WHAT IS IT?

Guess what?  Women are underrepresented in the music industry.  *

I used to mention this quite regularly (i.e. at any opportunity) back in the days before coronavirus, when we had things like office banter and soapboxes, but it struck me recently that I don’t engage with as many releases by women as I’d like to or as I should.  

Actually, truth be told, it’s a sad fact that I have listened to almost no music for many months now unless it’s a project I am doing for work (which amounts to about 6 artists) or something from my husband’s jazz collection echoing through the house.  

So this is my attempt to remedy that for myself and share my findings with anyone else who may be interested in listening to more music by women.  And as catalogue is the world I inhabit for the day job, I thought I may as well focus on that.

I love to abide by rules, so I have made some for the purposes of this project: 

• By a female artist or female-fronted band
• Anything that can be defined as catalogue (which is typically older than 3 years) or not brand new (which can include anything that has been out before in another guise) - reissues, box sets, previously unreleased archive material, coloured vinyl, digital singles, CD collections etc
• Released within a four week period of review (it was apparent in week one that getting things with speed or predictability may not be feasible)
• Any format
• Any genre
• Any age of artist

In the words of Shania Twain: “Let’s go, girls!”


*If you are interested in some further reading about the presence of women in the music industry check out:
The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative
Book More Women
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