IDM Mailing Archive

At 18:34 9/18/95 -0700, Jeff Thorne wrote:

quoted 4 lines One question that comes to my mind is: Is the percentage of women involved

>One question that comes to my mind is: Is the percentage of women involved >in techno music lower than that of other types of music (ie rap, country, >rock)? If so why? Or is it that women in techno are just less visible >because techno artists as a whole are less visible?

Well, there's two questions here. Or rather, one question and an assumption. The assumption is that there is a relatively large percentage of female musicians involved in polular music. I'd say women are under-represented as musicians as a whole. When you think about it, up until pretty recently the only real foothold women have had in popular music is sort of a "Let me sing to you like your dream woman would" role. I know this is a gross overgeneralization but look at most of the popular female musicians of the '70s, '80s and early '90s. In all honesty, do you think the sound techs ask Mariah Carey whether she wants large hall reverb or funky_algorithm_2? Do you think they would respect her reply if they did ask? I'm not saying there's active sexism (though there probably is), it just may be that social inertia has kept women from assuming a proportional role. It sure isn't lack of talent... some of the best DJ's I know of are women, and various genres have their female geniuses. (Kim Deal, PJ Harvey, Liz Fraser, Tori Amos, Laurie Anderson, Gillian Gilbert, etc, etc.) Regardless, though, they are dwarfed by the sheer number of male musicians being pushed on the airwaves. And there's plenty of shitty music being pushed to make it difficult for any given band to succeed, regardless of their ability. That said, it seems to me that (in answer to your other question above) that the relative obscurity of IDM makes it the perfect genre (or set thereof) for females to succeed. Just like computer science is the perfect carreer for it. "All" either require is brains, geekiness, patience, hard work and creativity :-) (in all seriousness, most men that I know are at best on an even keel with most women that I know in the above areas, perhaps except geekiness).

quoted 5 lines What is it about being

> What is it about being >in a techno band (or any band for that matter) that makes it so attractive >to males? Is it self-expression, prestige, money, girls, some sort of macho >"master of the machinery" thing? I for one would really like to see more >female involvement, and not just as vocalists.

Greg Earle just sent a pretty good article on ego getting in the way. His wife and he certainly have had the experience to make a justified guess on the subject :-) What can we do to encourage

quoted 6 lines this? (I'm trying to help in my own small way by getting my girlfriend to

>this? (I'm trying to help in my own small way by getting my girlfriend to >play with my gear. Wait,... that sounded really bad, sorry). I think the >female perspective has a lot to offer this musical genre. Hopefully in the >future we'll see more of it. > >==<<JT>>==

I'm sure we will. -H- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Howard Berkey howard@sirius.com "'La-Z-Boy'? What's the next chair, a 'Hopeless Slack-Ass'?" - Frazier DoD# 0944 berkey@atlas.arc.nasa.gov