Thinking Anthropologically: Female Representation in the Music Industry

Gender pervades music in ways that make music a gendered space. It also creates gendered objects such as musical instruments. Certain genres are male. Think of rock and roll, how many female rock and roll artists can you think of? One, two? Its because rock and roll is defined by characteristics that are associated with the man; aggression, sexuality, abuse, and chaos. Musical instruments are gendered, think of the drums or the bass. There is a severe lack of talented and capable female drummer and bassists. I was speaking to a band and they were telling me that they would love to have a female on their tour, they know women are underrepresented in the field and want to help change that. However, they said, as much as they want a female drummer, they cannot find one that is talented and capable enough to play the compositions they have created. They said the good ones are already swooped up. What we need to do is alter the gender of the drums. The drums are loud and aggressive like a man, the drums are associated with rock and role. There are certain roles female artists feel like they need to fill and in reality, truly are pressured to fill because of the social model media has created around music and the industry. 

In addition to the gendering of objects within the music industry we all clearly see power relations based on gender. 85% of record labels are male-owned and run, leaving a staggering 15% of women majority run labels. Women are seen as incapable of business due to the idea that women are too emotional to be decisive - as more males are in power this stereotype will continue to prosper. It is our job to stand with the organizations mentioned and pushing the FACT that women are capable to do what was typically a mans job.