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2013 has seen a huge influx of female musicians speaking out about their struggle in a male-orientated music industry. Now HARD Events co-founder Gary Richards is proposing an all-female electronic music festival. But is this the way forward or just singling them out for the fun of it?
Although females are popular in the pop world with Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus all doing pretty well for themselves (even if they seem to have to shock to do so), women across the music industry still seem to get ignored with many putting up with abuse from all sides.
This is reflected in a significantly lower number of them performing at festivals. Buzzfeed noticed only 16% of Cochella's line up were women and that percentage seems likely with the Download headline announcements this week being all male.
So in time with everything, HARD Events co-founder Gary Richards has decided he wants to put together an all-female electronic music festival in Los Angeles next year. But will this get people to take female artists more seriously? Or will it just single them out?
Festivals are by nature incredibly male-based, especially in genres that are anything other than pop and even then you get pinned as a sexual object. If you look at any of the line-ups for Reading and Leeds, Download, and Creamfields over the years, a very small percentage are female.
Gary Richards himself noticed that only 8% of the performers that appeared at HARD Events from 2008-2013 were female. Female Pressure, an international collective of female artists also published an analysis which found that in the last year only 10 percent of performers where female at music festivals around the world and they only took up 9.3 percent of artists listed on music label rosters.
This recognition that females are under-represented and abused has been at the forefront of many of the arguments put forward this year with a tonne of female artists coming forward to criticise the music industry. Young feminist hurricane Lorde has slammed an increasing number of performers for oversexualising teenage girls with Selena Gomez's 'Come and Get It' and Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift acting 'mental' to bring in the dough.
Then we had Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry voicing her outrage on the sexist comments female artists are supposed to 'accept' for being in the industry. Paramore's Hayley Williams was soon to tell all on sexism in the rock industry as she had 'take off your shirt!' comments thrown at her at just 16 when she didn't look much different to a '12-year-old boy.'
Not all men are like this but it's clear something needs to be done so more people respect the hard work women put into their musical careers and get more of them represented at music festivals. So Gary Richard's plans for an all-female electronic festival may be a pretty solid idea to getting that message across.
And we say why not, when there are festivals all over the world for so many different types of people and genres. Sonisphere's for all the metal heads and thrashers, Tomorrowland takes on the best in dance music. So why not have a festival dedicated to women in electronic music? The best female DJ's from across the world playing their hearts out so they get noticed for their talent and not just their gender. Maybe then more women can grab slots at those festivals we all know and love and kick out some of the mediocre male music crap many of us aren't bothered about.
Sexism is especially prevalent in the electronic music world, where decks are dominated by males and women are routinely patronised or mocked for breaking into the industry. Take, for an example, a tweet posted by label Spinnin' Records in September, featuring an image of a CD-J resembling an oven top, with the HILARIOUS comment: "Thanks @PioneerDJ for finally developing a CD-J suitable for women." They unsurprisingly deleted it.
Even with leaving the sexism issue out of it, pretty much every electronic night I go to just happens to feature a lineup consisting solely of men. So what's the harm in having a lineup that just happens to consist solely of women?
This may all be getting a bit feminist-y, but when have we ever not liked strong women with talent showing the men exactly how its done. Some of the best music has come from women - just look at Annie Mac who's become one of the best DJs in the UK, or even the likes of Azealia Banks or Lzzy Hale of Halestorm. We can pack quite a punch if we want too, rip your eardrums out with our vocals and kick you in the nuts with our rap. So to have a festival to make that point even louder and get people to take us more seriously? I say hell yes.
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