MIX MASTERS
Despite progress made in combatting sexism, the numbers still don’t favour women in the music industry. An Instagram account called ‘Lineupswithoutmales’ appeared just prior to International Women’s Day and documented the imbalance by editing festival posters to leave only female-represented acts on the bill… some were left plain empty. DJ Mag’s 2017 readers’ poll collated a similar imbalance when its list of 100 most popular DJs featured exactly three female DJ acts. In recording studios, the ratio is similarly lopsided; female engineers, mixers and producers are estimated to fill only three percent of control room Herman Miller Aerons.
Other awards haven’t fared much better. The recent #metoo movement famously fell on deaf ears during the 2018 Grammy Awards ceremony, as the results simply confirmed the skewed reality. Only one female artist, Alessia Cara, won a major Grammy Award (for Best New Artist), while a meagre 17 awards (out of a total of 86) went to women or female-fronted bands.
This year’s British Music Producers Guild Awards had a different look. Five of its 16 MPG Awards went to women, including some of the most prestigious awards, like UK Producer of the Year, awarded to Australia’s own Catherine Marks (on the cover of Issue 94). In addition, Manon Grandjean received the Recording Engineer of the Year Award, and Marta Salogni the Breakthrough Engineer of the Year Award. The other two were non-studio Awards, for Jane Third (A&R) and Imogen Heap (Inspiration).
ALTERNATIVE POWER
More than 25 years ago, I wrote an article about the dearth of women engineers in London studios. One studio owner remarked, ‘The rock ’n’ roll industry is one of the most racist and sexist industries in the world.’ The 2018 MPG Awards may be a sign
