I am a member of several audio related groups on Facebook and one topic recently caught my eye: the topic of women in the audio industry. I wrote a semi-related blog for a class over the summer discussing inclusion in video gaming and I have my own thoughts on the topic. As a man in the music industry, I have seen some abhorrent behavior from my male counterparts, but at the same time I have been relatively sheltered from a lot of this type of behavior because I personally have chosen not to surround myself with those type of toxic males. I wanted to relay some of my experiences so please keep reading if this topic is something that interests you.
First I want to talk about my experience with Ashfield. We were a semi-professional band in Denver, Colorado from 2004 to 2014. I can say that I had some of the best experiences of my life on stage with the other 4 members and we easily played several hundred shows to small and large crowds alike. Our fans were evenly mixed of male and female and I was never aware of any discriminatory treatment from our fan base to anyone else within our fan base. That said, we did play a show where we opened for a fairly well-known national touring act and one of the other opening bands had a female lead singer. She was a fairly close acquaintance of ours which is to say we were friendly but we didn't hang out regularly and this was the first and only time we ever shared a stage with her band. The lead singer of the touring act, who was male, spent a good portion of their set making lewd comments about our friend's chest. Needless to say, this act grew tired real quick and I'm happy to say that the crowd, made up of a lot of our fans, quickly turned on the touring act. Still, our friend was quite shaken and, despite our efforts to console her, ended up leaving the venue. A small number of us confronted the offensive singer after the show and he attempted to play off the situation as a joke. The situation did not escalate further, we said what we felt needed to be said, and the touring act left without incident. This was the only time I witnessed such disgusting sexism on stage though I'm sure it happens much more frequently than I am privy to.
I also want to relay my experience in the recording studio as a performer. Ashfield spent significant time in the recording studio and again, we were fortunate to work with some very good engineers. My personal feeling about our recording sessions were that they were private affairs so that the band could focus on the work and the creative process. However, other members of the band would bring their girlfriends on occasion and this was never an issue for me or for the recording engineer. In many cases, their feedback was welcomed as the perspective of someone who would be buying and listening to our songs. Obviously they were not there in a professional capacity, but no one ever looked at them as "groupies" or people just hanging out with the band. I believe there was only one time in the history of the band where all 5 of us were in relationships at the same time and there is a picture featuring all 5 of our girlfriends tricked out in Ashfield merchandise. This is one of my favorite promo shots that we ever got to use.
Finally, let me talk about my experience as an audio student and hopeful audio professional. When I started my coursework at California State University, Chico, my group of Recording Arts students included 35 people. Of this 35, only 4 were female. Of those 4, 2 dropped the program by the second semester. In a study published in 2019, 3 creative roles were highlighted regarding diversity: artists, songwriters, and producers. The study revealed that 21.7% of artists, 12.3% of songwriters, and only 2.1% of producers were female. So clearly there is an issue with diversity and inclusion here. I cannot say why there were so few females in our program to begin and I cannot say why 2 of them dropped, but clearly there is an opportunity to do better. The stories of women being harassed in the studio are sickening. I can tell you from my perspective that I do not care if a male or a female is recording me. Whatever is being done to give us the best possible sound is all I care about.
If you've read this far, I hope that you do not interpret this as a tone-deaf response to a real issue. I want to be a part of the solution as this is an industry in which I am trying to create my opportunity. Really this is just my response to a post that I felt was very thought provoking and I wanted to share my relevant experience. Thank you for reading.
