FEATURE:
Women Up
PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels
Why Is There Not a Fifty-Fifty Gender Split Across All Radio Stations’ Playlists?
_________
IT is a big question…
PHOTO CREDIT: Anthony : )/Pexels
and I know that some radio stations do commit to a gender-equal playlist. When it comes to women and non-binary artists across most U.K. radio stations, the numbers are not equal. I have covered this before but, as that was a while ago, I was hoping things would have vastly improved. Although the figures are not quite as severe as they were a few years ago, there is still this massive problem. I look down playlists and schedules and wonder why so many songs are by male/male-led acts. If festivals hide behind excuses when it comes to a lack of female headline acts, maybe we need to look to radio and ask if they are doing enough. Historically, there are more than enough female artists you can play. Whether you are a smaller station or a BBC station, you are pretty much spoiled for choice. The same goes for new artists and finding terrific women to highlight. I know various stations have their own demographic (age-wise) and they curate a particular sound. Even so, they have more than enough options when it comes to female artists and female-led bands/acts! This includes non-binary artists. But when you look at the number of women who appear on radio playlist compared to men, you wonder why it is not an eve split at the very least. Music for the past few years has been heavily dominated by women – and you can go back a few years more when it comes to amazing rising acts and brilliant albums!
PHOTO CREDIT: Aline Viana Prado/Unsplash
Before moving on, this article collected findings from a 2022 U.K. gender/racial disparity data report on U.K. radio. Although there are one or two stations that are close when it comes to equality across the playlists, most weer still struggling. If things have gotten slightly better since the report was published, things are far from improved and equal:
“How have BBC, Bauer and Global changed in the last 12 months across Radio? White Male artists still dominate on-air across the Top 20 Airplay Charts. BBC6 lead the charge in Equality on the airwaves.
+ In the Top 50 UK songs of 2022 across Uk radio:
94% of songs featured in the Top 50 were by Artists/Bands signed to a MAJOR LABEL.
2% of songs featured in the Top 50 were by Artists/Bands signed to AN INDEPENDENT LABEL.
4% of songs featured in the Top 50 were by Artists/Bands signed to AN INDEPENDENT LABEL WITH MAJOR LABEL DISTRIBUTION.
8% of songs featured in the Top 50 were by POC Solo Artists/Bands.
8% of songs featured in the Top 50 were by ETHNICITY COLLAB Artists/Bands.
10% of songs featured in the Top 50 were by ED SHEERAN (WITH 5 SONGS OF ED'S FEATURING)
A 1985 song 'Running Up That Hill' by British artist Kate Bush featured in the Netflix show 'Stranger Things', which lead to her song becoming a surprise hit this year. It also landed Kate in the Top 50 most played tracks on British radio so far this year (at #40) .
Harry Styles is the Number 1 artist on UK radio so far in 2022. (of both UK & International artists in the Top 100 he is #1 with his hit song 'as it was')
PHOTO CREDIT: senivpetro via Freepik
In the Top 100 UK + International songs of 2022 across UK radio:
50% of songs in the Top 100 are from domestic UK artists/bands. Therefore British radio supports 50% of domestic artists in its Top 100 songs so far in 2022. In comparison to Irish radio which was only 18% Irish artists.
34% of songs in the Top 100 are from international bands from Europe, AU and USA among others.
16% of songs in the Top 100 are from domestic UK/International collaborations between the artists.
International music artists are equally present in the Top 100 singles, regardless of gender.
UK solo male music artists are present in the Top 100 x3 more than solo female music artists.
Including solo and gender collaborations - UK male music artists are present in 80% of all top 100 singles, female music artists are present in 60% of all top 100 singles.
When UK artists collaborate with International artists in the Top 100, male music artists are present 94% of the time, and female music artists are present 56% of the time.
UK, white-only music artists/groups are represented x10 more than POC-only artists/groups
Overall, among UK & International entries, solo male artists present twice as much as solo female artists in the Top 100.
WWW.WHYNOTHER.EU
#WhyNotHer
IN THIS PHOTO: Winnie Ama
"It's a real shame that there's a muted desire to genuinely create change and represent a balanced view of music and essentially the storytelling and culture of our people by our musical creatives. Before these gender disparity radio reports, we never would have imagined that radio would proactively amplify, promote and essentially employ one section of society to the detriment of another. It is our hope that these data reports can continue to set the precedent for a lot of change to come. Change can happen at a quick rate when an unconscious bias is stripped back. We hope this report helps to make structural change". - Linda Coogan Byrne, Lead Data Analyst / Activist & Founder at Why Not Her?
"It's Groundhog Day for the music industry, or certainly for UK radio. Whilst there are a few stations out there doing the right thing for gender equality (hullo Radio 6, Classic FM) most are definitely not and some have gotten significantly worse over the past year (Radio 1's figures are just grim) so it's clear that it's a deliberate policy to exclude women from the airwaves. Quite frankly, I'm pretty exasperated about it." - Vick Bain, The F-List / DEI Speaker at Why Not Her?
"As a curator, it's one thing to fall into an unconscious habit. However, once you're aware of it and yet you continue as you have done, I think it means that you either don't care about the impact that your role has in shaping national culture or you think that white men should be the authors of British culture with only space for footnotes by women, POC or the LGBTQIA community. It feels very 20th century and we're in the 21st." - Winnie Ama, Data Analyst & Activist Why Not Her?”.
PHOTO CREDIT: master130546k via Freepik
Not to question the report, but how often is BBC Radio 6 Music ensuring that the proportion of male and female artists is equal across their playlists? Looking at a random day, and you can see that the morning shows definitely do not have a fifty-fifty gender split. There may be broadcasters on the station where there is equality, but it is definitely not the case even BBC Radio 6 Music ensures most of the programmes have that fifty-fifty balance. If they are closest when it comes to gender equality across their playlists, there are shows and days when there are many more male artists played. People could say that this is the way it has always been and that the stations are playing the most popular and commercial artists. In terms of quality and appeal, there is nothing excluding female artists. Big stations do not have tight remits and rules regarding who they play. It does seem strange that most stations across the U.K. struggle to balance the playlists. Gender inequality is present through radio and live music. Think about this article from Glamour that spoke to leading female D.J.s who are striving for parity. They opened the article but writing this: “According to research done by DJaneMag only 7% of female DJs were in the line-ups of 20 top festivals worldwide in 2018. This is a general trend that is not dependent on country or music style, and the data for 2019 was almost identical. As for clubs, the percentage for female DJs follows a similar pattern, with 11%, where the top superclubs are hosted by an average of 6% female DJs. However, there is no statistics to show that women are less talented or capable of doing the job, so what is going wrong?”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Tiffany Calver/PHOTO CREDIT: Rosaline Shahnavaz
In 2020, Music Week detailed a report that found there was huge disparity across radio playlists. Again, whilst BBC Radio 6 Music were close to a fifty-fifty split – and they at least made strides and commitments –, then that desire to change and react was not shared by a lot of stations. It made for gloomy and angering reading:
“A new report by Ctrl Management founder Nadia Khan has found that women are vastly underrepresented in UK radio, with 81% of songs in the Top 100 airplay chart for the last year featuring men.
Khan worked on the Gender Disparity Data Report alongside music industry consultant and publicist Linda Coogan Byrne, with the pair analysing data from 31 UK radio stations and the Top 20 most played songs between June 2019-June 2020.
Their figures show that female songwriters comprise 18% of the Top 100 airplay chart, while female producers make up 3%. The report is based on British artists those whose songs are registered on Radiomonitor.
Khan published the Seat At The Table report last month and is leading the charge for equal representation in the music industry. Speaking to Music Week for our recent Indie Takeover issue, Khan called for diversity across the business.
IMAGE CREDIT: BBC
“As highlighted in the Women in CTRL report the disparity still runs high for women and especially black women,” she said. “To work towards a truly diverse and inclusive music industry change needs to happen within the organisations and Women in CTRL will be conducting a follow up report in 2021 to track progress.”
Figures for the most played songs on BBC Radio 1 for the period defined by the Gender Disparity Data Report showed 85% were by male artists, with 10% femaled and 5% collaborations. At 1Xtra, males accounted for 76.2%, females 14.3% and collaborations 10%. Radio 2 had 40% collaborations, 55% men and 5% women. At 6 Music, 60% of the most played songs were by male artists, 10% by female acts and 30% collabroations.
BBC Radio 6 Music has reiterated its commitment to gender equality in the wake of the report.
“6 Music remains committed to shining a light on female artists,” a statement said. “The current 6 Music playlist has 14 out of 33 songs featuring female performers. From the May 27, 2019 to the May 31, 2020, the average percentage of female artists on the 6 Music playlist was 44.3%. There have been a number of weeks in 2020 in which 55% of music on the playlist has been by female artists. The 6 Music Festival in March 2020 also featured 45% female performers and 16% male/female bands”.
PHOTO CREDIT: fabrikasimf via Freepik
In September 2022, Mixmag also laid out the startling facts regarding gender inequality across major stations. I think there have been small steps and pledged for 2023, but the situation is far from one where we can say things are better. As I said, even if a great and conscientious station like BBC Radio 6 Music commits to gender equality, it is not a day-to-day consistency. You can still look at a run of programmes and there can be as much as a 2-1 dominance of male artists:
“A new report from inclusion campaigners Why Not Her? has found a huge disparity in racial and gender balances across the 26 top British radio stations.
The study, which looks at the way in which equality is spread amongst radio plays over time, found that top stations including BBC Radio 1, Bauer, and Global, are all dominated by white male artists.
Over the course of the past 12 months, Why Not Her? reported that just 8% of songs featured in the Top 50 were by POC artists. In the Top 100, white artists are represented 10 times more POC artists.
Elsewhere, the study found that UK-based male solo artists are present in the Top 100 three times more than female solo artists in the UK & international charts.
“It's a real shame that there's a muted desire to genuinely create change and represent a balanced view of music and essentially the storytelling and culture of our people by our musical creatives,” says lead data analyst and founder of Why Not Her?, Linda Coogan Byrne”.
I know there are steps being taken and some improvements – even if I have singled out BBC Radio 6 Music, they do seem to be closest to creating and maintaining a gender-balanced playlist that also recognises different cultures, races, and sexuality -, but yearly reports still make it clear that there is a way to go. I do not understand why there is such stubbornness! Stations are not committed to only playing major label artists with a certain amount of stream and high chart positions. Take a proper look at all the incredible music coming through in all genres, and you will find a huge amount is made by women. Let’s hope that radio stations across the U.K…
REACT to the imbalance we see year in year out.