A
FTER THE UNIVERSITY
of Southern California’s
Annenberg Inclusion
Initiative released its first
study in January 2018 highlighting a
stark lack of women in the music
industry, artists and executives jumped
into action. The Recording Academy
added a task force on diversity and
inclusion, Spotify launched the EQL
Directory of women audio profession-
als, and Alicia Keys introduced the
organization She Is the Music, which
hosts all-female songwriting camps.
(Billboard is also a partner.)
Now, the initiative’s third annual
study, funded by Spotify, reveals that
those efforts and others are beginning
to move the needle.
“While these shifts are small,
collective action takes place when
multiple companies, in multiple
positions of gatekeeping, take action,”
the initiative’s founder/director,
Dr. Stacy L. Smith, tells Billboard.
“We’re starting to see change.”
Among the findings: The list of
2020 Grammy nominees contains
the highest percentage of women
in eight years — 20.5%, compared
with just 7.9% in 2013 — across five
major categories: record of the year,
album of the year, song of the year,
producer of the year and best new
artist. This year, nearly half (44.4%)
JASON DERULO LEFT CREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY FOR REPRESENTATION AT UTA. BEYONCÉ SIGNED A GLOBAL AGREEMENT WITH SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING.
11.7%
OVERALL NOMINATIONS (2013-20) NOMINATIONS BY YEAR
7.9% 8.2%
6.4%
than 10% of nominees in the record
or album of the year categories during
that time frame were women, and
most jarringly, only one woman
has been nominated for producer of
the year across the past eight years:
Linda Perry in 2019.
Annenberg researchers also up-
dated their examination of 800 songs
from Billboard’s 2012–19 Hot 100
year-end charts. Women constitute
21.7% of all performers, 12.5% of
songwriters and 2.6% of producers.
Still, the percentage of female
artists rebounded to 22.5%
in 2019 after two particularly
meager years: 2018 (17.1%)
and 2017 (16.8%), the latter of
which represented a six-year low.
And while the gender gap is still the
most pronounced for songwriters and
producers, 2019 did feature the high-
est percentage of female songwriters
across all the years evaluated (14.4%,
up from 11.6% in 2018), and the
number of female producers in 2019
more than doubled from 2018
(11 vs. five, respectively).
A section of the study on racial
diversity includes more bright spots.
In 2019, more than half (56.1%) of all
artists on the Hot 100 year-end charts,
male or female, were people of color,
up from 38.4% in 2012. The percentage
of women of color working as song-
writers has steadily increased (from 14
credited women of color in 2012 to 44
in 2019), and nonwhite female song-
writers now outnumber white female
songwriters on the charts.
While these statistics are a positive
sign, Smith adds that in order to see
sustained change, music industry play-
ers must approach “every song as an
opportunity” to involve women: “Now
is the time to step on the gas.”
THE NUMBER OF FEMALE GRAMMY NOMINEES HAS INCREASED WITH TIME
20.5%
16.4%
8%
14.1%
11.5%
of the writers nominated for song
of the year are women — including
Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, Billie Eilish
and Taylor Swift — and in the best
new artist category, five of the eight
nominees are women: Eilish, Lizzo,
Maggie Rogers, Rosalía and Yola.
The numbers show that last year’s
slight uptick in female nominees
“wasn’t a one-and-done,” says Smith.
“If we see a continued upward trend,
it suggests that some of the guidelines
adopted by the [Recording Academy]
task force” — like taking steps to make
all academy committees gender-
balanced — “have yielded dividends
in a positive direction for women.”
Smith also hopes that the increase
in female nominees will inspire
more young women to pursue careers
in music. “When you have an inclu-
sive stage, it signals who belongs,”
she says. “People like Lizzo or Billie
Eilish are really illuminating to young
[women] that this is a space they too
could thrive in.”
Overall, just 11.7% of nominees in
those categories across the last eight
years were women (and of the women
nominated, 61.5% were white). Fewer
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
From left:
Swift, Lizzo
and Del Rey.
‘We’re Starting To See Change’
A new study shows that efforts to create a more inclusive music
industry are having a small but encouraging impact
BY TATIANA CIRISANO
36 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020
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