The music industry holds a numerous amount of people who work together to create genre-filled masterpieces. From producers to songwriters, the “behind the scenes” workers of today’s favorite mainstream artists play an important role every day in creating chart success. When award shows like the Grammys come to commemorate artists of all backgrounds, females in the music industry continue to get the snub, according to a USC study.
In fact, between the years of 2013 and 2018, from a grand total of 889 nominated individuals only 9.3% were female. Over the last six years, no women have been nominated for Producer of the Year. Race and ethnicity was also calculated and 31% of nominations went to women from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group.
The study also analyzed over 600 songs present on the Billboard Hot 100 between 2012 and 2017. For producers, only 300 songs were criticized alongside a 3 year span. Of these songs produced, only 2 percent were by females and 98 percent by males.
In conclusion, there were four major points to eye carefully from the grandiose amount of data represented by USC.
- Females are missing in Popular Music
- Racial/Ethnic Inclusion Appears in SOME Areas of the Music Industry
- Genre and Gender are linked for Women, but not for Men
- Music Diverges from and Dovetails with Other Forms of Entertainment
According to Dr. Stacey L. Smith,
Females are underrepresented not only among the popular charts of the music industry, but when it comes to notoriety among peers and critics as well. Women face a restriction in the range of times they are nominated whereas the cap for men is higher. These results extend the findings of the previous sections and further emphasize the degree to which the music industry marginalizes female talent.
Looking at some additional creative role percentages in the music industry, 22.4% of artists are females and only 12.3% are songwriters.
