Lack of Women in Alternative and Punk Rock Music

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/shocking_gifs_show_serious_lack_of_female_musicians_at_festivals

 Everyone has heard about gender inequality in white collar businesses, but what about in the music industry and more specifically in the alternative and punk rock branches? Unfortunately, it occurs in this industry too. There are women in this industry however the men far outnumber the women. One of the most obvious ways to see this is at festivals and tours around the world. Warped Tour is a tour that has been around for more than twenty years. When the lineup for the 2014 tour came out, less than twenty percent of the 120+ acts included at least one woman. Other tours of this type have had approximately fifteen percent women of the acts that perform. These statistics include solo artists, female-fronted bands, and all female bands. When people think of women in the industry, they think of Haley Williams from Paramore. Paramore is not even an entirely female band in fact, Haley is the only female member in the band. When women are in these bands, they are typically female-fronted bands.   The standards for women in this industry are set way too high. Laura Watson, the writer of Mooky Chick says, "The bottom line is that the alternative music scene is still widely regarded as a male-dominated playground where women are showcased only if they meet the attractive/outlandish quota." This needs to change because women musicians should not have to be attractive or outlandish in order to chase their dreams. If they have a good sound, they should be able to make it big. Personally, I feel as if males do not have to live up the the same standards in this industry and females do.

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/shocking_gifs_show_serious_lack_of_female_musicians_at_festivals

Not only are the statistics showing this, but the women performers are feeling isolated too. Courtney Love who is Kurt Cobain's widow feels like she is, "the last chick in alternative radio." Although she is not actually the last one, it shows the perspective of a women who is actually in the industry. When I attended the Alternative Press Music Awards in July I saw first hand the lack of females that make it big in the industry. Out of seventeen categories, only two of the winners had women in them. Haley Williams from Paramore won best vocalist and female-fronted band PVRIS won break through band. With only two of the winners having a female in them, that is approximately 11% of the winners being female-fronted bands. If you add up each individual member in every band that won against the two women, the percentage of women is shockingly small.

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/shocking_gifs_show_serious_lack_of_female_musicians_at_festivals

Unfortunately some of the most influential people in the touring and festival business do not see the problem. Kevin Lyman who is the founder and producer of Warped Tour does not see a problem. He thinks, "There's really not a lack of women. If you've got 20 bands that have women in them out of 120 bands, that's one out of six bands." He doesn't see that there is a real problem here. If he doesn't see it, then things do not have a very good chance of changing. Also, "Alternative Press, a monthly magazine that sponsors Warped Tour, has only put a women on its cover five times in the last three years - and twice it was Haley Williams from Paramore," I do not know why the people who control the lineup of these events don't see the problem here, but it is evident that there is one. 

The creators of the gifs pictured above say, "Lady acts exist. Of course they do. However, the number of female performers and female-fronted groups, when compared the numbers of their male counterparts at music festivals, is paltry and sad." It is sad and due to the fact that the creators of these big tours and festivals don't see the problem, it is up to the public to somehow get their attention and get more women on these stages.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think the public can do, if anything, to get more females playing in festivals and tours? Can the public do anything to make the amount of women who make it big time, bigger? 

2. Why do you think that there are more solo female and female-fronted acts then entirely female bands? What has caused this to happen?

3. Laura Watson from Mooky Chick asks, "why is it that women are comfortable declaring their love for male bands but it's rare to see a man wearing a band t-shirt acknowledging a female artist?" So I ask you the same question why does it come so much more natural for girls to obsess over guys rather than the other way around?
4. Why are festival and tour producers acting like there are enough women performers already? What will it take for them to see that this is a real problem?  

Links:

http://www.mookychick.co.uk/reviews/music/alternative-rock-gender-equal.php 

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/shocking_gifs_show_serious_lack_of_female_musicians_at_festivals

http://www.wonderingsound.com/feature/warped-tour-woman-problem/
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/courtney-love-im-the-last-chick-on-alternative-radio-20150623
http://www.altpress.com/apmas
http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/hands_like_houses_singer_pens_blog_on_lack_of_female_musicians_being_booked