The gender illustration debate in music refuses to fizzle out, and when pageant season rolls round, the identical scrutiny makes the rounds once more. Social media erupts with line-up graphics coated in pink ink, blotting out each act not fronted by a girl or non-binary performer. The intention is all the time the identical: to carry organisers accountable for inequality. However in aiming for equity, are we risking meritocracy in favour of optics? And extra crucially, are we asking the best questions after we demand extra range on the principle levels of male-dominated festivals, particularly in genres like rock?
There’s no denying that there are institutional issues within the business that want addressing. However the name for illustration for illustration’s sake doesn’t clear up the deeper points—it simply papers over them. When there are already lots of of fiercely gifted feminine artists dominating the charts and reshaping genres on their very own phrases, the argument that girls are being universally shunned begins to break down beneath the burden of its personal simplicity.
Let’s step again and truly have a look at what the music business wants proper now, and whether or not the battle for higher illustration is addressing the actual causes of inequality—or simply its signs.
Pageant Line-Ups: Visibility or Advantage Signalling?
Every year, line-up bulletins for main rock festivals are met with outrage. It’s all the time the same narrative: the highest slots are full of male-fronted bands, and girls are relegated to the small print. The response is comprehensible; illustration issues, and the optics of a line-up ship a message about who belongs within the scene. However in some circumstances, the demand for an equal break up begins to look extra like a numbers recreation than a push for high quality.
If the purpose is equity, forcing steadiness with out addressing the pipeline that feeds these levels finally ends up being superficial. Are there as many energetic, high-profile female-fronted rock acts at the moment touring as there are male bands? Probably not. However is {that a} reflection of discrimination on the a part of festivals, or is it a results of fewer ladies at the moment pursuing rock as a style compared to others?
It’s simple to level fingers at curators, but when we wish true parity, we have to ask why the illustration isn’t naturally extra equal—and whether or not manipulating line-ups to look balanced is definitely attaining something significant.
Advantage Ought to All the time Come First—However the Enjoying Area Should Be Degree
It’s doable to advocate for each meritocracy and variety with out letting one undermine the opposite. The music business ought to all the time prioritise expertise, originality, and viewers connection over id politics. No artist desires to get a slot due to their gender; they need to get it as a result of they should be there. And as a lot as organisers have a duty to open doorways, pushing artists into areas they haven’t earned, simply to appease a demographic expectation, helps nobody—least of all of the artists themselves.
However meritocracy solely works when the enjoying subject is stage. If ladies are struggling to entry rehearsal areas, gear, mentors, and even the boldness to enter historically male genres, then after all fewer of them will climb to the extent the place pageant slots make sense. So whereas the purpose ought to by no means be to artificially inflate numbers, the duty lies in creating an surroundings the place anybody, no matter gender, can thrive and compete on equal phrases.
The Drawback Isn’t Visibility—It’s Pigeonholing
It’s disingenuous to counsel that girls aren’t seen in music. A number of the most influential and commercially profitable artists of this technology are ladies—Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, SZA, Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Rey. In pop, RnB, indie, folks, soul, and electronica, ladies are main the cost. The genre-specific disparity in rock is actual, however it doesn’t mirror a systemic shunning of feminine artists throughout the board. It displays the entrenched cultural associations of sure genres.
Rock has lengthy been framed as a boys’ membership, rooted in machismo and mythologised male revolt. Ladies in rock should not new, however they’ve all the time needed to battle for house in a scene that was by no means constructed with them in thoughts. That cultural coding issues. It’s what retains some ladies from even selecting up a guitar. However the reply to that isn’t to shoehorn ladies into line-ups—it’s to reframe the style and who it belongs to.
Artists like Nova Twins, Pale Waves, and Chappell Roan are already proving that girls are reshaping rock on their very own phrases. The style doesn’t want charity; it wants cultural rewiring.
Gatekeeping vs Demand: What’s Really Holding Ladies Again in Rock?
For all of the noise about male-dominated scenes, it’s value asking whether or not gatekeeping is the principle purpose ladies aren’t headlining rock festivals—or whether or not it comes all the way down to demand. The dwell music business, notably festivals, is commercially pushed. Curators e-book what sells tickets. If an all-male headliner lineup constantly sells out sooner than a gender-diverse one, that tells us one thing—not essentially about misogyny, however about market forces.
After all, these forces are formed by a long time of inherited bias. But when the purpose is sustainability, we will’t ignore the economics. Pushing feminine rock artists to the highest of payments earlier than they’ve the identical stage of fanbase, attain or influence doesn’t problem the established order—it simply dangers creating resentment and tokenism. It will be higher to put money into constructing these artists up by way of media assist, radio play, playlist curation, grassroots occasions, and honest funding alternatives—giving them an opportunity to naturally attain headline potential.
If something must be dismantled, it’s the infrastructure that stops feminine artists from constructing that attain, not the headliners already sitting on high of it.
Actual Range Goes Deeper Than Gender
The fixation on gender illustration usually overshadows different, equally necessary range gaps—race, class, incapacity, sexuality. The music business nonetheless leans closely in the direction of artists who can afford to take the monetary danger, who dwell in cultural hubs, who’ve the boldness and networks to navigate the scene. That’s the deeper rot that wants addressing.
Fairness doesn’t imply equal numbers throughout each metric; it means dismantling the precise obstacles that cease gifted folks from progressing. In some circumstances, that’s misogyny. In others, it’s poverty, neurodivergence, or an absence of business connections. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, and making an attempt to implement surface-level illustration gained’t change the business except it’s a part of a wider cultural shift.
What the business actually wants is to cease treating id like a field to tick and begin creating circumstances the place benefit and illustration are aligned—not at odds.
Conclusion: Illustration That Isn’t Earned Doesn’t Repair the Drawback
Nobody is arguing towards the worth of illustration. Seeing somebody who seems such as you on stage or on the high of the charts is highly effective. It sends a message that you simply belong. But when that illustration isn’t earned by way of benefit, it rings hole—and it dangers undermining the very folks it’s meant to assist.
The music business must preserve breaking down boundaries—however it additionally wants to withstand the temptation to show id right into a advertising and marketing tactic. There’s greater than sufficient feminine expertise to warrant fairer line-ups with out forcing the problem. The issue isn’t that girls aren’t succesful or ; it’s that the business hasn’t made it simple for them to thrive in each style.
Range and meritocracy aren’t opposing forces. They will—and will—exist collectively. However the push for gender steadiness have to be rooted in sincere critique, not reactive politics. If the purpose is a more healthy, extra inclusive business, we have to look beneath the floor of the line-ups and ask what’s actually stopping artists from getting the popularity they deserve.
Article by Amelia Vandergast
