A talented young artist cries out in frustration — in public. I’m heartbroken she feels this way. Mainly because it’s not true.
How one of my ‘jobs’ allowed a unique insight into a public awards spat.
Talented and capable artists should perhaps not feel like they need to ‘fix’ the industry. It maybe isn’t broken quite where they think it is.
I can’t publish this piece yet — why should become apparent as you read it. I wanted to get the thought down while it’s fresh. Written October 17th. I’ll publish when I can without betraying trust (i.e. after the awards have been announced).
The opinions expressed herein are the authors — and don’t necessarily represent those of the industry bodies mentioned. I haven’t included the artist or producer names — but some quick searching can find that for you if you’re curious. I still very much adore the artist and music and view her outburst as a completely understandable mistake based on generally accepted wrong-think — rather than something that should attract disdain or dislike.
I’m challenging the wrong-think — not her. I think her gripe is legitimate. Her explanation of cause is off, though.
In my ‘day job’ as audio engineer/producer I’ve seen a lot of different personalities in many roles. My own role varies depending on situation and client. Sometimes I’m absolutely in a position of authority, responsibility and guidance. Other times I’m strictly executing somebody else’s play. Either is good, I enjoy the different challenges. It’s also far from boring.
My track in the music and audio business is wide and varied. I’ve been a signed recording artist and songwriter, a musician for hire (which didn’t suit my self-conscious side so I became) an audio engineer, a recording producer, and a live engineer. I’ve also taught for more than 10 years at both degree and vocational training level (Cert IV in Australia) in audio production and engineering. I’ve been an artist manager, negotiated recording and publishing deals, and signed a few myself over the 37 years or so I’ve made my living from audio and music.
So, recently I’ve been on a judging panel for a state-level industry body (Music Victoria) award for ‘Producer of the year’. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now. It’s a volunteer position, but good for the resume, meeting or reconnecting with other members of the tribe, and hearing some good music and production.
The submissions this year were very high level. Which was good because there were a few. 29 semi-finalists to be graded, 3–5 recordings for each — plus 6 judging criteria to score 1–5 for a total score per submission. If the music sucks, the day or two of listening and grading will too. Not so this year. Ear candy in abundance.
I even discovered something I really liked. A very sweet but slightly dark song masterfully executed by a young female artist who I was unaware of before.
I first listen to the songs/pieces only while doing this assignment. I don’t engage with the backstory or visuals until I’ve heard the work. I hit replay a couple of times on this one song (first and only time I did this during the process). I was captivated, and once the rest of the grading was done I looked further into the artist. Another producer had also submitted a track by her.
I loved pretty much everything I heard, and even watched a lengthy interview with her about the album and her process — which only made me more fond of her work and how together she was with her involvement at all levels of production and sheer will and drive (duh). Turns out she has quite the catalog, millions of views, streams and some physical sales and has been working hard at high level for years, here and internationally.
I’d never heard of her — but music promotion is so very different and inherently difficult now. There’s so much work being produced and uploaded — with few if any gatekeepers or mavens left anywhere — it’s almost impossible to keep up and find things that are new and exceptional easily.
So she gained a fan, and I gained some new music. I think I got the better of the deal. I always see it that way. Music is the artists gift to the listener.
This grading deadline was a week or so ago, and today (October 17) was the meeting to agree on the overall winner.
Yesterday, the artist I’ve been discussing got on social media and made some frustrated comments about her album not being nominated for ‘Album of the Year’ in the major national industry awards here (ARIA Awards).
Firstly — I really get it. We (my original band Roxus) were signed (including a six-album deal with a US label), had hit singles, albums, TV and radio play, had legendary industry figures involved at all levels (and worked really hard) and the ARIAs never even looked in our direction. That stung. Some industry people might scoff and say ‘only the ARIAs’ but I bet they wouldn’t say no to one if chosen…
I’m also profoundly glad my time as a semi-famous person was before the era of social media. God only knows what kind of crazy I would have put out into the world at the time to be forever beholden to, identified with — and judged upon.
But it’s what she thought the apparent snub meant that really concerned me. Her words:
“F*ck the ARIAs, when I looked at the list of nominees this morning my initial reaction was to feel personally underestimated and misunderstood by my album being snubbed,”
“Then I took a deep breath, then I realised it’s not about me. Approximately [one fifth] of the nominees are non-male. In categories like heavy rock there are no non male artists at all.”
“So I’m again reminded that the Australian music industry like many industries is dominated by men and in this case men who don’t think an artist is credible unless it’s a nonchalant dude playing guitar/rock music. Fuck you guys, you don’t get it.”
This idea (music business is a boys club) isn’t new.
It also isn’t correct. I’m heartbroken that she really believes it is.
I have refutations. Many. The meeting I was at this morning is one of those.
The panel I was on was 3 women, 4 men. All at high levels of professional accomplishment and experience. The 29 submissions were scored down to 5 finalists. Our submissions were a diverse bunch with a large sampling of women, and non-traditional gender folk on the shortlist. All of these groups were represented in the finalists. This in an area of music traditionally dominated by men, almost exclusively. Inclusive practice is explicit in the guidelines and mission of the industry body, and our instructions. This was an entirely unnecessary stipulation, but it’s worth noting for being in place anyway. It was never mentioned nor seemed a factor during the judging process.
Long story short, a female producer won the top gong, by virtually unanimous vote. She’s worked very hard for years and is very very good. She’s been nominated a few times before but never won. The win was clear and unambiguous.
The main track influencing the vote was from the young artist we’re discussing. The second place went to a male producer — for his track with the same artist (the work that caught my attention)…
So here’s another awards body in the very same country with the very same material in front of it, and we decided differently — and in clear admiration and regard for the work with, and of, this artist.
Furthermore, nobody mentioned the artists tweet storm before, during or after the voting — I have no idea if anybody else was even aware of the controversy. If it had come up, I’m pretty certain this panel would have set it aside as completely irrelevant to our task. I for one would have pushed for that position if it had come up.
As outlined I’ve seen this business from many viewpoints. From management, events, live touring, corporate functions, record executives, musicians, crew, recording teams, et al. I’ve also worked pretty hard for most of the time, and traveled overseas for work. I’m married to an international touring level FOH audio engineer who is female, and BIPOC (and tiny). Her favorite response to any ‘doubts’ inspired by her appearance is to simply go do her job. Any ‘doubters’ soon become fans, and often friends. She’s remarkably capable and experienced. Cute, too…
When I hear that the music business is riddled with sexism and is a boy’s club — I really don’t understand what anybody’s talking about. I generally never see anything like it. Look, I’m not suggesting there aren’t individuals with bad attitudes, sexist opinions, etc. There are. They’re pretty rare, though. Of the thousands (literally) of men I’ve worked with and around I can seriously only remember a handful of incidents that fall into sexism or harassment — and they were very quickly shut down by everyone around.
There are sexist (and racist, and bigoted in other ways) bakers, and dentists, and teachers. We’re not unique, nor especially prominent in this regard.
In my lifetime however I’ve watched it become very difficult for a man to be overtly sexist in public, in any scenario — even male-only situations. This has the knock on effect of making it more difficult to be that way in private, also. The #metoo movement was a huge crescendo-like push in a decades long legal, cultural, and social effort to make society safer and easier for women into the last refuge of the men who make the rest of us look very bad — the powerful man who abuses women and is never confronted about it. Anybody who is overtly sexist, lecherous, or creepy now, and acts that way, has missed a huge social and cultural shift. It won’t take long until most of the rest catch up. The vast majority of us already have, or were already ‘there’.
Anybody still ‘off’ after all this is probably safest considered as potentially dangerous.
The fact this business has often come in for criticism over this very issue has meant it is and has been a priority for the men in this space.
To the idea women are ‘kept out’ of the business — again I don’t see it. I started playing in bars and clubs around 1986. In 1989 I signed management, publishing, and recording deals with Mushroom records. At least half the staff at Mushroom were women, including the most powerful executives, like the managing director of Sydney office, and the head of publishing. The receptionist (job title severely understates role) and Michael Gudinski’s PA were formidable and stunningly capable women. We had two women managers during our career — which ended just before the onslaught of Nirvana and grunge. Some of these were among the most amazing and capable people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and knowing. One of them seems to agree with my take, as she states here (you can find the question and response at around the 12:50 mark).
All-male touring crews were definitely a thing back then — but the production side of things was a little different, too.
Our (5 full time) crew traveled with us, and all our gear — and a working day was at least 14–16 hours. Starting with unloading the very large and heavy PA system and amp racks, lighting rig, back-line instruments and audio and lighting control consoles (also huge and heavy), plus miles of heavy cabling and lighting truss from the actual truck into the venue, set it all up, run a soundcheck, break for dinner — then show (usually having to deal with an opening act or two also) before packing the whole thing up and back into the truck. Sometimes this was 6 nights a week.
Hot, sweaty, often dirty work. Physically very demanding. Not that lucrative. OHS was almost non-existent. Not a very appealing ‘career’ for most women.
Things are different now, and so are crews. Most production is in-house at venues and crews contain many more female techs across positions in all disciplines. OHS coupled with tech development has radically altered the level of physicality required to be effective and competent. My work in the corporate space sees me on mixed-sex crews most of the time. I actually prefer it, as it tends to keep the men just a little more civil. Furthermore, I really enjoy the company of women. Most men do. Men on a crew with women on it often become quite protective — in a good way — of them. Having women around tends to bring out the best in men, generally speaking.
I have had fantastic female bosses in that job, both technical and executive/admin/operations staff. A girlfriend of mine from the early 90s took off touring the world with a circus after we broke up — and worked for a couple of decades at the very highest levels across disciplines all over the world. The partner of a studio owner I worked for mid 90s was VP of A&R for a major international record company. She ended up working directly for Tommy Motolla at Sony in NYC. One of my women students ended up doing systems work with Sting and U2 in Europe and the US. Another became a prominent DJ and jingle writer in Tokyo. The facilities manager at the country’s leading film mixing studio, etc. I could go on. For a while.
In the teaching space — I remember at one university in 2001 we had 800 applicants for 80 positions — and only 40 of them were women. We were already aware of ‘lack of women in audio’ so interviewed all the female applicants — even though our short list to interview was only ~120… (p.s. of the women accepted that year who commenced and completed the course, a couple of them ended up in highly regarded positions within the field — as did a couple of the many more males who did the same)
I’ve seen the numbers creep up gradually over the two+ decades since then as I’ve moved in and out of teaching positions — but the ‘best’ ratio I ever saw was 30% of the student body being women.
In my own production and studio engineering work at least 60% of the clients are women. Some years it’s 80%. 100% of the artists I managed were women fronted and focused, or all female. I spent a great deal of the 2000s working on ‘development acts’ for labels and management teams — and 5 of 6 were female acts or artists. I know other producers and engineers whose numbers are different — they record far more male artists. Sometimes the genre they specialize in influences that. I rarely turn anyone away — and certainly never would based on sex or gender expression. Nobody running a business or doing serious work in the space would. I’ve never seen or heard of that happening, actually.
Rather than try and argue the entire ‘patriarchy’ idea down — I think I have at least defended a position of ‘not so much in my spaces’ — which are the spaces being targeted. I’m not arguing everything is hunky-dory and all settled around male/female interaction, or power dynamics everywhere and between all individuals — but I think the concept of the music industry being some kind of last redoubt and ‘safe space’ for all the remaining true misogynists is absurd.
Most men like women, and enjoy their company. There are some men who don’t like women — often for perceived or actual wrongdoing by a member or many of that sex to them. I know some women who feel the same way about men, and for similar reasons.
I think they’re both equally ‘correct’.
As in, writing off approximately half of your fellow humans for the actions or attitudes of one, or even a few, is insane.
Put another way — I don’t know any people in the business who operate from a misogynist position or framework. I haven’t even heard it joked about for many years. Nobody I’ve dealt with in the business operates in a discriminatory nature toward females, or any other groups. If anything, most organizations and individuals seem geared toward explicitly being the opposite — in mission statement, policy, conduct expectations, hiring practice, admissions, grading and any and all areas where real or perceived ‘lack of representation’ is seen as problematic.
Yet the obvious minority status of women in various professions and positions seems entrenched. It MUST be discriminatory practices, systems or beliefs, yes?
Perhaps not. One of the very central arguments FOR inclusion and access for women across all areas of society — that women will generally bring different viewpoints, problem solving and approaches to systems and situations that will almost certainly improve them — also reinforces the reality that men and women are, generally speaking, different in various ways.
Some of which might include interest in being an artist, or making music as a sole occupation, or being on an AV crew, or working 100 hours a week as an executive or huckster in the often brutal world of commercial art. It might not be a ‘problem’ at all, and as many as wish to pursue exactly the careers they desire for both sexes, and any other identities people may have, are where we already are.
I’m starting to think that the only real ‘block’ or barrier to women considering getting into the business is simply the idea that it’s particularly difficult and challenging for women, rather than any cultural reality.
And wouldn’t that be an absolute tragedy?
Imagine a teenage girl, idolizing the artist we’re discussing. This potential global joy-giver plays around with ideas and software, recording bits and pieces. Growing, learning, dreaming. The artist is an inspiration to her, a tangible ‘hell, she did it — why not me?’
Then she reads the article. It becomes ‘if even she can’t get past the male-dominated gatekeepers, what hope do I have?’ and sadly switches her gear off and packs it away…
Everybody loses in that scenario. And the only thing stopping her was that somebody told her it was all stacked against her — and it really wasn’t…
To the artist inspiring this piece in the first place: Look, I think your album is truly brilliant. I think you’re wonderful and fresh and your music affected me. That’s increasingly rare in modern music output. I think your future is incredibly bright. I think it’s ridiculous that your album isn’t up for Album of the Year at the ARIAs — it really should be. I agree with you.
I have no real idea why it’s not — however I am pretty sure it’s not because of ‘a music industry dominated and controlled by misogynist men’.