FEATURE:
Footnotes
IN THIS PHOTO: CMAT
NDAs, Kate Nash on Reshaping Feminism, The Mighty CMAT, and Beyoncé: An Enduring Icon
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THIS is a feature…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Nash
where I do a round-up of stories relating to music from the past week or two. This edition is a broad one. Rather than do individual features about each subject and maybe stretch and pad things, I wanted to bring them all together. I am going to end with a review from a recent Beyoncé gig that makes me wonder whether she is the best live performer ever. One of the most enduring icons in all of music. I am going to start out with quite a sobering and serious topic. I caught this feature from The Guardian. It is something that impacts men in music too. However, it is mainly women (and gender non-conforming people) who are affected by harassment, sexual assault, discrimination and misogyny. The issue is not going anywhere. An epidemic in music, there does need to be a change. The fact that there are NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) that silence women who have been victims of assault and abuse is horrifying. Men protected and women almost paid off. There do need to be NDAs for other things. They exist for a reason. However, when it comes so silencing women and ensuring that they do not get justice, it is a massive issue:
“The misuse of non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements in the music industry to silence victims of harassment and abuse is a “major concern”, which should be banned immediately in order to tackle the sector’s “culture of misogyny”, a new parliament report recommends.
Misogyny in Music: On Repeat is the third such report by the women and equalities committee. Its predecessor, published in January 2024, found that women working in the sector faced misogyny and discrimination, with rife sexual harassment and abuse, to which the industry’s many self-employed practitioners were more vulnerable.
Despite music industry support for the report, the previous Conservative government declined to implement any of its recommendations. In September 2024, the Labour party conference passed a motion calling on the government to implement the committee’s report in full.
On publication of the latest report, a government spokesperson told the Guardian: “The music industry must be free of misogyny and discrimination and NDAs should not be misused to silence victims. We are actively looking at all options for further reform of NDAs.”
In the year since the previous report, the committee, led by Labour MP Sarah Owen, said that little had changed from its previous characterisation of the culture of the British music industry as a “boys’ club”.
Hearing evidence from pop-soul artist Celeste and the classical soprano Lucy Cox, along with representatives from the organisations Black Lives in Music and the Musicians’ Union, it found barriers including unequal pay, ageism and unequal responsibility for childcare duties; harassment, particularly for LGBTQ+ women, women of colour and disabled women.
IN THIS PHOTO: Lucy Cox
It established that women reported mistreatment at low rates because of fear of retaliation. Musicians’ Union data showed that despite 51% of women in the sector experiencing gender discrimination and 47% of women of colour experiencing racism, only 11% and 8% respectively reported their allegations.
Secretary Naomi Pohl told the committee that even initiatives designed to protect women within the sector “still exist within a system that doesn’t prioritise women’s safety and none of the organisations have the power to change that culture”.
“The need for government intervention is clear,” the committee said. “There remains an overwhelming case for the government to implement the measures set out in our predecessors’ report, and the updated recommendations set out in this report.” It stressed that their recommendations would also benefit women working across all sectors”.
Dr Charisse Beaumont, CEO of Black Lives in Music, has galled for the Government to get involved. That article also stressed how “female and gender non-conforming freelancers within the music industry were additionally vulnerable, and not sufficiently protected by the employment rights bill”. These confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements need to be taken out of situations where it used inappropriately. It is a shame on the previous Government that they did not ensure that the recommendations in the Misogyny in Music: On Repeat were implemented. We cannot have a music industry where abuse, misogyny and discrimination against women exists. It is a sorry situation. Let us hope that there is progress very soon. That Labour actually do act, and NDAs and confidentiality agreements that protect those who discriminate against women. From sexual assault, ageism, equal pay and misogyny, how far has the industry advanced from that idea of it being a boys’ club?! It still seems to be stuck in the past. Let’s hope for positive news very soon!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Nash/PHOTO CREDIT: Jude Harrison
Not to lean too much on The Guardian, though they do produce these important articles and interviews. One such interview from last week. It is interesting what Kate Nash had to say. Her new song, GERM, comes out in support of trans people. At a time when trans women especially are being attacked and having their rights removed, there are few artists addressing a topic that might be seen as risk or too hot to handle. Nash knows that feminism needs to be reshaped. Not only in Britain. Are trans women as represented in feminist conversation as cis women?! It does seem to be a slight hierarchy. Are women of colour further down too?! Trans women’s bodies and protection is not less important than that of any other woman. It is vital that more artists in the music industry follow in Kate Nash’s footsteps and discuss trans rights. Put out songs that will endure for years and help push us towards positive change. A recent Supreme Court decision that ruled women are defined by sex and not gender was a step back when it came to trans rights:
“In Kate Nash’s new single, released last week, the 37-year-old musician and actor has coined a new acronym, Germ: “girl, exclusionary, regressive, misogynist”. In the lyrics, she states: “You’re not radical … You’re not rad at all,” and that “using feminism to erase the rights of others and endanger them is inherently un-feminist”. It arose from Nash seeing “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” – the contentious term “terf” – as something of a misnomer. Those who espouse gender-critical views are, in her opinion, neither radical nor feminist.
The song was written in response to last month’s supreme court ruling that the legal definition of “woman” ought to be based on biological sex (a judgement that doctors at the British Medical Association have called “scientifically illiterate”). “I have a lot of trans people in my life that I care about,” Nash tells me on the day the track is released. “This feminist-trans ‘debate’ – it’s not a debate to me. A friend of mine was the victim of a hate crime last year. I took the ruling very personally.” She says the time felt right for her to speak out. “The LGBTQIA+ community supports women so much, and they have been there for me in my life and career. That’s why I think cis women really owe it to trans people to step up at this moment. This song is for that community.”
“Taking away the rights of vulnerable people who are not a threat is obviously the wrong thing to be doing,” she says. “I’m not willing to trample on people that have less autonomy over their bodies and less safety in the world than me in order to ‘protect myself’. I do not think cis women are more important or better than trans people.”
Nash is undeterred by the internet noise the song has caused. “I mean, sure, attack me online, but I’m still right,” she says. “I wanted to leave a record in musical history of a feminist who is outspoken as a cis woman: this is my opinion, and I don’t want the loudest cultural voice in the room to be anti-trans. That is not what feminism has taught me”.
In 2025, it should not be the case that perhaps one or two artists are highlighting trans rights in music. There needs to be this unity and volume of music that expresses solidarity with thew trans community. Anger at those who attack them. Nash has received some backlash, though she has always considered herself to be a feminist and she supports the trans community wholeheartedly. It is such a shame that we need to have these conversations. That thing Nash said about the loudest voice in the room being anti-trans. Someone like JK Rowling, who has huge influence and millions of followers on social media, should not have her voiced raised against those who, well, are not transphobes. I do think music can be a very powerful tool when it comes to bringing about progress and change. It is evident that British feminism needs to be reshaped and defined. The rights of trans women as important as any other woman. During this Pride Month, that message should be loud and proud. I am excited to see if we get a new Kate Nash album and, if so, whether there will be other songs like GERM. I think she will use an album to spotlight marginalised community, discuss big issues affecting women and also show further support for the trans community.
IN THIS PHOTO: CMAT on stage at Bergenfest 2024 in Norway/PHOTO CREDIT: Per Ole Hagen/Redferns
I would like to stress that I subscribe to The Guardian, so it there is less a feeling of guilt when it comes to taking so much from them. Not only highlighting their good work but, in the process, spotlighting conversations and artists that deserve to be seen and heard. From one incredible redhead in music to another. The fabulous CMAT, like Kate Nash, is very much a feminist. Someone who care deeply about those sidelined, attacked and overlooked. She also brings humour into her music and has this incredible personality that means you cannot help fall for her. I have been a CMAT fan for a while. She is someone who has spoken about subjects like body-shaming in the past. She has received negative comments and abuse regarding her body in the past. There are amazing women like Kate Nash raising subjects that are not common in the modern landscape. Using their platform in an important way. The same goes for CMAT. It calls into question everyone else in the music industry who, as CMAT says in this interview need a kick up the arse (or “hole” as she says!). Speaking with Alexis Petridis, CMAT discussed trans rights, body shaming and capitalism. Whilst some might see that as forthright or opinionated, at a time when music should be political and shout about subjects that takes us away from the commercial and personal, she is someone who should be hugely respected and saluted. CMAT’s album, EURO-COUNTRY, is out on 29th August:
“She is incredibly forthright on a huge range of topics. She stands up for trans rights – “If you think of social media as like a video game, you rack up the spoils really high when you decide to go for a group of people who are already at risk” – and confronts the culture of wellness and self-improvement or, as she calls it, “the rise-and-grind ethic which is making people insane and making them unable to communicate with other people because they’re so obsessed with focusing on themselves”. Sometimes she’s too forthright for her mum, though: a recent appearance on Adam Buxton’s podcast provoked a dressing down. “She told me it made her cringe: ‘That lovely posh Englishman, so well spoken, and you calling yourself a cunt the whole interview. And you’re not a cunt, you’re lovely.’”
Ireland’s recent history suffuses Euro-Country, which features vocals in Irish, songs called Billy Byrne from Ballybrack, the Leader of the Pigeon Convoy and Tree Six Foive and a title track that she describes as “a collage, a mood board” about the financial crisis that engulfed the country in 2008. “I was about 12 and it all happened around me, it didn’t really happen to my family directly,” she says. “My dad had a job in computers, we didn’t really have any money, we weren’t affluent, but we were fine. Everybody else on the estate we lived in worked in construction, or in shops, and they all lost their jobs. Everybody became unemployed. Then, in the village I grew up in, there was a year or 18 months where loads of the people I went to school with, their dads started killing themselves because they’d lost everything in the crash.”
Initially, Thompson thought she must have misremembered this. “But I dug deep, did research and the amount of male suicides that happened in Ireland at that time was astronomical. When I hit secondary school, teenage boys started killing themselves as well; that was very common where I grew up. I think it was a kind of chain reaction as a result of the economic downturn. I’m not blaming anyone – no one ever purposely tries to cause that much harm. It’s trying to get all this stuff together and think: ‘Why did all this happen and how do we stop it from happening again?’ I don’t have the answer but I think we all need to keep looking at it and really fucking try to hound ourselves into a position where we’re not just thinking about monetary gain all the time.”
Euro-Country is a noticeably more political album than its predecessors, which tended to focus on relationships and the chaos of her personal life. Thompson says she couldn’t really see anyone else in her position doing it, so decided to take it on. “No one is dealing with capitalism as a force for bad, this really fucking horrible putrefied version of capitalism which has absolutely had a line of coke up its fucking hole since Covid, where the richest people in the world are so much richer than they used to be five years ago,” she says. “Pop stars won’t come out and say that because they’ll be absolutely shot for it, because they’ve all done brand deals: ‘Oh, I love my Dove moisturiser.’”
Thompson was one of a number of artists to pull out of Latitude and other festivals over sponsor Barclays providing financial services to defence companies supplying Israel. She says that as soon as she removed herself from the lineup, an upcoming deal with a designer perfume brand disappeared. “They ghosted me. I lost a lot of money. But who fucking cares? I’m aware of the fact that my career is going to struggle as a result of this stuff, but I also think everyone else in music needs a kick up the hole. Where’s all the fucking artists? Where’s all the fucking hippies?”
Of course, another reason why musicians might feel abashed about mentioning politics is fear of a social media backlash, something Thompson knows all about. Last year, an Instagram video of her performing at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend festival attracted so much abuse – largely directed at her weight – that the BBC was forced to disable comments. She laughed it off at the time, suggesting she should be imprisoned for the crime of “having a big fat ass”, but returns to the subject on her current single, Take a Sexy Picture of Me (it has turned into that rarest of things: a song about body shaming that has provoked a TikTok dance trend, with it-girl Julia Fox and Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dimoldenberg participating)”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé performing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London during her current tour/PHOTO CREDIT: Parkwood Entertainment/Reuters
I am going to end with a live review of a recent Beyoncé gig in London. She is still in London at the moment. She head to Paris soon. After the release of the acclaimed COWBOY CARTER last year, this music legend is very much at her peak. It is incredible to think how she has been making music for decades but seems to be at her best now. Getting stronger with every album and each tour better than the last! There are some captivating live performers out there, though can anyone really get close to Beyoncé?! There is something about her as a performer and her sets. As Rolling Stone UK write in reaction to a recent performance at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, this is someone who delivers these dazzling and jaw-dropping shows. An artist who creates this sense of wonder and spectacle:
“Rain ain’t gonna stop the party,” she declares early on – before spending the next three hours seeming hellbent on living up to this mantra. Put simply, this is a show that proves why Beyoncé is one of the world’s greatest performers and one who refuses to let her fans feel short-changed for their, admittedly, very expensive tickets. There had been talk of sluggish sales, but everything seems to be alright on the night, with the north London stadium near capacity bar a small section of restricted view seats at the back.
It’s a spectacle for the ages, with one memorable moment seeing the singer mounting a gold mechanical bull and performing a magnetic dance routine atop it that demands the entire crowd’s attention. At another, she jumps onto an illuminated horseshoe and flies around the crowd to get up close and personal with the Beyhive during a cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’.
Stadium gigs were made for overblown productions like these, but it doesn’t hurt Beyoncé is on the form of her life too. The high notes on ‘Daughter’ stunned the cavernous room into silence, while ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ – the standout track from Cowboy Carter – was delivered with enough force that North London felt for the briefest of moments like it had been transported to her native Houston.
At times it packed a political and personal punch too. ‘America Has A Problem’ saw her decked out in a newspaper print outfit as she dissected both racism and offered a video that highlighted the rabid critics who have previously questioned her country credentials. Well here was a show to firmly shut them up. As for the personal, even the stoniest of hearts couldn’t resist the adorable moment when Beyoncé brought out her seven-year-old daughter Rumi for ‘Protector’.
And it’s the ultimate measure of the show that the singers’s big hits – ‘Crazy In Love’, ‘If I Were A Boy, ‘Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)’ – were reduced to a medley of sorts and you got the sense that no one was leaving here short changed. Talk of poor sales and overblown prices may have dogged the singer’s arrival in London, but on the basis of last night’s showing, this rootin’ tootin’ spectacular might just be the hottest ticket in town”.
I am going to end things now I think. I wanted to end with a nod to someone who is in the U.K. and wowing fans in London. The peerless Beyoncé. Sparking a fashion craze in the process, this COWBOY CARTER tour must be up there with her best. It makes you wonder what the next album and tour will provide. I have been a fan of hers since the Destiny’s Child days of the 1990s. Over twenty-five years later, this artist is still in a league of her own! I wonder if there will be future honour for Beyoncé. Whether a new book, an exhibition, a documentary or special music award or honour, we need to properly respect…
THIS music queen.