Why Not Her? A look at Gender & Diversity disparity on Irish radio.
In late June, while Ireland was gearing up to return to some semblance of a new kind of social normality post-Covid_19, many people were hoping that the pandemic would remain the major news story of the year. This wasn’t to be the case as we have seen the swelling in surges of human rights, domestic & sexual violence/abuse, and racism issues come to the forefront across media in breaking news stories.
Many erudite articles written and shared by people who have had just about enough, has acted as a great resource for learning about the difficult topics we face in society today. And it is time we stopped and listened with open ears as to how we can do and be better.
With the above in mind, I felt it was time to publish a report outlining the gender disparity that exists on Irish radio towards female musicians and fronted bands/acts. This spanned across 27 Regional and National radio stations in Ireland. With the help of my friend Áine Tyrrell on the graphics, we launched the report on June 24th and it went viral, to be viewed, shared and exposed to close to 20 million people, as well as trending 5 times on Twitter and being featured in most of the press publications in Ireland and some of the largest publications in the UK.
It exposed a harsh reality that women in Ireland’s music scene face in the professional playing field.
The report simply titled ‘Gender Disparity Data Report on Irish Radio’ can be viewed on slideshow here. Upon viewing the report, we can see that there is something deeply wrong with how music playlisters and programme directors compile their playlists.
Some of these stations refuse to admit that there is a glass ceiling preventing women from breaking through towards equality and that meeting a gender quota is a must in order to ensure that stations who have been awarded licences from the BAI (Broadcasting Authority of Ireland) can give an adequate contribution to processes of democratization since quotas ensure the inclusion of women.
What this report provides us with is a clear cut view as to the landscape, and state of affairs that radio in Ireland is in with regards to reaching a substantial and fair inclusionary system that equally supports women and acts of diversity. It shows a stark reflection of the inequitable landscape Irish women in music have faced for the last few decades. And furthermore, it has left an awful question — still yet to be answered: To whom does the accountability lie?
Women in music aren’t ‘moaning about not getting their songs played on a few stations’, they are standing in alliance with one another declaring that for over a decade Irish radio has not provided sufficient support to help break domestic female acts and actively choose to support male Irish acts instead.
Top left: Eve Belle, Zapho, Jess Kavanagh, RuthAnne, Loah and Zali.
The analysis of airplay in the report has shown a dramatic disparity between the broadcast of male and female Irish artists in the Top 20 most played songs by Irish artists in Ireland from June 2019 to June 2020.
Four stations, FM 104, LMFM, WLR FM and South East Radio, had no female artists whatsoever in their Top 20 in an entire year. Not one. On the report, of the remainder that did feature a female artist, most had just one woman in the Top 20. Women accounted for approx 8% of the top 20 most played Irish artists across 27 music-oriented radio stations in the past year and the most played female act was also the only black artist featured in the entire report; Soulé. Yet her male counterpart Dermot Kennedy received 80% more airtime that she did.
The blatant gender disparity that exists is a staggering and shocking display of an industry model that needs drastic changes. Those with the power in radio stations have been asked a question: what can be done to implement changes across Irish Radio to creates an equal opportunity and playing ground for both male and female acts that encompasses all Irish creatives across all racial and ethnic backgrounds that reflect modern Ireland?
Our search for answers fell on deaf ears as most of the stations refused to comment publicly or at all! Nor would they make an open statement to agree to try to do better. The only station to make a public statement was National Broadcaster Rte Radio 1. They were the only station who reached 50/50 gender balance in the report.
When asked how they came to that gender balance, Martina McGlynn, a producer and a member of the playlist committee on the station responded with:
“We strive for quality throughout our music schedules on RTE Radio 1. We really are spoilt for choice as there is so much wonderful Irish music out there right now. Nevertheless, we are acutely aware of and remain very mindful of gender balance and diverse representation across the music that we schedule. Ultimately, all of our presenters play a pivotal role in bringing a wide range of music to our listeners chosen for its distinct quality, and I’m delighted to see that quality represented equally in both female and male artists. Going forward, we will continue to strive towards equal representation across our music schedules’.
It really is that simple. Mindful awareness of gender balance administered across their team at the station. The other radio stations decided not to publicly make a statement as to why they failed to reach a gender balance and chose to lead their playlists with predominantly cis white male artists and fronted bands from Ireland.
They didn’t reply because they don’t have to. There is no legislation in place to enact an equal treatment of women who create music. Radio stations have full reign of who and what they play and feel they don’t have to answer to us or anyone for that matter.
The Irish constitution declares that it guarantees ‘equality in law and recognises that every Irish citizen should have the right to earn a livelihood’. So if there is someone whose actions can be shown to be directly impeding our ability to earn a living wage that must be looked at. As we have Irish radio stations showing a complete bias against female artists. Furthermore, government agencies such as the BAI are granting licences to radio stations who are clearly discriminating against female artists and they have no real power to enact change towards gender equality.
A trail of commentary that has come since the publishing of the report is that ‘people prefer male voices on the radio’. This simply isn’t true. Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Rhianna, Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry are among the top 10 grossing artists in the world of music from 2019–2020. That is reflected in radio airtime all over the globe.
There is no shortage of incredible female acts in Ireland from Ireland. We have the same wonderful diversity that the US & UK Music scene has (such as RuthAnne, Orla Gartland, Stephanie Rainey, Laoise, Soulé, Denise Chaila, Loah, Zali, Erica Cody, Minnie Marley, EFÉ, Celaviedmai, Joy Crookes, Eve Belle, Tolu Makay, Alicia Raye + many more) yet Irish radio stations are not showing support to a diverse array of female acts in their heavy rotation playlists, aside from being tokenistic, being placed on over-night graveyard shifts and spot-played. Yet, as you can see, we have a beautiful diversified musical landscape in Ireland. If we look to the UK we see a diversity of breakthrough acts in the last decade like Amy Winehouse, Adele, Mabel, Dua Lipa, Jess Glynne, Kara Marni, Celeste, Jessie Ware, Raye, Jorja Smith, Ellie Goulding, Rita Ora… the list goes on and on.
Where are our countries emerging or breakthrough female acts of the last decade? The biggest song by a female act in the last decade is the RuthAnne lead project ‘Women In Harmony’ who covered The Cranberries hit song ‘Dreams’ which was recorded by the collective of 39 of female acts. Let that sink in — 39! It has taken 39 women to get even a remote kind of similar recognition and support from Irish radio landing 27 million radio impacts. Dermot Kennedy just released his new single ‘Giants’ on June 29th and has already amassed over 25 million impacts on Irish radio, with no tour de force of 39 men on his song. That’s some next-level disparity going on.
If our females creating music aren’t being given these same platforms and opportunities to break as the male acts, then that is neglect on a national level. And it has devastating effects on our women who are creating music and those who aspire to as it is sending them a message they don’t matter and they won’t be heard.
In the last 5–10 years, can you name 5 female acts/fronted bands from Ireland that have broken through in Ireland and or internationally? Go on, think long and hard because you’d find your mind stretching back to over a decade ago and farther back: Sinead O Connor (1986-present), The Coors (1990–2006), The Cranberries (1989–2003, 2009–2019), Samantha Mumba (1999-present), Imelda May (2002–present), Laura Izibor (2008-present).
Since then hardly any breakthrough female act has risen from Ireland to the extent that the conveyor belt of male acts have and this is the issue.
In a Post-Covid world, it’s time to create a new normal as the old one wasn’t working for everyone, it was only working for the privileged exclusively white male steering the industry standards. The power of radio, music and the value of Irish talent, is massive right now.
If we look to what The National Gallery & Other Voices showcases have done for acts like Denise Chaila and Lisa Hannigan ft Loah, it wouldn’t be too hard as a radio station to become the agency of change that flows with and shows people the changing fabric of our culture. Recent referendum results and general discourse has shown that Ireland is open to change for the better. We welcome the key playlisters on Irish radio to become the agents of that change in the music scene.
The women in Ireland’s music industry do not want to take anything away from their deserving and successful male peers, they are simply asking for — and showing why — they are as equally deserved of a slice of the pie and a bigger spotlight than what they’ve been getting which has been pretty dim.
In the past few weeks, women have entered the Official Irish Homegrown Chart Top 20 in an unprecedented way as eight female solo artists have entered the Official Irish Homegrown Chart Top 20 position. Compared to the whole of 2019, that’s a massive 300% increase in just four weeks… Factoring in female groups and acts with female members like ‘Irish Women in Harmony’ and MOM, the chart uplift compared to all of 2019 is 150%.
The demand is clearly there. These women are valiantly succeeding despite having very little radio support in comparison to their male counterparts.
The thing is this: our diverse talent has always been there, and now through live performances, increased awareness, spotify playlist inclusions and TV placements, the country is getting to hear it but wouldn’t it be brilliant if radio starts supporting more Irish women? Radio plays a vital role in truly breaking an artist.
The fact is this: for every Gavin James, there is a female counterpart. We just are not exposed to them because those who are making the call whether to include them on their playlists at radio deem them irrelevant. They are making the choices for the listeners and dictating the culture of music in Ireland.
They can’t say women aren’t creating the same quality of music because women aren’t good writers. We cannot and must not accept that Irish ‘women can’t do pop’ like Gavin James, Hozier or Niall Horan’ because the Grammy Nominated RuthAnne wrote Niall Horan’s songs with him, she wrote for Avicii, Britney Spears, One Direction, Bebe Rexha, John legend — the list is endless. She has over 3 billion streams on Spotify for songs she has written and over 30 million for her own recorded music. Yet has never had heavy rotation playlisting on Irish radio. The fact is that radio plays hugely influence the success of an artist but why do Irish radio playlister’s celebrate cis white male acts over their female and diverse counterparts?
Looking at two new Irish artists comparatively: female act Orla Gartland has received over 25 million streams on Spotify, her song “I did it to myself” featured in the sensational hit TV series ‘Normal People’, she has over 100,000 Instagram followers, yet barely any radio support and no heavy rotation playlisting on any Irish radio stations. Yet male act Wild Youth have under 10 million Spotify streams, 21,500 Instagram followers, headlining festivals with millions of radio impacts. And they only started selling massive amounts of tickets when they broke on Irish radio. They have considerably fewer streams/social followers than Orla who receives no airplay.
Here is a question: can you imagine what would happen to Orla’s career if she was to receive the same airplay support? A Female artist would breakthrough!
Why is it always him, why not her?
