I was talking to a Swedish festival of booking an artist. They showed very much interest in a band that is very successful right now. Suddenly the called me up and asked after a much smaller and not as ready artist.
The new artist was already booked on these dates so I asked if the artist they where first interested of could do it. No, they are men they answered.
Suddenly their gender was against them. The festival even agreed that the male artist was a better choice. Still, they were not booked because of their gender. We need women on the festival the organizer excused. I was checking the schedule and it was more women than men already booked to the festival. Yes, they answered but the headliner is male so we need even more women they told me. Who was the headliner? It is a male artist convicted of sexual harassment. I guess to smooth things over they want a female artist in front of that mistake. I'm not so sure the female artist would like that argument.
They stop an artist career of their gender. This never happened before. Sure it was more men on the stages but if there was a popular female band we never stopped them because of their gender. And I stumble on this behavior quite often. I was not even surprised to hear the conversation. It was after I though over how bizarre this new system is.
I was talking to the artist label about the problem. Their new single is playing on major radio stations around Europe but not in Sweden.
They have the wrong gender was the answer from the label. Swedish radio only plays female artists, especially if they have a foreign background. This is men from a midsized city, impossible to place in so we won't even bother to send it in.
I'm angry but in the way you probably think. Yes, this discrimination is going on all the time. But I have another approach to it. This discrimination doesn't work well works in favor of the female people working in the industry. The artist we can always go to territories where the music that is best is counting not what you between your legs.
No, the error comes in another step. I bump into several women that working professionally and feel ashamed of what is going on. Also, they become limited to work with less good acts that are female. And that stops them when they get out on the international market. Their products are not good enough in the competition. But they get the opportunities. In the end, it will be the best music that wins when you are in the big market.
I'm very before equality, but this is not equality this is even worse at it has been. It's not counted what you produce, it's your gender, skin color, and sexual orientation that determined what is heard in Sweden.
This is not helping anyone. Especially not women in music, this just makes things harder to get the industry equal.
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