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“Hi Ela, first of all, It’s wonderful to speak with you. I was talking with a friend the other day and remarking on how social media seems to have missed a lot of opportunities to converse with others in a way that would have been an extension of how people used to have pen pals in other countries as children. If you’re familiar with Plato’s Phaedrus and the story of Thoth/Theuth & writing, it reminds me a lot of that so it’s great to be able to talk and seeing you develop on that!
To the question! I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on women in music, particularly synth-based music. I never know if it is just me who sees things this way so it would be interesting to hear the perspective of someone whose music I appreciate and who pushes boundaries.
Growing up, most of the ‘big’ synth names were guys. Jean Michel Jarre, Klaus Schulze, Eno, Kraftwerk, and of course Gary Human, Ultravox, Human League, it struck me as very male-oriented. In the last 10 years or so, hungry for something new, I’ve looked deeper and in reality a lot of the main innovators were women such as Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Suzanne Ciani, continuing into the present day with people like yourself of course, Sister Bliss, Lisa Bella Donna, Giorgia Angiuli, Belle Chen, and very many others.
Do you think the explanation is as obvious as just the music industry being sexist, or are there other factors at play? Maybe it’s my taste in music and women tend to be more at the edge and innovative rather than in mainstream pop?
There’s a few other possible reasons I can think of for the disparity or lack of acknowledgement but I guess what it comes down to is, is this a constant trend that we see within music, or are things changing and what we are witnessing is not so much that ‘women have been historically hidden within music and things are no different now’, but that music has to a degree become stale, and ‘women are now at the forefront of bringing something new’?
Many thanks for your time in reading all this, and as always, thank you for the music and I wish you all the best for the future!
”
Ian,
I enjoyed reading your letter, and I'm glad you appreciate this space as much as I do. It took me a while to get back to you, but that is precisely something I like about letters: Time. The freedom from immediacy.
Now, I don't think i have an answer to yor question; there might not be one, but i definitely this is worthy of a reflection; a daily reflection. It might be a bit of everything you mention, plus so much more. And you might have answered it yourself. The industry, of course, is male dominated and that influences both who gets the light shone on them as well as who the audience chooses to pay attention to… but i found others parts of what you wrote more interesting:
“Maybe it's my taste in music and women tend to be more at the edge and innovative rather than in mainstream pop?” I do think women tend to be either more at the edge of innovative music or at the top of mainstream pop (which in its own way can be extremely innovative), we tend to be on the edges, which in my opinion is where the most interesting things live. Maybe we are more courageous by nature? The need to survive? And so we naturally take more risks? Femininity comes with courage, and a higher threshold for resisting and resisting difficulties and criticism.
“is this a constant trend that we see within music, or are things changing and what we are witnessing is not so much that 'women have been historically hidden within music and things are no different now', but that music has to a degree become stale, and 'women are now at the forefront of bringing something new?”
Probably both? Except, i don't think things are that different now, the industry, and the world are as sexist as ever, i don't say that on a pessimistic tone, but on a realistic one, i think things can definitely be different, and hopefully they will be, if we all do something about it every single day, but even you wrote that you only came to find about female composers when you yourself decided to put in the work and dig deeper, nothing changed about the way you were exposed to it, what changed was you. And the fact what your curiosity awoke, you changed ans so you looked for the music in new places.
So… anyway, not really an answer to your questions, more of a reflection, as this is a topic that has no straight answers but is worthy of a long, constant reflection, one that probably should be present every day until it isnt anymore, until it is just second nature to look further for the art, to look further -when its needed- to find the music that moves you, and the artists that make it. To shine more light in all the dim corners,everyday.
Ela.