FEATURE:
International Women’s Day 2024
IN THIS PHOTO: RAYE won a record-breaking six BRIT awards on 2nd March, 2024/PHOTO CREDIT: James Veysey/Shutterstock
The King Is Dead: Female Dominance in Modern Music
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IT is International Women’s Day….
PHOTO CREDIT: Wendy Wei/Pexels
on Friday (8th March). It will fall only six days after Raye triumphed at the BRIT Awards. It was a moment of realisation and correction. An award ceremony that has, until this year, been culpable of not representing women and being short-sighted regarding equality, came through and ensured that music’s best were rewarded and seen. It is not only the BRITs that are recognising female dominance. Ever since music existed as a mainstream thing, it has always been unequal. Discrimination and misogyny raged. People assuming it was men who were most significant. Not to say that there has been a correction and instant overhaul. It feels like we are seeing the start of a revolution and overdue acknowledgement from the music industry. Award ceremonies are doing more to celebrate women. Festival bills this summer need to reflect that. I shall come to this. First, writing for The Guardian, Laura Snapes observed how Raye’s record-breaking BRITs sweep defied the limited imaginations of the British music industry:
“For now, Raye’s recognition by the industry-populated, 1,200-strong Brits voting academy feels like a desperate attempt by the British music business to claim her for its own and mark her success with its imprimatur: voting for the fairytale outcome while quietly ignoring the cage she was kept in. (Meanwhile you do kind of feel for the very worthy acts who missed their chance in the spotlight, some of whom, looked a bit miffed as the cameras cut away to them.) While no one should forget exactly how she aced her second act, it’s also worth noting that Raye isn’t a household name, and that if the increasingly irrelevant Brit awards is good for anything, it’s that her extraordinary, medley-style performance and overall prominence this evening will have exposed her to a whole new audience – televised platforms for the best of British music not exactly being in vast supply in 2024.
That audience feels limitless, too: Raye plays with a Winehouse-loving teen audience who never actually got to live through Winehouse’s too-brief pop heyday, as well as with older listeners impressed by the traditional talent and soul acumen she showcased in a special concert at the Royal Albert Hall last year. Where the Brits can simply clog the mantlepiece for superstars, it may well apply rocket fuel to Raye’s streaming figures in the coming week
After the controversy over the all-male best artist category last year – the Brits having done away with gendered categories in 2022 – Raye’s success also represents a course-corrective for the Brits, where 70% of this year’s winners, including those announced prior to the ceremony, were women. (At the Grammys, too, the Big Four and genre categories were dominated by women.) The most striking of the male victors was rapper Casisdead in best hip-hop/grime/rap – the genre categories all being voted for by fans – after 20 years in the game, while Bring Me the Horizon won the all-male alt/rock field. There were still WTF moments: in best dance act, Calvin Harris beat Fred Again, who – Miracle aside – was far more culturally penetrating in the last year; Jungle winning best group over Young Fathers is a triumph of sports montage music over genuinely provocative art that underscores the absurdities in paranoid Britain’s identity crisis while embodying a progressive multicultural alternative. But that’s the ever-contradictory Brits for you: a love-in for an industry that almost silenced its greatest prize”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Maria Orlova/Pexels
We still have a long way to go until the sheer quality and dominance of women is reflected across the industry. For a start, festival bills are not even completely gender balanced. That is before we go to the yearly conversation around festival headliners. Even if Glastonbury has declared there will be two female headliners, it is a long overdue step forward. Average out the past twenty years of the festival and women are severely lacking in the headline slots. Other major festivals will either have no female headliner or just one. It seems almost tokenistic to book a female headliner, in spite of the fact they are ruling and releasing the best albums year in year out. There does need to be a radical improvement from most festivals. Those not doing enough should react to ceremonies like the BRITs and be aware that things are changing. This extends to all corners of the industry. In terms of opportunities, payment and representation, there are gulfs and gaps. Female producers hugely underrepresented in studios. Too many alarming cases of sexual assault and abuse being reported. So much sexism and misogyny. Radio playlists not doing nearly enough to create gender balance – in spite of obvious quality and choice out there. What is clear is that the industry are starting to wake up to the promise, power and sheer quality women have been putting out for decades. A moment when there is movement forward. How long it will take for women across the industry to get full respect and representation, and also feel safe and heard, remains to be seen. Let’s hope it is soon. It is also evident that men no longer rule. They are not the go-to and dominant force. The landscape fortunately has shifted. Ahead of International Women’s Day this Friday, it seems like an appropriate time to salute women and their immense contribution to the music industry. Also, there needs to be more commitment from the industry to ensure that women are protected and respected. We all hope for a fairer and brighter future…
FOR women in music.