Agnes Obel

Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel (born 1981) is a Danish singer-songwriter. Her first album, Philharmonics, was released by PIAS Recordings on 4 October 2010 in Denmark, Norway, Germany and other European countries. Since February 2011, Philharmonics is certified gold.

Agnes Obel was born Agnes Caroline Thaarup Obel in 1981. Living in Copenhagen, and coming from a musician family, Agnes Obel learned piano at a very young age. Her mother used to play Bartók and Chopin at the piano. During her childhood, Agnes Obel found inspiration in Jan Johansson’s work. Johansson’s songs, European folk tunes done in a jazzy style, have influenced the young musician a lot.

She attended high school at Det frie Gymnasium and university at Roskilde University.

At the age of seven, Agnes Thaarup worked in a little band where she used to sing and play bass guitar. The group appeared in a festival and even recorded some titles.

Later, and with the help of Danish musician and producer Elton Theander, Obel founded the Copenhagen based band Sohio. After few years of collaboration, Obel debuted as a solo singer with her first album Philharmonics (2010).

Agnes Obel writes, plays, sings, records and produces all her material herself.

She is influenced by artists such as Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, PJ Harvey and also by the French composers Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Eric Satie.

Obel lives in Berlin.

via Last.Fm

Just So

Philharmonics

Agnes Obel on iTunes:

Nanna Øland Fabricius (born 20 November 1985 in Copenhagen), better known by her stage name Oh Land, is a Danish singer-songwriter and record producer. She is currently living in Brooklyn, New York City.

Daughter of an opera singer mother and an organist father, she is a former student of the Royal Danish and Royal Swedish Ballet schools. However, an injury caused by a slipped disc and spinal fracture put an end to her dancing career, which eventually led her to start making music.

Oh Land’s debut album, Fauna, was released in her native Denmark on 10 November 2008 by Danish independent label Fake Diamond Records. For her eponymous follow-up album, she worked with producers Dan Carey, Dave McCracken and Pharrell Williams (who have worked with the likes of Lilly Allen and CSS). The album was released on 14 March 2011 and peaked at number five on the Danish Albums Chart. It also served as her debut in the United States, where it was released on 15 March 2011 by Epic Records, reaching number 184 on the Billboard 200 chart. An EP with the same name was previously released on 19 October 2010, containing four tracks from the full-length album. On 7 April 2011, she was given the Brink of Fame: Music Artist award at the 2011 NewNowNext Awards.

Oh Land made her US television debut performing “Sun of a Gun” on Late Show with David Letterman on 2 March 2011. She also performed it on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on 24 March 2011. She is currently touring the US as the supporting act for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

Now Oh Land is about to hit 10 million views on Youtube with her sensation, “Son of a Gun”. Oh Land wants her music to sound like, “2050 meets something really classic, like meeting a stranger that feels as familiar as an old friend.”

A particularly wonderful quote coming from Oh Land is in reference to her childhood, “We didn’t think, ‘Let’s play with our Barbie dolls or a board game today.’ We were building our own universes. And nothing’s changed, except now I have an audience beyond my parents.” I think this is something that parents should have a goal for their kids, to create their own universes.

via wikipedia and ohlandmusic.com

Sun of a Gun

Lean

Oh Land on iTunes:

Dum Dum Girls

Dum Dum Girls are an indie pop band from California currently signed to Sub Pop Records. Their name is a homage to The Vaselines album ‘Dum Dum’ and the Iggy Pop song “Dum Dum Boys”. The group also cites The Ronettes, The Ramones, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Patti Smith, Spacemen 3, and Mazzy Star amongst their major influences.

The members of the band each have the words “Dum Dum” tattooed on a finger. Front woman Dee Dee has been likened to a “goth rock Susana Hoffs (lead singer of The Bangles)” and the band as the answer to “What if the Bangles and the Cure had mated in 1982?” by Spinner’s Kenneth Partridge.

Along with the bolstering stage name, Dee Dee has utilised that time-honoured tactic of stage dress-up as a way of creating/inducing a more confident onstage presence, and credits a host of strong, boldly-attired female legends such as Siouxsie Sioux and Marianne Faithfull as inspirational music/fashion idols” “Patti Smith, Grace Slick, Siouxsie Sioux, Mary Weiss, Ronnie Spector, Hope Sandoval, Nico, Madonna. Courtney Love was a big deal to me when I was 12,” she remembers.

via Wikipedia

Wrong Feels Right

There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

Dum Dum Girls on iTunes:

Chairlift formed in Boulder, Colorado in early 2006 to make live music for haunted houses. Frequenting the Broker Inn on the edge of town for empty late-night jazz shows, Caroline Polachek, Aaron Pfenning and Patrick Wimberly were mystified by the 1980’s faux-gothic architecture, oak-cabinet aquariums, vacant dancefloors, fake trees, crystal chandeliers and dark velveteen booths. The inn provided them with the ideal setting for a new breed of pop: a place where subtle clashes blossomed into uncanny pleasures.

Relocating to Brooklyn in the summer of 2006, the trio continued on to develop a hypnotic yet tongue-in-cheek style, playing shows around Brooklyn and the Lower East Side with a thriving society of experimental pop magicians including MGMT, Yeasayer, Suckers, and Mixel Pixel.

With the release of their debut album, Does You Inspire You, set for fall 2008, Chairlift spent the summer on tour with Ariel Pink, and made plans to tour in the fall with Yeasayer and a first European tour – seeing the band through Germany, UK, Ireland and France in November.

In September 2008, “Bruises” was featured in the new iPod Nano TV commercial. The band promptly got written up everywhere – from the NY Times, Billboard Magazine, to Stereogum.com and PerezHilton.com.
Chairlift is known for a mellow style. The back-beat tends to sound very electronic and at times eighties. Nonetheless, Chairlift is innovative and finds a way to remain fresh in an era with more and more imitating sounds.

via Kanine Records

Bruises

Garbage

Chairlift on iTunes: 

Shingai Shoniwa

Shingai Elizabeth Maria Shoniwa (born on 1 September 1981) is an English singer of Zimbabwean descent and best known as the vocalist and bassist for the UK indie rock band Noisettes. Her first name, Shingai, means ‘persevere’ in the Shona language.

Shoniwa grew up in a South London public-housing estate; her father died when she was 11, leaving her to a single mother who had emigrated from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The experience, Shoniwa says, absolutely informs her music. “Wanting to escape from reality can inspire the greatest and most trivial creative natures in people,” and “I think escapism is something that connects all of us. Everybody has their own little soundtrack, and I guess I’m trying to make my own soundtrack to my escape plan. I want people to realize that there’s so much more.”

She first wanted to be an actress, and for a while joined the Lost Vagueness crew as a burlesque performer. She studied circus skills at a London youth club as a teenager. When she graduated, she attended art school and dabbled in local theatre. Her classmate and friend, Dan Smith, would hold what she called “ridiculous jam sessions — too many people strumming broken guitars thinking they’re Syd Barrett”. She then went on to study at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon.” One day she joined him singing, and the two quickly formed a group called the Noisettes.

Critical response to Shoniwa’s performance has largely been positive. Rolling Stone magazine said that “Shoniwa is a living, breathing manifestation of the rock & roll spirit, with a voice that is equal parts Iggy Pop and Billie Holiday.” In her stage persona, Shoniwa looks like what the New Yorker called “an African supermodel”, and she frequently performs in bare feet while wearing face paint or fur hats on stage.

Shingai Shoniwa has provided backing vocals for different indie rock, electronic, and punk rock artists including, Guillemots with their song “Made Up Love Song#43″ and “Over the Stairs”. Shoniwa made an appearance on Annie Lennox’s 2007 album, “Songs Of Mass Destruction” on the single Sing. The track, about the fight against HIV and AIDS, included 22 other renowned female artists such as Madonna, Melissa Etheridge, Gladys Knight, and Celine Dion.

via Wikipedia

Never Forget You

Don’t Upset the Rhythm

Noisettes on iTunes:

Taylor Swift

Inspired by AutoStraddle’s article.

Now, let me begin by saying I don’t hate Taylor. She plays her own instruments, writes her own song (a fact that at times is painfully obvious) and if she learned how to sing live, she would be a perfectly mediocre musician. She’s perfectly lovely, never rude to anyone (ever) and I also support any woman who follows her heart and manages the difficult task of succeeding in the music business.

However; the fact that she won album of the year at the Grammy’s this year, an honour that had previously been bestowed upon the likes of Ray Charles, U2, Norah Jones, Bob Dylan, JOHN FREAKING LENNON, Michael Jackson, Alanis Morissette, the list goes on, and the fact that the legend, Stevie Nicks, was reduced to singing back up, got me thinking that maybe (just maybe) success in the music industry isn’t really dependent on any actual talent anymore. And maybe (just maybe) Taylor actually embodies many things that are terribly wrong with North-American culture.

So, without further ado, here are the reasons why I dislike Taylor Swift and she’s not exactly a feminist role model.

1. Her blatant misunderstanding of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and her inability to use a thesaurus.

We have all heard the song, “Love Story.” If you haven’t, good for you. It is a perfectly adequate song – the music is catchy (if your into that sort of thing). It’s the lyrics that are absolutely cringe worthy. The chorus contains such mind shattering linguistic acrobatics such as:

“romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
i’ll be waiting all theres left to do is run
you’ll be the prince and i’ll be the princess
its a love story baby just say yes”

Really Taylor? A Prince and a Princess? That combination of people is groundbreaking and unheard of.

Plus, the concept of Romeo and Juliet being compared to a couple who love each other and are together for eternity made my theatre-loving soul cringe. Were you there that day in English 10 Taylor? I’ll do a little recap for you, THEY DIED, after knowing each other for a very short time. Oh yeah, and Romeo killed Juliet’s cousin.

Okay so maybe I’m being a little harsh, TONS of artists have bad lyrics right? I’m sure Taylor has some good ones, let’s take a look at “Fifteen”

“And then you’re on your very first date and he’s got a car
And you’re feeling like flying”

Whoa, just kidding.

It only takes a quick glance at the rest of her lyrics to realize that they are, for the most part, shallow and unoriginal and sound like a bad 80’s teen movie.

So, okay, her lyrics aren’t great, but if you manage to not be bothered by them, all it takes is a quick look at her videos. They may even be double cringe worthy. Which takes us to number two.

2. The Slut VS. The Virgin- Swift is a feminist’s nightmare

From the Taylor Swift videos I have seen, only two types of women exist. The bitchy slut, that loses in the end (or the nice slut, that still loses) and the virginal girl next door. Guess which one Taylor is! In almost every Video she is wearing a white dress and in the Love Story video she actually walks through a garden in a white dress and picks an under-ripe cherry off a bush. REALLY PAPI? REALLY?

Then in “You Belong with Me” Taylor shows up at the dance in her white dress, and steals the boy away from the popular bitchy girl in her smutty orange one.

Now, there is nothing wrong with abstinence and all that Jazz, but since we have established that Taylor is not musically or lyrically special. Why did she win over the sexual and creative Gaga? Or the strong, independent, and bootylicious Beyonce? Because America wants a conservative, tame, role model and Swift embodies that.

The idea that Women are only valuable if they are Married or Virgins is reinforced in “Fifteen”

“And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy
Who changed his mind and we both cried”

Everything she had? I sincerely hope that this Abigail’s worth is measured in more than just the state of her hymen, but furthermore, I hope that one day society will learn to respect and accept the choices that EVERY woman makes for her body, not just heterosexuality and abstinence.

That being said, I haven’t found a single one of Taylor’s songs that doesn’t centre around boys. I’m sure she has a complex and interesting personality, but I don’t know what it’s like because Taylor presents herself as an entirely boy-dependent, overly innocent, baby-faced bunny. The media milked the innocent bunny thing after Kanye interrupted her (and subsequently ruined his reputation) Come on, you were all thinking it, Kanye just said it out loud, as obnoxiously as he could. Which brings me to number 3.

3. Dear Taylor: your life wasn’t that sad, and glasses don’t make you an outsider

One of my biggest beef’s with Taylor is her constant reference in acceptance speeches and interviews to her “fairytale” story of her rise to fame. A white, skinny, conventionally attractive, heterosexual young girl makes it in the music industry? What are the odds of that? She was made fun of in middle school for liking country music? Well, most girls in Africa don’t get to go to school at all, if one of them rose to fame and won album of the year, I would be impressed. Swift was born to loving, supportive, wealthy parents, who pulled her out of high school and home schooled her so she could achieve her dream. Her story is less of a fight against the odds, and more the high school experience we all wished we would have had. Taylor, you are very very lucky, and no matter how many teenage girls identify with your lyrics because you wore glasses and a T-Shirt in that one music video, they still won’t have a fraction of the opportunities you did, because you fit in so well.

In conclusion, Taylor Swift is a conservative parent’s wet dream. She is safe, and digestible. She didn’t wear a red latex dress to meet the queen. She went to a Christian school, her lyrics promote abstinence, and ‘normal’ heterosexual relationships with football players, instead of riding on disco sticks. She embodies the American dream, she leaves taboos and boundaries exactly where they are.

That is exactly why she shouldn’t have won, but exactly why she did.

The girl does have some good hair though, doesn’t she?

hair win, feminist fail

Rose Cora Perry

I remember a few years back, I received the biggest insult of my life to date, in regards to my career as a professional musician. Some random dude (for no reason and without any provocation on my end) decided to send me a message which said (mind you, in fewer words and with worst grammar) that the only reason as to why I’ve had any success as an artist is because and I quote, “I’m a hot chick”. Not only was I offended because said individual essentially was saying that I had no talent whatsoever to back up and/or justify my career milestones (clearly he was unfamiliar with my 10+ years of vocal and theory training in virtually every style from classical to jazz to broadway, not to mention my awarded credentials which allot me the designation, should I rightfully pursue it, to act as a licensed music teacher, among other things), but as well (and more importantly), what really hit home was the fact that unfortunately, there was an element of truth to his insensitive remark.

Whether I like it or not, I can say with almost 100% certainty that, if I weren’t attractive, he’s right, I wouldn’t be successful in making a name or establishing a reputation for myself. The reason as to why this latter point was so offensive, however, goes beyond the fact that, as a musical purist who writes her own material and believes in the amazing healing and inspirational powers of music, I’m disgusted by the industry’s corporate takeover and shallow focus on marketability, above all else. Rather, the problem lay in how the idea of my “hotness” as being essential for my success jives (or fails to jive, more accurately) with my feminist disposition. More simply, when I was confronted with this individual’s point of view regarding my lack (in his opinion) of musical ability, I was simultaneously smacked in the face with the fact that this double standard of discrimination does not exist for my male counterparts. Case and point: Chad Kruger, the so-called “ugliest successful musician” according to many media publications. You will note that there has NEVER been named a female equivalent. And so, with that potentially contentious introduction, I move to the crux of this article: that of marketability, and what it means (and/or how it is limited) for the female artist.

While male musicians are able to don bleach-blond spikes like Billy Idol, wear leather pants and makeup like MCR, tie feather boas around their mic stands like Steve Tyler, or even reinvent themselves as the next Frank Sinatra like Michael Bublé, marketability for the female musician, irrespective of genre, is synonymous with sex appeal, and showing T&A. From the “trashy sexy” of C. Love, to the “sexbomb kitten status” of Mariah Carey, to the “gothic/dominatrix allure” of Amy Lee and even the newfound “mature curvature” of old Alanis, who used to proudly uniform herself in ripped jeans and unisex ts (these days, she’s definitely showing more skin – no doubt an effort to compete with younger “versions” cause don’t you know once a woman has passed 35 in the music biz, she’s obsolete – at least among the mainstream presses, and more importantly, the mainstream crowd), the message and image remains the same: for a female musician to be popular, and achieve stardom, she needs to be sexy, or more accurately, appeal to the male fantasy of what a sexy woman is/looks like.

I’d be a hypocrite if I were to criticize any of these women, however, as I find myself forced to face the same fate, but I do so knowingly (and without a label breathing down my neck denoting how I can and cannot present myself) in the hopes that perhaps one day, I can enact change the inside out. Trust me (hopefully, I don’t burst anyone’s fantasy bubbles about me by stating this), but when I’m not on stage or in front of a camera, my “image reality” is very different – you’ll catch me, most days, in nothing more extravagant than a pair of jeans, and a band t-shirt (but don’t even get me started on how difficult of a mission it is, in itself, to first off find non-pastel band ts for women, let alone band ts of “good” artists – ie: those who actually rock). For that matter, if I have a day off (god willing) and I’m free to lounge around my loft, you can be certain that they’ll be NO makeup on my face, and I likely haven’t even bothered to disrobe from my p.j.s; I imagine it’s a similar story for the above noted women.

To return momentarily to my introduction though, the ironic thing is that, rather than it being simpler for any female musician to “make it” in the male-saturated and male-dominated industry because she can rely on her looks, as the purveyor of my insult so ignorantly assumed, it is MUCH more difficult. I can’t emphasize that enough! If you’re not thought of as a “novelty”, or mistaken for the groupie girlfriend, at the very least, you are ALWAYS seen as a FEMALE first, and an artist SECOND. Not that I have any qualms with being a member of the “fairer” sex, in fact, I take pride in my womanhood. The problem arises in the fact that the association of music (well, any art, in general) with femininity automatically deems it as less respectful, less sincere, but MOST importantly, LESS ORIGINAL: the complete opposite of the goal every artist aspires to accomplish.

When men write songs of the romantic variety, or belt out ballads detailing their lonesomeness and desperation, their words are seen as indicative of the “human condition”, and containing universal truths that can never be overstated. On the other hand, when women artists choose to tackle these same subjects, rather than being acclaimed for exploring their own feelings in regards to such deep subject matter, they are labelled “cliché” because female musicians are only seen as capable of pinning over their lost boyfriends (or girlfriends, if the subject matter is particularly angry, ie: chick rockers with animosity are almost invariably labelled lesbians and man-haters). While I can’t speak for all other women rockers (women artists, in general), I think I’m probably pretty dead-on when I suggest that we, as a group, would much rather be respected and appreciated for our musical abilities and contributions, than solely be lusted after for the “junk in our trunks.” BUT…in saying all of this, I am NOT proposing that artists should (or ever could be) treated genderless.

As an artist AND a woman, I am positioned uniquely in this world, and it is from this positioning that I am able to draw inspiration and create the work that I do. Further, it is my personal experiences, that could only result from this dual identity I have been afforded, that ultimately result in my ORIGINALITY, as an artist. I am NOT saying all of this to go “femi-nazi” on my male musician friends (for that matter, many of my favourite artists are men), I only hope that artists, one day, irrespective of any other master statuses they may possess (ie: gender, race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, or sexual identity etc.) can be seen for JUST that: as creators of unique, engaging, thought-provoking, critical, and even titillating experiences, as the former points really bear no influence in regards to whether or not one has talent.

As I’ve just eluded to, my arguments are not exclusive to the “problem” of womanhood when it comes to being a musician – I, personally, think it is a damn shame that most of those not privileged enough, like me, to have been born in the mid-80s remember M.J. as nothing more than an odd-looking fellow who seemed to have an affinity for getting himself involved in unfavourable situations regarding children. For those of you who’ve actually ever bothered to study his history, not to mention read his lyrics, you’d recognize how much more he was to the world, than just that.

So, why is it, in an age where we’re apparently liberal, accepting, and open-minded, that such stereotypes and such discrimination continue to be perpetuated? Well, in the case of women, I hate to state the obvious, but, in reality, it comes down to nothing more than a “turf” war. Women are OVERsexualized because it dis-empowers them from having any sincere claims to creative potential. To borrow from feminist scholarly discourse, our status as “objects” is reaffirmed, and we are not seen as possessing the necessary faculties (whether conscious or subconscious) to act as active agents, on our own accord.

So the question then becomes, well, why are women deliberately dis-empowered? Again, I hate to state the obvious, but quite frankly, MEN ARE THREATENED BY US and it’s all an elaborate means of controlling power, and therefore influence (and this is a trend not just seen in music, but in greater society, why do you think that, in general, we still earn only 80 cents for every dollar a man earns in equivalent occupations? I’m not making this stuff up ladies – it’s the truth – consult the stats, if you don’t believe me).

The electric guitar has long been equated as an penis extension, so if a woman (who’s obviously lacking said anatomy) can wail with the same precision and swagger as a man, then it throws into question our entire history and legacy of all artistic movements stemming from male greatness, with women as nothing more than mere mimickers, at best, or arm-candy and backup dancers to the glory of MANkind, at worst. It is a little known fact, for example, that the true inventor of the rock guitar technique known as “two-finger tapping” (attributed to Eddie Van Halen) was ACTUALLY A WOMAN named Jennifer Batten, or that the popular Elvis tune, “Hound Dog” was actually penned by an African American FEMALE, Big Mama Thorton, and that its subject matter (ironically) documents a lover’s quarrel with a mate who had, to put it nicely, some “undesirable” qualities, from a FEMALE PERSPECTIVE.

It is these contributions that have been skirted away in history. It is these contributions that have historically, and still presently, been viewed as unimportant, and therefore have remained unrecognized, and for a greater part of our history, undocumented, except among private and/or elitist crowds. Because of this, unsurprisingly, women (especially, those who are lacking when it comes to “conventional” notions of beauty) have not only been discouraged from attempting to enter the music biz, but moreover, we’ve systematically been indoctrinated with the belief that we will always be inferior as compared with our male contemporaries, and that we will only ever be able to attain acclaim in female-friendly/centred circles (and unfortunately, even in these latter group, “cattiness” is often an issue, and judgements impelled onto females often remain rooted in male standards of comparison. I truly wish we could all just get along!).

So along with my impartation of this rather grim reality check, do I have any shreds of hope to offer? OF COURSE! Anyone who knows my work is aware of the fact that despite my bitching, it has always been and will always remain my goal to leave my listeners with a little inspiration. With that said, I call upon you, my sisters, to pick up your axes, rock those boomstands, and to smash those drums (we ESPECIALLY need more women percussionists) with the talents I know you all possess. Make your music – beautiful, or ugly AND present yourself beautiful or ugly, in the process- it don’t matter to me babes, ‘cause I know there is value in ALL art.

About the Writer

Rose Cora Perry is the former frontwoman of Canadian hard rock bands ANTI-HERO and HER, the creator of the highly successful music industry advice/insight column, “So You Wanna be in a Rock Band?“, as well as the sole owner and operator of HER Records, a management company in which she offers marketing, promotion, publicity, tour booking, and artist development services specifically for female rock’n’rollers.

A dedicated promoter of D.I.Y. ethics, and an avid supporter of independent musicians, for more information on Rose Cora Perry, please visit her official website located at: http://www.rosecoraperry.com

market me!

Sexism in the music industry can be seen in a lot of ways—lyrics that objectify women, women being seen as sluts if they sing about being promiscuous while men are seen as “just doing what guys do”, female musicians being held to higher standards of male musicians, etc. Amanda Palmer, for instance, is an artist who has faced the beast we call sexism with Roadrunner Records, the label she was signed to. When the video for her “Leeds United” video was being made, Roadrunner told her that they thought she looked too fat in the video and that they wanted to cut out shots of her belly so that the video would be more likeable. As she said on her blog, Amanda thought that she looked hot in the video, so she wouldn’t budge and change the video just because her record company thought that she couldn’t look “hot” if she looked a smidgen chubby.

the fab Amanda Palmer

The sexism in the music industry can also be seen in who is popular and who isn’t. Amanda Palmer has a lot less fans than, say, Katy Perry. While Miss Palmer has 18,993 fans on Facebook at the time of writing this article, Katy Perry easily trumps her with the 1,960,536 fans that she has. Amanda Palmer comfortably sings feminist-sounding lyrics that denounce such things as feeling like you need to have a significant other in order to be happy (in the song “Ampersand” she proudly proclaims, “I’m not gonna live my life on one side of an ampersand), Katy Perry sings things that are definitely far-off from being feminist, including her conclusion that women aren’t good if they’re attracted to other women (this is pretty obvious in “I Kissed a Girl” when she sings that “it’s not what good girls do”).

Katy Perry

Now, I will admit that I do enjoy Katy Perry’s music sometimes. However, that doesn’t change how depressing it is that the music industry will do all they can to promote a musician who has lyrics that are demeaning to women, while a musician who has feminist lyrics is often given the shaft (Amanda Palmer’s record label has done more to be unsupportive of her than just what happened with the “Leeds United” video—for one example, they did very little to support her tour to promote her Who Killed Amanda Palmer album, which you can read about in old entries on her blog).

Is it because a woman is seen as threatening if she has feminist lyrics in her songs? Is it just easier to market a song that has sexist or misogynistic lyrics than it is to promote a song that doesn’t? Judging from the kind of music that is popular nowadays, it seems that these are the opinions of most people in the music industry. Also judging by the artists in mainstream music who seem to hold feminist opinions but do not publically identify as being feminists—Lily Allen, anyone?—you could come to the conclusion that, if their record labels do have these opinions about feminism, the artists simply don’t publically identify as feminists because their record labels recommend against it.

Readers, our lesson about the music industry today can be summed up easily with three words: It. Is. Dumb. Let’s hope the future of music shines a lot brighter than this.