What inspired my research process—
Often, you’ll find men being more successful in the music industry than women; men also tend to receive less scrutiny from the media and fans than women. Representation has become more important than ever in our society so I wanted to figure out why women in the music industry tend to see less success than men.
I have found in my own experience that music and lyrics can strongly influence the way I interpret myself and the world around me. As a rap and hip hop fan, I often find streaming services and public radio stations pushing men artists. Rap Caviar, a Spotify playlist that highlights current popular rap music, will often have only a few songs made by women on a playlist of 50 songs—pushing me into a rut of listening to music that often highlights misogyny and puts down women’s value.
In the past few decades, the push for women’s success has increased resulting in spaces like Spotify’s EQUAL genre. There are certain genres like alternative and R&B have a higher percentage of popular artists that are women but in other genres like Rap/Hip-Hop and Rock, there’s less power and space for women at the top. The EQUAL genre highlights women and non-binary individuals from all over the world in many different genres to uplift their voices. This genre is something that I have been listening to since it was founded in 2020 and inspired me to create my own women-artists based playlist that has reached over seven hours long.
Intersectionality (“the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” - dictionary.com) is an important aspect of this topic as women cannot see great success when their gender is supported but their race or class is suppressed. I have taken Women & Gender Studies here at West Virginia University and it really helped me put my thoughts into words and has led me to put in more effort to support all aspects of an individual as a whole and not separate people into multiple “labels”.
It’s important to remember that not all artists and labels are inherently sexist, but it’s often that men have more immediate respect in not only the music industry but all over the world. People may not realize that they are contributing to the patriarchy with their actions; It’s important to take a step back and analyze your habits and decisions to ensure that you’re not too narrow with the diversity of media you intake. Making these conscious decisions in my life inspired me to research what causes the drastic lack of positive women representation in main-stream media. I wanted to figure out where some major issues stem from and possible solutions to some problems.
Research on discrimination and sexism in the music industry.
Research
My analysis
Gender inequality and imbalance in the music industry is the result of a combination of many factors.
These factors are:
a. Historical and cultural factors: Men have historically seen as better suited for leadership positions than women, leaving lack of representation in music leadership.
b. Networking and connections: Success in the industry is dependent on networks and connections. Due to the gender imbalance between women and men, women often do not have as strong and extensive networks as men.
c. Work-Life Balance: Due to the social burden placed on women, it’s harder for them to live up to these expectations while also having a high-demand for travel due to the industry.
d. Unconscious Bias: Decision makers and leaders in the music industry may have unconscious biases about the abilities and achievements of women and men. These biases may result in women being less favored for and having fewer opportunities in music management and leadership opportunities.
e. Education and Career Opportunities: Gender inequalities in the music industry are also evident in access to educational and career opportunities.
These are the some of the biggest reasons that women aren’t as successful overall in the Music Industry. Networking and Connections as well as Unconscious (or conscious) Bias are two of the biggest reasons that I have found support for the lack of general success in other research endeavors.
During a stop at The Breakfast Club, Ross talked about the show and discussed with the radio show’s host why hes never signed a female artist to his label, Maybach Music Group.
“You know, I never did it because I always though, like, I would end up f**king a female rapper” he said, “and f**king the business up,”
When sexism like this exists at the top of the power level, it’s hard to believe it isn’t affecting women at the consumer level. In order for women to be over-all uplifted within the community, the men and women in power need to be specifically uplifting and supporting woman artists.
About 93% of Americans say they actively choose to listen to music to the tune of more than 25 hours per week.
With features allowing us to see similar artists people listen to, a “Discover Weekly” playlist has been tailored to our existing music taste, and ‘song radio’ suggestions that play similar music to a song we like. The specialization of these playlists allow us to discover new music every day.
Spotify encourages it’s users to listen and discover music because it wants us to consume music more than ever.
Music is a big part of many people, especially young American’s lives. Teenage years are super formative and music is quite influential—making what you’re listening to important.
Although what type of music we consume isn’t just our responsibility to monitor. Streaming platforms and radio stations push specific music that is popular at the moment, affecting the way that we listen.
As technology and listening habits develop, how music is exposed to us changes. Spotify and other music streaming platforms have certain algorithms that influence and tailor to our listening habits. Spotify want us to use it’s platform so it recommends us music that we’re familiar with. It’s not impossible to find new artists on Spotify, but new music isn’t pushed to users not seeking it.
“According to data from Spotify, based on a sample of five million subscribers, male users listened to 94.2 percent male artists.”
Multiple factors lead into women receiving less success in the music industry. The lack of women representation in the industry isn’t anything new so I researched organizations or events that have a similar mission–to promote or uplift women in music.
This part of my research led me to the discovery of the Lilith Fair. This was a woman-based music festival that was operational in the 90’s and was a popular event until founder, Sarah McLachlin, didn’t have the time to run it any longer.
After reading through my findings, I wanted to find other women-led organizations in the Music Industry or similar spaces that help women succeed and find their voice in the space.
Here are the organizations that stood out to me and helped me narrow down my final message of Luna Land.
Women in Music is an organization with a mission to advance the awareness, equity, diversity, heritage, opportunities, and cultural aspects of women in the musical arts through education, support, empowerment, and recognition.
The shesaid.so Gender Equity Manifesto
Equal pay, equal parenting and care-giving, and equal opportunities in the music industry, both on a creative and business level. Equal representation in all industry sectors, particularly senior and technical roles, in order to ensure a diverse pool of role models. Zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, harassment and/or other inappropriate behavior. Everyone deserves to feel safe.
Intersectionality is paramount. We recognize the increased challenge many women and gender nonconforming people face in addition to their gender identity and we pledge to address that in every undertaking. These include but are not limited to race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, age, ability etc.
"We are an independent, global network that operates as a unifying organization for women from across the industry, creating strength and impact on a global scale. As an umbrella nonprofit, we also provide resources and support for women-focused initiatives that are working to create meaningful change – both through our own programs, as well as external efforts around the world."
Below is my process of deciding who I wanted to reach and what message I wanted to send.
The bottom right portion of this scan shows my thought process of breaking down the information gathered during research into specific topics or questions to focus on. Most of the research process led me to specific genres of music that lacked female representation or leadership—like hip hop, rock, and R&B. The lack of representation is something that I wanted to focus on; but who was I speaking to through the design process?
Narrowing down my audience was the next step. The flow chart of the top of the scan shows a breakdown of the messages I wanted to send and who it is and isn't for. Deciding on a specific demographic or group of people to design for was helpful in the development of my research as I knew what genres or areas of the industry I wanted to focus on.
This mild flow chart shows my process of narrowing down on a specific thesis/question I was posing to my audience. By connecting my ideas or information found during research, I was able to see what information was most prevalent and had the most supporting research.
I wasn't sure if I wanted to focus on speaking to the consumers of media or the artists themselves but this shows that most of the information related to sexism affecting the artists more than the listeners.
My final audience was combining the listeners with the artists by merging a music festival and a conference to uplift and promote women in the music industry. By day, Luna Land acts as a conference bringing professionals and women interested in the music industry together to network and gain insight on struggles or advice from those who have made their name a household one. The music festival portion brings up and coming artists to light, but still having larger but still relatively new artists performing.
Project Proposal
Throughout my research, I became more passionate about fighting discrimination against women in music and concerts have always been a hobby of mine so creating a brand that focuses on uplifting and empowering women in the music industry is something that I was eager to do. Hundreds of thousands of online articles speak about the lack of space for women in this industry. Between these articles, I noticed that music created, produced, or written by emerging women artists is often only successful when backed or promoted by a large male artist.
Since my decided audience is young Americans, a music festival paired with a networking conference is the perfect opportunity to engage and inspire my target audience. I am specifically looking for music listeners interested in or open to change in their music taste by compiling a list of up-and-coming or smaller artists to be the bulk of the festival line-up. By curating a smaller lineup of artists, I can promote the idea of music exploration since there will be minimal stages present at the event.
The Luna Land music festival is a two-night event the day before and after the Luna Land conference. The conference is partnered with She Is The Music, founded by Alicia Keys who is the keynote speaker of the conference. The itinerary includes workshops, food catered by local women-owned restaurants, panels featuring noteworthy artists or leaders in the industry, and a performance by Dolly Parton to close off the conference event.
Due to the lack of support from other artists and producers being a problem for many women in music, creating a space where networking and celebrating talent could be a key part of opening up the industry to be a safer space. Providing a space for not only working artists to grow but also for wondering or emerging artists, will boost the morale behind the growth of women’s presence and leadership in the music industry.
I drew on my skills in typography and color to produce a meaningful and diverse brand that has multiple use cases. I wanted to learn more about illustrative graphics and unique branding which led me to the decisions on color, typography, and how I used those elements. I knew I succeeded when I could fully visualize Luna Land as a brand that stands to empower and uplift women in the music industry. This process was something that I found passion in and was constantly evolving not only the idea but the look of the brand and what I wanted it to be in its final form.
Reasoning behind my design choices
Base Mono is the main typeface used in the logo, promotional, and ephemera designs for Lund Land.
The designer of this typeface is Zuzana Licko; It was extremely important to me to use a typeface created by a female designer. Base Monospace works perfectly with the theme and aesthetics that I chose to work with for this event.
I took a lot of inspiration from music festivals like Lilith Fair that focus heavily on women, art movements like Psychedelia, and color pallets that resemble the 80's—keeping it modern, yet brining in small elements of the past.