London duo Tokyo Taboo released their new album ‘6th Street Psychosis‘ last week, carving out an exhilarating brand of female fronted punk-pop.Their front lady Dolly Daggerz has written a blog for us entitled ‘Pussy Power and misogyny in the music industry.’
“I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer” – Madonna.
Yes, female musicians are seen as somehow less credible than male musicians. You can see evidence of this everywhere; on festival bills, maybe three of the hundreds of musicians performing might be female.
Send an email to booking agents, management companies and label executives anywhere in the world and all the names will be male names (unless you’re emailing the PA). I have a draft email that I use for introductions that reads ‘Dear Mr IAmNotInterestedInFemaleFrontedMusic’ We obviously insert the dude’s real name before sending, but maybe we shouldn’t just to make a point?
I quote Madonna because when I was starting out I tried to be ballsy like her and take charge being the only female in a room of producers. I’d meet managers alone who would trick me into dating them rather than taking my music and ideas about my music seriously: “Let’s meet and talk about your single over dinner at mine?” Because I was twenty at the time, sometimes I fell for this bullshit. I worked with a producer for a long time who was really only taking my money, whilst knocking my confidence and ripping off the chord progressions of Depeche Mode and Stevie Wonder. The thing is, if you are young and female, you might think that mingling with these assholes is the way to get ahead. Because of my drive and determination to succeed I seemed to attract strange characters trying to take advantage. I can guarantee you if I was male I wouldn’t have experienced these things.
What’s the secret to ‘Pussy Power’ in a male dominated industry? You need to set boundaries and take care of yourself. Not because you are ‘weak’ but because you value yourself and your self worth. Business meetings take place with yourself and another person present in a public place. Don’t accept being talked down to by people you’re working with.
As soon as I started in a band with Mike these problems faded away. There were two of us and no one tries to mess with a female with another male present. I would never want to be a solo artist again in the unsigned music scene.
The music industry as a whole needs to wake up and embrace female music. Festival bookers need to book female-fronted bands and musicians, labels need to give female musicians a voice (not just cookie cutter pop acts). Spread the word – the music industry is misogynistic to the max and let’s not shut up about it!
