Women Will Dominate and Dismantle the Music Industry in 2019

[boscy]

2.14.19

WOMEN WILL DOMINATE—AND DISMANTLE—THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN 2019

WHEN ARIANA GRANDE issued thank u, next earlier this month, she was staying true to a long-held promise. In a move rarely seen from an artist of imposing status, the album marked the pop enchanter's second studio release in just six months. (Her previous album, Sweetener, dropped last August.) Still, if you've followed the whirlwind that is Grande's day to day, new songs made perfect sense. In an interview with Billboard, she expressed a desire "to put out music in the way that a rapper does."

www.wired.com/story/women-music-biz-2019/

[cassiuscasanova]

Hmmmm

[Naos]

Ariana Grande is women, I guess.

[kcdawg13]

Alright Ariana is huge I guess but how is that gonna help women overall? I think the only other female musician who's really killing it right now is Halsey.

[Glove Slap]

Not while the percentage of female producers, engineers, and songwriters is where it is.

People kept saying this when Adele broke out, but when she stepped up on the Grammy Stage with the people who helped her make those albums, you saw the reality.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

I’d say artists like Janelle Monae will do more for women in the industry than bigger stars like Ariana. I think everyone on stage during Janelle’s Grammy performance was a woman and there were a lot of people on that stage.

[Glove Slap]

Feb 15, 2019 10:21:36 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

I’d say artists like Janelle Monae will do more for women in the industry than bigger stars like Ariana. I think everyone on stage during Janelle’s Grammy performance was a woman and there were a lot of people on that stage.

How in the world do you make this connection though? Having women on stage with you is something Beyonce has been doing for over a decade (her '07 tour was heavily noted for having an all female band). Besides, Janelle being much less successful than Ariana means something in the business world where the dollar is valued above all. Like the concept of women having agency and control over their careers wouldn't have gotten the boost it had in the 80s and 90s if Madonna and Janet Jackson had come out and flopped. People need to beat over the head with the fact that it will bring in profit.

Successful people have to invest in women to teach them skills that can be used outside of their specific circle (i.e. they can work as engineers and producers for other people too), and they have to push for them to be hired too, and nobody with the proper muscle has done that yet, at least on the level it needs to be.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Feb 15, 2019 10:30:06 GMT -5 Glove Slap said:

Feb 15, 2019 10:21:36 GMT -5 Devil Marlena Nylund said:

I’d say artists like Janelle Monae will do more for women in the industry than bigger stars like Ariana. I think everyone on stage during Janelle’s Grammy performance was a woman and there were a lot of people on that stage.

How in the world do you make this connection though? Having women on stage with you is something Beyonce has been doing for over a decade (her '07 tour was heavily noted for having an all female band). Besides, Janelle being much less successful than Ariana means something in the business world where the dollar is valued above all. Like the concept of women having agency and control over their careers wouldn't have gotten the boost it had in the 80s and 90s if Madonna and Janet Jackson had come out and flopped. People need to beat over the head with the fact that it will bring in profit.

Successful people have to invest in women to teach them skills that can be used outside of their specific circle (i.e. they can work as engineers and producers for other people too), and they have to push for them to be hired too, and nobody with the proper muscle has done that yet, at least on the level it needs to be.

I agree with you but with my point, it's less about the fact that Ariana is a bigger name than someone like Janelle and more about the point of Janelle purposefully selecting women to work with on her music. A lot of the discussion tends to be in the context of pop stars and seems to miss the fact that musicians exist on levels beyond the charts. 98% (I don't know what the real number is really) of music made and musicians never make a single Billboard chart (or the chart in their region/country) and they still make a living at it. The overall discussion is about getting women involved in the industry at all levels. Not just on what we see on the top of the charts but the names we see in the credits, the people mentioned in the technical categories of awards, bands and singers performing at industry events, bars, in subways even.
Mainly I think when talking about music as an industry, we need to stop looking at artists like Janelle Monae as being "less successful" than artists like Ariana Grande. There reaches a point I think when an artist goes beyond expectations for a musician where everything that comes after is for the stans. The names we see on the charts aren't representative of the industry. They're the exceptions. It certainly helps when bigger names invest in women but the women have to come from somewhere and has to involve all levels.

[bat1990]

I'm sure it'll make some music industry headlines when there's the first album that's done by all women by a mainstream artist.

The singer(s), musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, mixing, mastering, art, A&R, etc. all done by women.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Can you even name a mainstream female producer who isn't an artist self-producing? Probably not.

Billboard had an article last year about how there are basically none. www.billboard.com/articles/business/8095107/female-music-producers-industry-grammy-awards

Nowhere has that notion been reinforced more than in the Grammy category for producer of the year, non-classical. Since the trophy was first handed out in 1975, no woman has taken home the golden gramophone. Just a ­handful of women -- including Janet Jackson, Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, Lauryn Hill, Mariah Carey, and Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin from Prince's band The Revolution -- have been nominated for ­producing their own music. Only one ­nominated female producer was not also the recording artist: The Matrix's Lauren Christy in 2004. (The ­situation is less bleak for producer of the year, classical: Three women have won in that category, including quadruple-winner Judith Sherman. Imogen Heap and Trina Shoemaker have earned Grammys for best engineered album, non-classical.)