Why is electronic music such an overwhelmingly male-dominated industry? Are women discriminated against, or is it just different for girls? Lulu Le Vay meets some of the world’s top female dance producers and DJs to find out.
Dance music is dominated by men. Despite the presence of a handful of female producers, engineers, DJs, artist managers and songwriters, the industry is overwhelmingly male. Is that a problem? Not everyone agrees. “I’m so over this debate about being a woman in dance music,” opines DJ Heidi Van Den Amstel. “I don’t feel discriminated against and have done well in the industry on my own without any help from anyone. However, it is naturally good to see more women involved.”
Heidi
Although Heidi raises a fair point – plenty of female musicians, DJs, journalists and managers have succeeded with (pretty much) equal respect and support from their male peers – this is still a debate that surely needs re-airing based purely on the evidence. According to PRS for Music, just 12% of writers on its books are women, a drop of 4% from 2011. Only 4% of Music Producers Guild members are women. TheLiverpool Institute of Performing Arts says just 6% of the students enrolled on its sound technology course are female – a figure that hasn’t changed for three years. Only one spot on this year’s DJ Magazine Top 100 was taken by women, in the form of Australian blonde model twin sisters Nervo. There were none last year.
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