- Natalie La Roche
The Music We Listen to Affects Sexism in the Music Industry
One of the sad truths in life is that the world is plagued with sexism. Women in the workplace aren’t paid equally for equal work, girls in STEM classes are undermined, and social attitudes of what a woman should be are all branches of the same poisonous tree. Such an upsetting model of reality makes us crave an escape from it. One of the most reliable tools for this escapism is music. Music inspires hope, makes a home for our hearts, and soothes our worries. But, unfortunately, music is not safe from sexism, and it makes a home of the music industry as much as it does anywhere else.
The music industry is festered with sexism. From the sexist criticism Taylor Swift suffers, to the questioning of legitimacy as an electronic dance music artist Alison Wonderland experiences, to the preconceptions Esperanza Spalding faces of what a jazz player should be, to the lack of gender diversity in your listening habits. Yes, you, the one reading this. And me, the one writing it. Musical listening habits tend to exclude music by female musicians, perhaps unconsciously, but nonetheless, it strengthens the sexism in the industry. The good news is that by diversifying your listening habits, you can combat it. Incorporating music by women into your playlists and daily listening is as beneficial for you, the listener, as it is for them, the artists, and, ultimately, the industry at large.
Everynoise, a Spotify algorithm that tracks users’ listening patterns daily, shows that 22.5% of Spotify streams are female or gender-mixed artists. That percentage represents the streams of all users on the platform, regardless of their gender. When dissected, we see that 30.7% of female listeners stream female or mixed-gender artists, while male listeners stream a grim 17.3%.[1] What causes this? Why are the percentages for streams by female and gender-mixed artists so low? One reason may be Spotify itself.
Liz Pelly, a contributing editor at The Baffler and specialist in the effects of technology in the music industry, made a brand-new account where she streamed only what Spotify recommended to her, omitting all personal preferences, to conduct a micro-study of the service’s algorithm recommendations. After a month of listening to pure computer-generated recommendations, she found that Spotify’s curated playlists include more men than they do women, despite the evident success female artists top in a given year. Everynoise numbers match Pelly’s findings. Users’ streams from Discover Weekly playlists consist of 17.4% of female artists, while the streams of users that choose their own music is 22.2% from female artists. This suggests the algorithm’s gender-bias, a huge flaw in the platform.
Notable Information:
o In Rap Caviar, the only track with a woman lead was ‘Bartier Carti,’ by Cardi B (feat. 21 Savage).
o In Rock This, 86% of tracks were by all-male bands.
o Discover Weekly is
formed according to the user’s taste. However, Pelly’s “taste” is purely Spotify’s algorithm.
“What does this mean for me?” Well, fellow music listener, I’m glad you asked. Spotify putting male artists and their songs in the spotlight more than female artists and their songs means that you aren’t directed to music by women. It may not be your fault that you listen to more music by men (a lot of it is pretty damn good), but the streaming service doesn’t help you diversify your tastes. To its credit, Spotify is at least aware of the problem, and tried to improve it with the launch of the Smirnoff Equalizer, a tool that analyses the amount of music by men and music by women you listen to. However, the initiative didn’t stick, and it also wasn’t really conducive in fixing the imbalance. At most, it raises your awareness of your listening patterns, but it doesn’t help change your patterns by recommending more female artists to listen to. Even if you aren’t purposely avoiding music by women, Spotify (unintentionally) keeps you away from it.
Now, there are some that do purposely avoid music by women. Not because it is music by women, but because they consider it “women’s music.” In his New York Times article, Wesley Morris explains the difference between “music by women” and “women’s music.” Music by women is “any music that a woman either creates, performs or both,” and women’s music is a concept with a negative connotation of what music by women is, and essentially, a stereotype of women. Thinking of music by women in a particular way reinforces the idea that female musicians are only acceptable in one genre, one image, and one way — while male musicians are acceptable in all genres, all images, and all ways. And sadly, it also defers listeners (you) from jamming to music by women, because listeners (you) are convinced that it’s of less quality. This is a pitiful notion to have. Not only because it is blatantly sexist, but because it hijacks your own world view and personal development.
"You're going to have people who are going to say, 'Oh, you know, like, she just writes songs about her ex-boyfriends'. And I think frankly that's a very sexist angle to take. No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says that about Bruno Mars. They're all writing songs about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life, and no one raises the red flag there."
– Taylor Swift in an interview with 2Day FM
Closing ourselves off from certain types of music closes us off from human connection. Music gives us the opportunity and ability to learn about another group’s lived experience, and rejecting to listen to music from that group is a rejection to learn about their life. In “The role of musical diversity in redefining music: Towards rich and meaningful life experiences,” C. Victor Hung says that experiencing musical diversity redefines music, and “redefining music is a way to work toward rich and meaningful life experience.” The more you diversify your listening habits, the more you understand the world around you and your place in it, providing you a channel for personal growth, development, and fulfillment.
While gender-diverse listening habits are catalysts for change in yourself as a person, they are also pivotal for women artists to achieve the same respect, legacy, and longevity as male artists. Because, as I hope you believe, women are deserving of them. When listeners stray away from music by women, they have a harder time being successful, therefore a harder time at achieving well-deserved longevity; the music scene remains unchanged, and social change is kissed goodbye. In order to change the music industry, change in our habits as music consumers must change too. If we listen to more music by women, they get more streams, more sales, and more popularity. The more popular they become, the more listeners they gain and traction they receive, which expands their craft, stories, and experiences to more corners of the world. Ultimately, they are heard. As musicians and as women.
As a society, we become more and more aware of just how significant our personal choices are. As little kids we are taught that change starts with us, and this should extend to every part of our lives. True, external factors such as the functions of a streaming service and social biases stand in our way for change, but we remain far from defeat. At the end of the day, we’re self-autonomous beings, and our actions affect the whole as deeply as they affect ourselves.
All that said, I encourage you to set the tone of your day with music by any of the many talented female musicians that have blessed us with their craft. Whether it be Ariana Grande, or Cardi B, or Joni Mitchell, or Whitney Houston, or Spice Girls, or Shakira, or Fleetwood Mac, or Nina Simone: happy listening!
[1] These are statistics Everynoise displayed on November 3, 2020. Since they are calculated daily, the numbers displayed on the day you read this article may be different than the ones here.