2020 might seem to be the year for women, with equal rights for women being the top topic in all media outlets while making its way into pop culture, but even though discussions about equal rights are omnipresent nowadays and female singer and songwriters celebrate international success, a new study by Women In CTRL has found that British female artists are underrepresented on UK radio.
This result sounds unreal considering the enormous success of female musicians like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion who dominate the charts since weeks and have stimulated a discussion about female empowerment.
But indeed, the so-called Gender Disparity Radio Report proves that songs by women are broadcasted less frequently than their male counterparts in a 12-month period. The report was carried out by CTRL Management founder Nadia Khan and music industry consultant and publicist Linda Coogan Byrne.
Together they’ve analysed the 20 most-played British acts across British radio stations in the period of June 2019 – 2020. Furthermore they analyze included the top 100 radio airplay chart in 2020 such as radio stations like BBC Radio 1, Kiss, Capital FM, Virgin Radio and Heart FM.
In 2019, about 250 organisations committed to tackle the music industry’s gender imbalance.
Now the results of the Gender Disparity Report are showing how deeply anchored the issue is in today’s music industry. 31 individual radio stations have played less than 25% of songs from female artists in the year-long period.
Radio X even had no songs from a female artist in their top 20 most-played acts. Founder Khan calls for diversity across the branch. “To work towards a truly diverse and inclusive music industry change needs to happen within the organisations and Women in CTRL will be conducting a follow up report in 2021 to track progress” she says.
You can read the full report here.
#Peace.Love.Diversity
