The John Peel Lecture by Charlotte Church on Women in Music

1) Charlotte Church, at a young age remembers being told frequently what to wear and what to do
as an artist.
- lots of female artists coming into the mainstream media are facing this problem: but now, women
are making themselves heard in the media market.
- over-sexualisation of women in the music industry
- we cant ignore this issue (which Charlotte addresses in her lecture) its one of
the most important and talked about topics, concerning women in music.
- as a parent of a boy and a girl, she feels she wants young people to see women in a different light
to what is pushed on them at extremely young ages.
- she also addresses the question of can sex be art? her answer, yes.
2) Shirley Mansen,;
- the music industry for women is brutal
- women get eaten up as youngsters
- only the strongest survive
- any fragility gets exploited or destroyed.
- music industry like women to sell themselves as sexual objects, i.e; because being sexy + sensual
sells.
3) Jessie J;
- its hard to get to the top as a woman in the music industry
4) Stevie Nicks;
- says she is not here to be a sex symbol.
- she is here in the music industry to be a writer/singer/artist
-not to use her body as a means of success + doesnt want to talk about
being a sex symbol because she is not.
5) Tori Amos;
- wanted to be a composer: was told that she couldnt be as women didnt do well
- she believes that this isnt true, it is rather that they are
probably very talented, but dont have the ability to do well, as theyre not given the opportunity to
do so.
6) Yoko Ono;
- the music industry = important for everyone
- womens power is strong + beneficial for the world.
7) Kanya King (MOBO founder);
- Rita Ora reminded us all that she had her first big/break-through performance platform at the
MOBO awards it was her boost into what would be a massive career, aged just 15
- Kanya felt privileged saying we need to champion such achievements.

Young child stars such as Miley Cyrus are appearing over-sexualised, and that is taken by society
as shocking but being put under pressure is seen as a statement given by artists to say that a girl
has grown up.
- Sexualisation = pushed on artists; its cynical to say young artists think theres no other way of
selling and achieving a goal.
- Objects of comedy are often used to cover up embarrassment (Charlotte Church stated from her
personal experience).
- is the artist in control? Or should we all follow the sexualisation of women as the way
it should be?
- Female roles are lacked in management, marketing and production
- background of music lacks female influence.

8) Amanda Palmer;
- she wrote a letter in response to Sinead OConnor as she felt upset
- she plead that Sinead should use a bigger playing field by giving
girls weapons to fight naked on the battle field.
- why is Sinead so concerned with Mileys dress sense?
- is nudity art or manipulation?
- there should be more freedom and less rules.
- Amanda filmed a video where she was in a mens jacket, jeans and a bra: she felt powerful and sexy
- but her a+r guy said that they would have to cut some scenes out from the
video as they werent as flattering as they could beshe argued against, but it wasnt actually about
nudity, rather her size: she didnt look thin.
9) Annie Lenox stated that videos are pornographic and are damaging to young women
- Miley Cyrus used a move associated with black culture, as she was
influenced by it
- certain things effect other subcultures.
- JLO = defined by her buttocks alone not known for her music.
- many different people will respond to videos differently in different ways, for various reasons.
- Too much focus on artists such as Miley Cyrus, when there is a bigger influence of female artists
already around.
- The way Miley Cyrus acted in her Wrecking Ball video, is the way all females in their 20s would
probably act as you dont know how to be an adult; so you pretend, until you do know.
- Female photographers shoot for pg.3
- idea that all women = 1 big sisterhood is wrong, as theres a difference between
exploitation, art, power etc.
10) DJ Annie Mack;
- lack of female DJs;
- in 10yrs, DJd with less then 5 girls.
- never experienced any sexism lucky?
- probably as she was able to make her own music and no label was behind her to control
her.
- people were delighted that Annie Mack is a female DJ.
- at a gig in Skegness; its agreed that men who DJ, will have girls in the background in bikinis, on
podiums dancing around
- she banned it at her gig.
11) Amanda Palmer;
- she knew a DJ who complained that she was losing business to female DJs who werent nearly as

technically competent as her but they were pretty, blonde, hot and wearing bikinis.
- most of her role models growing up were men because the influence of female artists was limited
- women always seem to have to make a statement as a female artist in order to
succeed and stand out.
12) Artists they looked up to;
- Charlotte: looks up to Bjrk as she managed to sustain an incredible career: she was fearless.
- Amanda: looks up to Patti Smith.
- Annie Mack: looks up to Minnie Riperton and Aretha Franklin
- they had a lot of gentility and power.
13) Kathleen Hanna (lead singer of Bikini Hill);
- the bands level of girl power pre-dated the Spice Girls
- songs covered issues such as domestic violence.
- Kathleen put feminism in her life before music when working in a domestic violence shelter
- it kept filling up more and more: she wanted to get the message across that
feminism still exists, and so, got into music.
- received death threats, had beer spat in her face and was pulled off stage by her ankles at the start
of her career
- but young girls came to the bands concerts; standing front row, crying and singing their
lyrics.
- scarcity of women in music means that they get asked about role models/being role models more
than men
- it should be asked of all artists.
- as an artist, Kathleen wants to appear 3-dimentional and make mistakes (if shes going to be seen
as a role model).
- its usually expected that female artists have to be perfect, or judged 100x more than men.
- people assume theyre not a feminist as they dont hate men and shave their legs: thats not
feminism.
14) Lauren Mayberry (from Chvrches);
- post her and her band put up has caused a stir on the issues of feminism and sexism.
- her and her band posted a picture telling people not to send them sexist-defensive messages
- didnt think people would react and loads of people did: so they wrote an
article for The Guardian, expanding on their point and message
- response was positive from both men and women: so more people should speak
out.
15) DJ Annie Nightingale;
- she was told to be sexy and sensual when presenting not playing her tracks; just talking into a
mic.
- 1st interview with Radio 1 she was told no women could DJ.
- she became the first female DJ, and it wasnt until 12yrs later that Radio 1 had another female DJ
- but now there are lots.
16) less then 5% of music producers are women.
- 32% of music related jobs are taken by women.
- Adrienne Aitken and Amber Davis: (Amber) = in publishing there are a lot of women but not in A
and R.
- she doesnt feel that being a woman effects the way she works and helps an artist.

- (Adrienne) = says its strange to be a female producer

- she didnt want to do a glamorous job to become a producer (a lot of women
were put off by that idea in the past).
- a lot of people being a producer isnt good for females, as its not a familysuitable job to have.