Let's Talk About Sex: Gender Trouble in the Music Industry

In 2016 Sally Anne Gross the Course Leader of the MA Music Business Management at University of Westminster’s created a series of events that sought to instigate change in the dynamics of gender inequality in the music business, starting with the underrepresentation of women in music production and music technology. At this time there had been a great deal of press coverage in this area from female artists as well as women working in all areas of the music industry. As BBC Radio One’s DJ Annie Mac’s broadcast (March 2016) on the subject of women in the music industry points out, women make up less than 15% of writers registered at PRS and less than 15% of performers booked to play UK festivals are women. The issues surrounding gender inequality are a major concern for women working in music across the board, from pre-school to professional music industry. This presentation argues that it is important to contextualize the discrimination of women in music, as part of a wider problem of the reproduction of culture- the politics of reproduction