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<P>Synchronicity - further to Volodya's Saturday talk on Sexism in Computer Culture, here's sexism in the music industry<BR><BR></P></DIV>
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<P>From: <I>"joy_helbin" <joy_helbin@hotmail.com></I><BR>To: <I>joy_helbin@hotmail.com</I><BR>Subject: <I>Fwd: Sexism in the music industry</I><BR>Date: <I>Tue, 03 Apr 2007 21:04:24 -0000</I><BR>>--- In londonfeministnetwork@yahoogroups.co.uk, the women<BR>><the_women@...> wrote:<BR>><BR>>Sorry if this seems a bit off topic but ...<BR>><BR>>I was listening to the Joni Mitchell documentary of radio 2 thinking<BR>>it was going to be a discussion about sexism in the music industry from<BR>>quotes I had seen - but it wasn't really although interesting.<BR>>(Are there any feminist music radio stations?) and the only article that came up after googling sexism in the music industry was written by a man (!) in the telegraph (!!)<BR>><BR>><BR>>Neil McCormick attacks the sexism of Britain's music
industry<BR>><BR>>This is a tale of three award ceremonies. At the Brits last month,<BR>>Lily Allen, despite being the most nominated artist, went away empty-<BR>>handed. It seemed insulting treatment for one of the prime movers in UK pop<BR>>last year, a feisty, funny, highly original performer whose cultural<BR>>impact resonated way beyond her (not inconsiderable) sales.<BR>><BR>>Her neglect might be considered an unfortunate aberration,<BR>>particularly since another young singer-songwriter, Amy Winehouse, won Best<BR>>Female Solo Artist, but it is notable that the only other female winner was<BR>>Nelly Furtado, also in a gender-specific category (International<BR>>Female Solo Artist).<BR>><BR>>At the NME awards earlier this month, Allen was deemed worthy of<BR>>just one gong, the insulting Worst Dressed. Only one other
female<BR>>received any award at all, in a gender-specific category, and she wasn't even<BR>>a musician: model Kate Moss being deemed Sexiest Woman.<BR>><BR>>In a year when bold characters such as Allen, Winehouse, Corinne<BR>>Bailey Rae and Beth Ditto (proudly overweight lesbian frontwoman of the<BR>>Gossip) have matched the boys in every department, Britain's leading music<BR>>magazine effectively deemed an entire sex's contributions to have<BR>>been worthless.<BR>><BR>>Apart, obviously, from the ability to wear clothes well (Moss) or<BR>>badly (Allen). Yet this neglect went unremarked, probably because it<BR>>happens every year.<BR>><BR>>The source of the problem became apparent at the Music Week awards<BR>>last week, when the industry magazine employed an attractive, young,<BR>>blonde woman to hand out gongs, naked but for a pair of
skimpy knickers.<BR>>That no one thought a topless throwback to a pre-feminist showbiz era<BR>>might be offensive reveals all you need to know about the mindset of the<BR>>music business.<BR>><BR>>It is an industry run by "pornographic pigs", according to a<BR>>memorable phrase coined by legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell,<BR>>returning to the fray after a five-year, self-imposed exile from music. As one of<BR>>the greatest lyricists of our times and a boldly original, technically<BR>>accomplished melodic and rhythmic stylist, Mitchell is unimpressed<BR>>to have never got the respect or, indeed, the sales that her singular<BR>>talent deserved.<BR>><BR>>"Joni definitely believes she is written off as a soppy housewife's<BR>>favourite as opposed to a valid artistic voice," according to<BR>>British singer-songwriter Amanda Ghost, who
interviewed Mitchell for a<BR>>revealing Radio 2 special this week.<BR>><BR>>"Women are rarely counted as equal with male artists. It is such a<BR>>male-dominated industry, only a certain kind of 'sex bomb' female<BR>>talent is ever really encouraged."<BR>><BR>>When she emerged as the precocious 21-year-old composer of such<BR>>instant classics as Both Sides Now and Big Yellow Taxi, Mitchell was<BR>>notoriously marketed by her record company as "90 per cent virgin". "That's what<BR>>happens," Mitchell responded, "when you don't show your tits."<BR>><BR>>In 1971, Rolling Stone named her "Old Lady of the Year", complete<BR>>with a diagram detailing all the male musicians she allegedly had<BR>>relationships with (Mitchell refused to talk to the magazine for the rest of the<BR>>decade). And, while she enjoyed a period of enormous
critical<BR>>acclaim, by 1979, when she recorded the complex Mingus, she felt the industry<BR>>had given up on her.<BR>><BR>>"It was my time to die," she told Ghost. "The bosses were looking,<BR>>thinking, 'Oh, she's getting old now, she's just about 27. They want<BR>>to dispose of you and get a 14-year-old in there."<BR>><BR>>With a tribute album released by Nonesuch next month and her first<BR>>collection of original material since 1998 scheduled to appear in<BR>>the autumn, Mitchell's return is celebrated in the latest edition of The<BR>>Word, the reliably maverick magazine. I was struck by the<BR>>realisation that she was the first woman of her age (63) I had ever seen on a<BR>>the cover of a popular-music magazine.<BR>><BR>>By way of a (sadly more typical) contrast, the current issue of<BR>>leading music magazine Q features a shot of
19-year-old soul ingénue Joss<BR>>Stone, with the cover headline "Never without her knickers", a reference to<BR>>a flippant remark from a rude question about sartorial propriety. It<BR>>is hard to imagine a male artist being treated with the same leering<BR>>disrespect.<BR>><BR>>Inside, Q lists its assessment of the 100 greatest singers of all<BR>>time. Typically, only 21 of them are women. Mitchell herself features at<BR>>number 36, but I doubt she would be impressed. For Mitchell, "a good<BR>>piece of art should be androgynous", but she is unequivocal about<BR>>the part the critical media play in downgrading female talent.<BR>><BR>>Her riposte to being described as "the female Bob Dylan" is that "no<BR>>one would say that Dylan is the 'male Joni Mitchell'. Being female<BR>>creates a new category in some people's minds."<BR>><BR>>It
is a thrill to have such an original, complex, bold and outspoken<BR>>talent as Mitchell back doing what she does best. I just wish the<BR>>music business were doing more to encourage her successors.<BR>><BR>>The second part of 'Come in From the Cold: The Return of Joni<BR>>Mitchell' will be broadcast on Radio 2 on March 27. 'A Tribute to Joni<BR>>Mitchell' is released by Nonesuch on April 23.<BR>><BR>>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?<BR>>xml=/arts/2007/03/22/bmmccor122.xml<BR>><BR>>--- End forwarded message ---<BR>><BR>><BR></P></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></div><br clear=all><hr>Match.com - <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMAENUK/2731??PS=47575" target="_top">Click Here To Find Singles In Your Area Today!</a> </html>