Comments on: Hack – “Is your taste in music sexist?” A transcript.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:42:31 +0000

Although I am bang in the middle of their demographic I don’t think I’ve ever voluntarily listened to JJJ except for the odd Roy and HG Origin call, and I didn’t even know this vote was on except I saw twitters about it, and the subsequent blog analysis. But it made me think about similar lists of “greatest ever” country songs and a quick google confirms my feeling those are more gender balanced than the rock-oriented ones. Interestingly, the ones which cater more to the mainstream, contemporary taste seem more gender balanced than the more “high brow” hand picked critic compiled lists. I can think of a few things to say about that so I might blog about it when I get back from hols.

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 08:28:55 +0000

I was talking to someone at a party last night about how I bought the new Guitar Hero game. The GH franchise has pretty similar levels of gender diversity to the All Time Hottest 100, that is, almost none. My friend also mentioned that he counted 24 songs from the GH franchise that appeared in the Hottest 100, ie a quarter.

Now, that’s not a pat answer to anything, but is suggestive of the kind of influences that listeners turn to in addition to Triple J (or possibly instead of, there’s no way to tell how many of the voters were regular listeners) and GH would not be the only influence that is as devoid of women musicians as the poll results were.

By: purrdence

purrdence — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:48:59 +0000

I happened to look at this years Regular Triple J Hottest 100 and it didn’t seem terribly woman-friendly.

Sarah Palmer’s new CD, however, is quite delightful. :)

By: orlando

orlando — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:54:33 +0000

Aaarrrghhthphpppt.
That is all. Carry on.

By: Mindy

Mindy — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:57:29 +0000

I had the misfortune to be listening to JJJ last week (during the morning show) when they had a band on who sang something along the lines of “I’m going to kill you” and then ” I have 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one”. So my thoughts about JJJ and their attitude to women is pretty low (because they are promoting these misogynist little shits, ok?). Lowered again when someone rang in and complained that Maree sounded like she didn’t like the band. Oh noes, male is outraged when female DJ dares have an opinion of her own. Threatened much? She then went into a self-deprecating speech to soothe his poor widdle feelings.

By: fuckpoliteness

fuckpoliteness — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:21:17 +0000

I’m a little depressed over this stuff, more about people’s insistence on justifying/refusing to engage. I made a comment on Facebook which turned into a monster thread – I’ve got two male friends in particular tag teaming on how ’simple’ the whole thing is – apparently the music industry is driven by teenage girls and chicks like artists who ‘get them wet’, ie/ go for cute over good music. I apologise for that, I’m just quoting. So after reams of my comments trying to assert myself and my opinions, discussing the issues covered here (the gendered notions of ‘greatness’, the way girls/women are expected to engage with the perspective of boys/men but not the other way around etc) dudebro no two comes on and goes ‘Yeah, how interesting, so if women dominate the mainstream, then perhaps as an alternative space jjj is a male space’. I will not fully type out the expletives in my head right now. THEN I get another male friend pass on privately that he thinks they’re idiots as far as those arguments are concerned – which I appreciate, but really: WRITE IT ON THE THREAD PLEASE! I mean I was arguing and arguing, but they ignored my points and just went on to engage with the guy’s bland idiotic points, and clearly felt victorious in their intellectual and logical superiority, so clearly what was necessary was for a GUY to say ‘You two are idiots’.

By: shinynewcoin.wordpress.com/

shinynewcoin.wordpress.com/ — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:50:03 +0000

Everything FP said.

Also, just quietly, I’ve been rocking out to Devil Dolls lately. Great rockabilly guitar sound. I must have been the last person in the world to discover rockabilly.

By: orlando

orlando — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:51:05 +0000

So if it was just a conversation starter, not meant to be a proper history, why did you feel the need to “rectify” it? Honestly, the attempt to justify themselves is just insulting, isn’t it? It would have looked so much better for them if they openly said something along the lines of “wow, we’ve been shown something really significant about the way we do things here. Let’s start a conversation about how we could change our own culture of choosing what we value.”

And, following on from WP’s comment on the previous thread, I really want to know what women they play who aren’t up-and-coming young artists. Has anyone who listens regularly heard anyone older than PJ Harvey played?

By: Kirstente

Kirstente — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:38:31 +0000

I must admit, I kind of love these comment threads because I keep discovering really great bands.

By: purrdence

purrdence — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:43:56 +0000

4 Non Blondes!