FEATURE:
Speaks Volumes
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A Further Plea for Gender Equality Across Radio Stations’ Playlists in 2024
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I have written about this before…
PHOTO CREDIT: Nicholas Githiri/Pexels
and I can start by saying that the situation has improved over the past few years. In fact, there are gradual steps being taken each year. I am referring to radio playlists and gender equality. If smaller stations have broadcasters who ensure that there is a balanced playlist. There is no rule and industry ultimatum that says this needs to happen. It is more to show that women in music are seen as equal and are represented. I wonder why fifty-fifty is the best that we can do! Rather than this being seen as progress, why is female dominance not being striven towards?! Male artists and music made by men has dominated and been played heavily since music was invented. There have been very few periods in history where the reverse has been true: where female artists have been in the majority on radio stations’ playlists, at festivals or any other metric/situation. Some might say this relates to quality and accessibility. That is not true. In the same way stations do not have rules saying their playlists need to be balanced, they also do not have limits with the minimum number of female artists played. I can appreciate that there is an unconscious bias that has existed forever on radio. It is very hard to overturn that right away. Also, some stations are genre-specific and that can mean parity is harder than stations with a broader playlist. Not that this is an excuse! Even if you are a Rock/Metal station, you can still do more to strive towards balance. There are stations who, in spite of some moves forward, are still nowhere near to striking a fair balance. BBC Radio 1 have made strides, yet I feel are still short. BBC Radio 2 falls behind them. Absolute Radio and Radio X (who features women coming through; their daytime playlist is hugely male-dominated) falls behind them – as does Greatest Hits Radio for that matter. Perhaps Heart and Kiss are not quite as glaringly bad as that. There is still have room for improvement.
IMAGE CREDIT: Greatest Hits Radio
These are ‘offenders’ I have mentioned previously. Many might say that, if listeners are not complaining and highlighting inequality, then what does it matter. It is not about them. It is about women in music and being represented! Some stations almost include female artists in a tokenistic way. Doing the bare minimum. It is not hard to find the talent! You only need to look at the past few years and the best albums/singles. Female majority! So many of the ‘artists to watch’ features are female-heavy. There is an avenue of wealth and choice that is not being picked up by radio stations. I have mentioned several times The F-List for Music and the directory of female artists they have. Radio stations are never challenged to explain why they struggle to achieve gender-parity. They rarely speak about deliberate ageism. I don’t think excuses they give would be valid or good. In fact, if we see reports from this year that suggest progress is slow but still far behind what it should be, there needs to be this statement from every station culpable stating why they have not done enough. I think BBC Radio 6 Music might be the only major station who does get close to a fifty-fifty split in terms of male and female (and non-binary) artists. Maybe BBC Radio 1 is getting closer to that but, to be honest, if there is one station out of all of the major ones concerned about gender equality then that speaks volumes!
PHOTO CREDIT: Radio X
It is not only radio that needs to do better. I know festival line-ups are still slow to balance and make any real steps. The two are related. A lot of festivals select their acts from radio. Radio looks to festivals for artists to spin. The talent is out there. I would argue against anyone who would say that this is not the case. More than enough choice across most genres. As we are seeing sites predict the artists that will come through in 2024, there alone is a real wave of names to pick from. Think of all the features naming the best albums of 2023. Another list of choices! Consider the legendary women of music. TikTok artists emerging and being discussed. If you add it all together then you really can easily achieve a fifty-fifty balance at the least! There is no doubt women are dominating music and at the forefront. Why is this being ignored by radio stations?! If they are not entirely ignorant of women, there seems to be very little effort to do anything about a clear problem. I don’t think there is any single broadcaster on any major radio station that consistently has gender-equal playlists. In fact, no broadcaster I have heard does it even most of the time. It is quite sad when you think about it. Angering that, in spite of there being amazing women right across music’s spectrum, this bias still exists. It is lazy and, to be frank, really boring. Blocks of male artists across radio playlists!
IMAGE CREDIT: BBC Radio 6 Music
There are a lot of things that need to happen in the music industry next year regarding gender equality and women’s rights. From festivals taking bigger leaps towards having balanced bills through to radio playlists, the delays are because of excuses or apathy – rather than there being limited options and pipeline issues. Radio playlists are especially galling and unbalanced. I wonder if we will ever see a day when women dominate playlists. It is seen as the norm and acceptable that men are in the majority. Why is that?! One cannot argue they lead the way and outnumber women in music. We have no evidence to say their music is better and more appealing to listeners. I don’t think it is the case listeners want this inequality. Look at this 2020 feature regarding U.S. radio. Figures that show listeners do want greater balance. Country radio has always had this particular problem but, even as recent as 2020, stations here have an issue playing women. Not resigned to one genre either. It is a widespread thing. Maybe things are less bleak three years on but, go check out the playlist of any major radio station – BBC Radio 6 Music have work to do still but are far better than most when it comes to equality – and you see the issue. Some programmes either have a fifty-fifty balance or more women played. If you added up all the programme playlists from the past week (any week) from BBC Radio 1, 2, Capital, Heart, Kiss, Greatest Hits Radio, Radio X, Absolute Radio, Virgin London and sorted the songs by gender and then gave an average, I bet you are not going to get close to fifty-fifty! Same goes with individual stations. It is infuriating when there are the names to add to playlists but no desire to do so! Insulting to female artists, and potentially another year with radio stations unconcerned about making any real progress and taking a stance, next year needs to be one defined by…
PHOTO CREDIT: Brett Sayles/Pexels
COMMITMENT and equality.