In the alleged ‘Year of the Girl,’ led largely by women in media, it’s encouraging that women have seen gains in the realm of popular music according to the most recent study published by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
But before you pop the champagne, you must know that the all-time high record for female producers on the Billboard 100 chart has reached a whopping 6.5%—yes, that’s right, we’re still in single-digit territory. Meanwhile, female songwriters on the charts reached a new peak at 19.5%.
At the 2024 Grammys, which took place in early February, the main categories were dominated by female artists, with Jon Batiste as the sole male artist nominee in the song, record, and album of the year categories.
Behind the scenes, however, women accounted for just 24% of nominees across all six main categories. No woman was nominated for Producer of the Year for the fourth year in a row; only one woman was nominated for Songwriter of the Year; and of the female-led album and record of the year nominees, men accounted for a majority of songwriters, producers, engineers/mixers, and mastering engineers, which isn’t far off from the reality of the music business.
The resurgence of women in pop music is a poor indicator of how women fare overall. Iconic female artists rely largely on male collaborators. Like Jack Antonoff who is a frequent collaborator of Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, and Clairo. Or Dan Nigro, a driving force behind Olivia Rodrigo’s talent for nostalgic music. And that’s just in pop music, the genre that female songwriters are most likely to work in.
It’s worth noting that both Antonoff and Nigro got nods in the Producer of the Year category, which glaringly overlooked Catherine Marks, producer for boygenius’s the record, an album that was nominated for and won multiple Grammys this year—maybe one good record wasn’t enough to gain a nomination. But then, what about Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II who, according to the official Recording Academy announcements, was nominated based solely on his work on Victoria Monet’s JAGUAR II?
As per the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study, if there is an increase in the percentage of female producers on the Billboard charts, then why are they not being recognized? Well, let’s start by putting these numbers in context.
Across nine years, 64 credits were assigned to female producers, with the number dropping to 34 when accounting for individual women across the study. After removing the producers who were also the artists, we’re down to just 8 female producers, which doesn’t even average to one a year. And that’s pretty bleak.
Notably, women of color fare even worse accounting for 19, or 29.7%, of the 64 credits. The ratio of male producers to underrepresented female producers was 100.4 to 1 across the nine-year study.
Although all things considered, the scope of the study feels quite narrow. The study’s author, Dr. Stacy L. Smith, notes that the choice to focus on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End charts stems from “[the] desire to create career sustainability and generational wealth for historically marginalized communities in music.”
But how do we justify championing artists, songwriters, and producers on the charts without addressing the barriers to entry in the first place?
Things can’t change at the top of the charts until change happens on a smaller scale first. There should be better representation of women, particularly women of color, on the charts, but it is also a very limited view of a rapidly evolving industry.
Increasingly, the definition of “making it” in the music business is no longer what it used to be, leaving many music executives scrambling to make sense of the new landscape.
Since 2020, it’s been widely noted that “breaking” a new artist into superstar territory is getting increasingly more difficult, if not impossible. Though this isn’t necessarily bad news. Artists are still building sustainable careers and loyal fanbases without topping the charts. So, why not adjust our expectations accordingly?
In a 2022 survey conducted by the Recording Academy, the top three barriers to career development were identified as low pay, burnout, and gatekeeping culture. This is the specific gap we must look to fill before we consider anything else. It shouldn’t be expected that equal opportunity and equal treatment will trickle down to smaller artists from the Taylor Swifts and Beyoncés of the world.
Representation at the top is valuable for any upcoming songwriter or producer. And we should continue to advocate for it while we prioritize taking care of the girls who want to write, produce, and engineer albums. Girls and women face challenges just to enter into these career fields, let alone to gain notability.
Music executives who function as gatekeepers, poor work-life balance, and poor pay—among a whole host of other problems—within the industry are large mountains to climb, but it’s where we must start.
Buket is a graduate of the University of Georgia (Music Business Alum) and the current Editor-in-Chief of Vinyl Mag. She believes that a sincere lover of music can find something to like in just about any song. She loves to write to escape the grueling drudgery of capitalism. She is currently based in Georgia, but might soon be coming to a music festival near you.