scene is created by talented women and men, however, women are underrepresented in many spheres from festival lineups, radio play and award nominations to conference panels, industry organisation boards and other decision making roles. Even in ‘the world's biggest musical democracy', Triple J's Hottest 100, women have an equal vote but not equal representation with women constituting 48% of voters but only 21% of acts.13 (Women in the Victorian Contemporary Music Industry, p.1)
Besides habits, there is another important aspect which shapes the pop music landscape more than we might think. In order to be able to explain it properly, I will draw on the comparison to literature for a short sequence. When we think of great literature, pieces of art that people simply have to have read or at least known about, the term of canon automatically comes to mind. Just as in music, the processes of canonization are likewise processes of selection, neatly tied to various rules and styles and deeply connected to the cultural praxis of a society. Explained in an economic way that means that the constant hyperproduction of cultural goods requires that only few can be kept in mind and lots will be forgotten again. What stays is an indication for canonizaton.” (Helms, Dietrich, Thomas Phleps: “No Time for Losers - Charts, Listen und andere Kanonisierungen in der populären Musik. 2008. p.11)
Now, the Oxford dictionary defines canon as “[t]he works of a particular author or artist that are recognized as genuine. ‘the Shakespeare canon' [Or as t]he list of works considered to be permanently established as being of the highest quality. ‘Hopkins was firmly established in the canon of English poetry'“14 Interestingly enough, if probably no great surprise, the examples being given for these definitions were of male authors. The literary canon does not per se exclude female authors, they are, however, highly underrepresented. This is very unfortunate because according to the understanding of “canon as cultural resonance” by Helms et al., “canonized cultural objects gain more attention over the course of time than non-canonized works.” (Helms, p.16) Further, works that have been created in the likes of already canonized objects are more likely to become part of the canon themselves. (Helms, p.18) We can see how easy it becomes to have the present be a reproduction of the past. VIDA, a non-profit feminist organization, strives to create transparency around the lack of gender parity in the literary landscape. They want to amplify historically-marginalized voices, including people of color; writers with disabilities; and queer, trans and gender non-conforming individuals.15 In their annual count they highlight “gender imbalances in publishing by tallying genre, book reviewers, books reviewed, and journalistic bylines to offer an accurate assessment of the publishing world.” (see footnote Nr.14) Their latest report analyzed 15 major print publications over the course of the year, looking into how many women and gender minorities were represented.
Of the 15 publications in our main VIDA Count, only 2 published 50% or more women writers: Granta (53.5%) and Poetry (50%). [. ] Unfortunately, the undeniable majority, 8 out of 15 publications, failed to publish enough women writers to make up even 40% of their publications run in 2017.16
The introduction made it quite clear that there is no way around challenging the perception of the norm, not only in the literary world but also outside for women who create literature. “In this current political climate, amid the #meToo era, we must ask if abuse and bigotry are anything but the norm in the world of American arts and letters.”17 18 19 Of course, sexual assaults occur in world of pop music as well and just as this year's Nobel Prize award has been canceled and postponed to next year due to a sexual misconduct scandal, consequences take over in the music fields as well when we think of this year's German Echo, which has been abolished following its harsh criticism with regards to honoring anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynist artists with their prize.[1819] I will get back to the consequences in and for the music industry more properly later but coming back to the topic of canon we see how influential said collections are and what significance they hold. When something belongs to the canon, it is almost as if cast in stone regarding its quality. It serves as something to look up to, artists identify with it and thus are encouraged to create something of their own. This is not a bad thing per se, but it marginalizes everyone not fitting the frame. This happens more easily if you are not white, male and privileged. “The voice is white, male, and middle class, and that sends a worrying message to our students. It says to them that successful writers - the kind that sell books and get taught in schools - are, you guessed it, white, male, and middle class. That's not who many of our students are.”20 The same goes for the musical canon that doubtlessly exists in pop music. The Office for National Statistics (UK) counted in 2016 that women outnumber men roughly by 892.7 thousand. In the US, female population outnumbered the male by 6.52 million.21 So we see that while not on a global scope, two of the most influential countries concerning pop music have not only more women, but also more female listeners of music to advocate for.
[...]
1 https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7988638/aaron-bay-schuck-tom-corson-warner-bros-records- cameron-strang (25.6.18).
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Every_Woman (25.6.18).
3 https://www.mfk-berlin.de/oh-yeah/ (03.7.18).
4 https://dornsife.usc.edU/assets/sites/545/docs/5 habit myths.WashingtonPost.2015.pdf (9.7.18).
5 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140808111931.htm (9.7.18).
6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Power of Habit (9.7.18).
7 http://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inclusion-in-the-recording-studio.pdf (4.7.18) the Annenberg Inclusion
Institute is referred to as AII in the text.
8 https://www.udk-berlin.de/personen/detailansicht/person/show/hartmut-fladt/ (18.7.18).
9 https://www.mfk-berlin.de/wp-content/uploads/Berlin-POP-WOMEN.Web .pdf (18.7.18).
10 https://www.countryaircheck.com/pdf publication/Issue 449%20-%20May%2026,%202015.pdf (19.7.18).
11 Recorded version of Mrs. Hiersemanns recollection.
12 https://thecorrespondent.com/7495/heres-just-how-few-women-got-played-on-the-radio-last- year/11Q593998482Q-9fb5eaca (19.7.18).
13 https://www.musicvictoria.com.au/assets/Women%2Qin%2Qthe%2QVictorian%2QContemporarv%2QMusic%2 0Industry.pdf (19.7.18).
14 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/canon (24.7.18).
15 http ://www.vidaweb.org/about-vida/ (24.7.18).
16 http://www.vidaweb.org/the-2017-vida-count/#Highlights (24.7.18).
17 http ://www.vidaweb.org/the-2017-vida-count/#Introduction (24.7.18).
18 http://www.svenskaakademien.se/en/press/press-release-from-the-swedish-academy-0 (25.7.18).
19 http://www.echopop.de/neuanfang/ (25.7.18).
20 https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2016/mar/16/books-about-white-middle-class-men-send-the- wrong-message-to-students (25.7.18).
21 See annex.
Der GRIN Verlag hat sich seit 1998 auf die Veröffentlichung akademischer eBooks und Bücher spezialisiert. Der GRIN Verlag steht damit als erstes Unternehmen für User Generated Quality Content. Die Verlagsseiten GRIN.com, Hausarbeiten.de und Diplomarbeiten24 bieten für Hochschullehrer, Absolventen und Studenten die ideale Plattform, wissenschaftliche Texte wie Hausarbeiten, Referate, Bachelorarbeiten, Masterarbeiten, Diplomarbeiten, Dissertationen und wissenschaftliche Aufsätze einem breiten Publikum zu präsentieren.
Kostenfreie Veröffentlichung: Hausarbeit, Bachelorarbeit, Diplomarbeit, Dissertation, Masterarbeit, Interpretation oder Referat jetzt veröffentlichen!
Kommentare