[troutman]

Why Are Women Underrepresented in Music? Look to the Ryan Adams Story

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/why-a..._tvpQtcvRxjkvs

The entire history of popular music is paved with tales of abusive and predatory men, from John Lennon and Led Zeppelin to Tupac and Dr. Dre, on and on and on. Sex with underage girls has not only been normalized, it has been celebrated. (Almost Famous and Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen” don’t exactly hold up in the #MeToo era.) This stuff is baked into the DNA of the industry. Ask any female musician if she has experienced anything like what Phoebe Bridgers, Courtney Jaye, or Mandy Moore describe, and she’s likely to have a story of her own to share.

How many lives have been ruined by coercive men and their protectors? How many women stopped working in music because of them? And how much great music did we lose in turn?

“I think sometimes about the size of a library full of the books that weren't written, the movies and shows that weren't made, the music that was never played because of the way marginalized and vulnerable creative people were treated,” Linda Holmes, host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, tweeted in the wake of the Times’ Ryan Adams report. “I mean, there's a good chance you never heard what would have been your favorite band.”

Every time another headline pops up about how women are underrepresented on the charts or in music production or missing from festival lineups, we should think about the countless gatekeepers who, instead of helping women, used their positions for sexual gain at the expense of their targets. This casual abuse of power is the norm in music, a grey area unlikely to be dealt with by a male-dominated industry still just wading into #MeToo. But the Ryan Adams account is a necessary reminder that this is what many women deal with, at one point or another, in pursuit their dreams. The more often these difficult stories are told, the less abusers can hide behind feigned ignorance and weak, deflective apologies.