Over the last 20 years the rise of the female artist has been growing. In the early 90s there were virtually no girl bands, and the only major female singers in the chart were Kate Bush and Annie Lennox. They were the exception rather than the norm, but they sold lots of records, so why were there so few women selling albums back then?
It's pretty obvious to say that the music industry is rather male oriented and sexist. If you're a woman in the industry, whether as an artist or behind the scenes, you have to be tough and very thick skinned to even be treated on the same level as men. This used to be an industry where it was commonplace to have meetings in strip clubs. It's not so archaic a concept as this was still happening in the early noughties.
As more and more talented women move their way up in the world of music, the behaviour surrounding them gets a little better. This really isn't much to do with men in the industry treating them better, but the fact that record companies don't have the disposable income to spend on hospitality they once did. These days the people that are actually still selling the records are women.
Why has it taken the world so long to realise that there are just as many talented female musicians out there? Well as I mentioned earlier, men have always dominated the industry. They have it easy really, as long as they have some talent and the singer has a bit of charisma, that's all they need. Women have to look the part. Unless of course their talent is so astounding their appearance is overlooked. This is the exception rather than the rule. Janis Joplin was a supremely talented singer who was very insecure about her looks. She never felt pretty enough and took a lot of drugs to feel better about herself. Unfortunately her life was cut short due to her overdosing at the ripe old age of 27. She could have gone on to do so much more, but never felt good enough.
Personally I think the main reason there are more women selling albums these days is because more women buy music than men. Of course this is a generalisation and I'm not going to say that men are more tech savvy so download more music illegally. I wouldn't know, I'm quite a tech savvy woman and know a fair few less technically able blokes! A few months ago the top 5 albums in the UK chart were all by female artists. Ok, it was the week after Amy Winehouse died and two of the albums were hers. The other three were by Beyonce and Adele who's had both her albums in the top 5 for most of 2011.
These women are (were in Amy's case) very talented artists who've worked hard to achieve their success. The other thing they have in common is that they stick to their own agenda. They also have strong personalities which endear them to fans. I think female artists are more comfortable with bearing their souls a little more and admitting their mistakes. So many of the songs on these top 5 albums speak to women (and men) about love and life and relationships. It will be interesting to see how Beyonce's career changes, or not once she has her baby in 2012. Obviously she won't be a typical working mum with all her millions. She probably will never need to work again, but I have a feeling she'll work just as hard as she always has done with her music, as that's the kind of lady she is! I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up on the American Idol panel in a few years, though in some ways that is kind of beneath her.
What I'm basically trying to say is that it may be easier for women to break into the music industry now than it was 20 plus years ago, but it's still pretty difficult. If you want to perform, you still have to 'look right' more than the men do. You also have to be pretty strong willed and have a tough exterior, preferably more so than blokes. It's a really difficult industry to break into for anyone, but if you're just average looking and not super confident, it's hard work. I personally think one of the reasons the music industry is slowly dying in a lot of areas is because many people working in the industry have got there on charm and confidence as opposed to having the ability to motivate and innovate. Obviously that's a huge generalisation, but none of the big companies really embraced downloading until iTunes had already taken the marketplace. That's what happens with old boys networks, if only they'd employed more women in the first place!
