Over at Triple J right now it’s “Male Week”. The ABC’s Australia-wide, government funded youth music radio station has dedicated this week to examining what it is to be a man in Australia. Which would be great, if it didn’t look as if they think all the other weeks in the history of music broadcasting were male weeks too.
Every year I, and most people I know, enjoy participating in or at least keeping an ear on the JJJ public vote for the “Hottest 100” songs of the year. Having reached 20 years of the poll, the station has, for the third time in its history, invited people to stretch that bit further and vote for the “Hottest 100 of All Time”. To help us along the way, the station’s website has put up “our potted history of music over the last half century”.
Divided into decades, starting with the 1960s, each page shows between 9 and 15 album covers, with an accompanying note about musicians or bands that influenced the direction of rock and pop. The section on the 60s mentions the Supremes as one of the groups on the Stax/Motown label, and Janis Joplin as appearing at the Monterey Pop Festival. Then the 2000s section mentions the White Stripes. NO other female artists or groups that include women are mentioned. Of the 59 album covers shown to illustrate, NONE were put out by female artists. Janis Joplin appears as one of the musicians on the cover of the album from the Monterey Pop Festival, but apart from that – well, it’s a good thing there’s that naked female bottom on the cover of the Strokes’ album, or girls might think there was no place for them in the music industry.
It is possibly the modern music industry’s greatest tragedy and shame that it has, collectively, worked so hard to exclude women, keep them to the margins or, at best, channel them into narrow moulds. Given everything that worked against them being acknowledged as musicians it is a testament to the astonishing talent, dedication and sheer strength of will of women that any managed to break through and be heard. But break through they did, and they did amazing things, and now Triple J erases them all over again.
I have been trying to think of an appropriate way of drawing Triple J’s attention to what it means when they do things like this. The station’s own Forum has too much going on; a comment there would just disappear. They haven’t breached any codes that make a formal complaint appropriate (just breached their responsibility to their audience and their affirmed principles). I think a letter to Richard Kingsmill, Triple J’s Music Director, is my best chance to be heard. This is a man who cares about his music, so I want to say to him: check how many hits your history page has had. That’s how many people you’ve told that women have no place in music. I don’t want to just write a note, but to really make the case for why this is the kind of screw up that matters, if he really believes they have a commitment to young Australians.
This is not commercial radio. It calls itself “alternative”. It claims to be “all about the music”. It’s a station that specifically declares its interest in young people, and says it wants to “satisfy all your musical and cultural needs”. So, dear Hoydens, this is where I need you. Where does it seem to you that the erasure of female artists distorts the history of popular music? Who has shaped the direction of the art form in ways that deserve to be acknowledged? What would you like this station (that you pay for with your taxes) to hear about how your experience of what matters in music just got pushed off the edge of the page?
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So now women are being ‘disappeared’ from the music listening/choosing process by the SMH in an article entitled ‘Revenge of the dads’:http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/music/golden-oldies-infiltrate-triple-j-list/2009/07/10/1246732472629.html
The final result is very poor. I’m pretty sure that only two women feature as vocalists on the entire 100 songs, and they’re both guest vocalists for Massive Attack. (My partner thinks the Pixies song may have Kim Deal doing backing vocals too.) There’s a few more groups with a woman performer on an instrument: The Smashing Pumpkins had D’arcy Wretzky on bass (I think that’s Wretzky’s period with them anyway), The Pixies had Kim Deal on bass, New Order had Gillian Gilbert on keyboard.
Triple J just announced on Twitter that they will be discussing the gender imbalance on air: “We’ll be talking about the #hottest100 gender imbalance today on @triplejhack . 5:30PM. Have your say!”
Nice work to all those who wrote in and got that page changed.
In addition to orlando’s comment about women never appearing in frames labelled “the greatest”, someone on Twitter pointed at The Rap Against Rockism. The mention of gender in there reminds me of some of the geek world problems: women in addition to not being “the greatest” also aren’t authentic and rebellious and rock’n'r0ll (or geek, in geek communities): women are the mainstream, they’re the force that we true alternative rock listeners push back against, etc. Women stop boys being boys. In this narrative, women aren’t the voice of youth or counterculture, they’re the voice of curfews and sobriety, and so women’s voices don’t appear in youth experience or memories.
A nice young man called James just called me for a soundbite for the Hack slot this afternoon. I’m happy it’s getting talked about, so we’ll see how they get on.
(That’s a really interesting aspect of it, Mary. Isn’t it bizarre that women can be painted as mainstays of the status quo when we’re so relentlessly excluded from it’s power structures?)
That’s really great Orlando!
The verdict: while it’s definitely better that they talk about it than pretend it isn’t there, the overall feel was of PR damage control. They even tried to act as if their history had included albums by women all along, though it was good to see their last caller gave them some stick about it, so the presenter had to admit they’d changed it after “feedback”. Obviously I said quite a lot that didn’t make the soundbite! There were a few good comments, plus short interviews with female musos trying to walk the line between admitting the music industry is blatantly riddled with sexism, and not wanting to sound like troublemakers (“remember – must be suitably grateful for JJJ promoting me”).
And a big whack with a clue-by-four for the dude who said that it was because female singers just can’t convey emotion the way the male voice can.
Yeah, that guy was a real charmer.
I liked what the academic Catherine Strong had to say about the way that female voices get forgotten and then (re)discovered. Unfortunately its so true, and not just about women in grunge music, as was her specific example, but I’d argue women in any male dominated field.
Rayedish – you could see exactly the effect she was talking about in a couple of the younger female callers who seemed to think the explanation was that there just weren’t many women playing music until recently. They really proved the points we’ve all been making about the way “history” is constructed and communicated.
And a big whack with a clue-by-four for the dude who said that it was because female singers just can’t convey emotion the way the male voice can.
Yes, silly muggins forgot his script – women are too emotional, dontcha know? Too emotional to be properly musical or properly rock and roll, that’s the script. Eejit.
Oops. Should have read over here before posting back over on the other thread. [hides head].
Hi Orlando, my name’s Frances and I was wondering if you would mind if I quoted this entry, as well as some of your comments on this entry, in a paper I’m writing. I’m doing a short case study / description of this debate around the Hottest 100 as part of a discussion of the political significance of the Australian feminist blogosphere.
Let me know if you would prefer not to be involved, and if you have any questions I’d be happy to answer them also! franceshaw AT gmail DOT com. Thanks for the great post :)
There’s a nice little piece of snark in James Jeffrey’s Strewth! column in The Australian this morning.
Tim Dunlop’s just put up his top 5 women artists over at Crikey.
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