Girls and Electronic Music....

[Shillelagh Law]

damn why do i even look at threads like this...

you feminists can't help yourselves. Btw, we're living in a post-feminist world so take that stfu of yours and ram it right up your poopy hole.

[MacGuffin]

Women are just as good and skillful musicians as men are, just look at symphonic orchestras. Guys just have more of a drive, especially teenagers, to be in a band or DJ and have something to show off and attract girls.
To make electronic music, it also helps to be a little bit of a computer nerd and there are a lot of male computer nerds out there.


...and to the guy who said he never saw any good female DJ, you must live in the boonies or something.

[beats me]

I'm just going to throw this out there in the realm of possibilities. A lot of women are simplistic with their creative side and electronica producers don't give themselves enough credit. It's a lot easier to focus on a single instrument or sing than be the entire band, which essentially is what you are when you do electronica. Plus a lot of us are sitting in our music corner for hours on end by ourselves trying to figure this all out. I just don't see women having much interest in that, much easier to be part of a band for the social side and hand holding that generally goes on.

[mikemc]

I would offer this: I have found that if you go to a place where there is live music and it features local acts or less-well-known regional acts, and there is a woman involved in the group or performing solo, they are usually good at what they are doing.

I think that this is because they are societally more required to prove themselves as capable artists or performers, whereas guys can get away with a lot of 'party generative attitude'.

So, there are only so many really talented female artists, but they tend to be really good, like "audience in the palm of the hand" good. And out of those there are only a few that choose to go the Imogen Heap, Kate Bush, Bjork, Tina Weymouth, Laurie Anderson "innovator or member of group of innovators" route.

Whereas there are a slewbunch of douchey guys that make the girls giggle but aren't particularly good at music.

[beats me]

I would offer this: I have found that if you go to a place where there is live music and it features local acts or less-well-known regional acts, and there is a woman involved in the group or performing solo, they are usually good at what they are doing.

I think that this is because they are societally more required to prove themselves as capable artists or performers, whereas guys can get away with a lot of 'party generative attitude'.

So, there are only so many really talented female artists, but they tend to be really good, like "audience in the palm of the hand" good. And out of those there are only a few that choose to go the Imogen Heap, Kate Bush, Bjork, Tina Weymouth, Laurie Anderson "innovator or member of group of innovators" route.

Whereas there are a slewbunch of douchey guys that make the girls giggle but aren't particularly good at music.

I don't know about that. I've seen some great female talent but I've also seen females get handicap points from promoters and the crowd, almost condescending like "Aww. Despite being a women she's up there giving it a go and that's all that matters." Guys never get that benefit. I'm also willing to bet that if a promoter has to go through a stack of promotional material from artists and DJs they've never heard of they'd spend more time on the packages given by women, even if it's to determine that they suck.

"Dude.....dude....dude...another dude.....hey, a chick! What's this all about?"

I've heard bad DJ sets from both men and women, but it's the women's bad sets that really stand out in my memory. Training wrecking every crossfade or quick crossfades that defy musical logic come to mind.

[LP]

You guys don't get out much, do you?

Ikue Mori



I'm not sure I need to say more.

But maybe I will:

How about:

Laurie Anderson

Delia Derbyshire

Hildegard Westerkamp

Diane Labrosse

Janet Cardiff

Andrea Parker

Kaffe Mathews

Maybe lots of women in electronic music are just that much more creative than you so they are working beyond your miniature genre-awareness? Therefore you aren't aware of them? Because they are MORE creative, and not just flagging the remains of the warhorse of pop music? Perhaps maybe?

Except that I'd be forgetting M.I.A. and Peaches and Bjork, so it can't be just about being not pop-star material.

In my city, many of the most popular DJs are women too.

By the way, your evolutionary speculations are tragically ignorant. Good luck with that talking to any actual scientists; you'll need it.

Just sayin.

[leisuremuffin]

what are you guys even talking about?

pioneers (not all inclusive list, just the ones i like:

pauline oliveros
delia derbyshire
eliane radigue
laurie spegiel

more current (again, not all inclusive, just ones i like:

O.blaat
Doily
Andrea Parker
Kate Simko
akiko kiyama
Mia (sub static, not M.I.A.)
Kristina Childs
half of Eats Tapes
miskate




that's just off the top of the head, and i'm sure i've missed plenty. Plus if you take notice, we have some female forum members that are electronic musicians.



fucking idiots.


And besides the fact that there are plenty of female electronic musicians and dj's, there are also tones of things you listen to that you have no fucking idea what the gender of the performer is anyway.

and going even further, it doesn't even matter.



.lm.


Also what LP said. Cheers.

[leedsquietman]

Electronic music is to women nowadays, what Heavy Metal was when I was growing up in a small northern town in England during the 80s - a desert. The few who are into it are cool, as were the very small number of goths and metal girls, but 99% of women were into pop music and soul rnb then and that is pretty much still the case now. If you want to get laid, you don't break out the Boards Of Canada or talk about Max 4 Live and it's possibilities with a 256 pad monome. You suck it up and listen to Beyonce with your girl, talk about shoes and do your Barry White sexy voice

Electronic music has always been for sci-fi geeks with anoraks. Embrace and celebrate your nerdiness, don't deny it !

People clutching at straws naming a few women electronic music pioneers - well that's all cool and don't we all just love 'em for not being into Pink, but we know it's like searching for a thimblefull of piss in the vastness of the Mariana Trench.

[leisuremuffin]

that's fucking retarded, leeds.


electronic music is Waaaaaaaaaay bigger than what you might think. It's not just dance music.


i saw a free show at the sf moma on saturday night that was definitely electronic music and 2 out of the total of 5 performers were women.





.lm.

[leedsquietman]

That's not my experience either when I was in the UK or here in Canada, but then again, I wish they all could be California girls. They loved metal too back in the day ...

[leisuremuffin]

look, there is a small audience for electronic music in general, it doesn't have to do with having a dick or not. most of my extended family and non-music related friends don't know shit about electronic music (or any really interesting music at all for that matter). But of my music related friends, there are just as many women as men that are into it.



.lm.

[leisuremuffin]

meanwhile i just received an email from a person who wants to work on starting an electronic music festival here in SF. She happens to be a women. hmmm.


.lm.

[dredd i knight]

there are a lot of women in all fields of electronic music, and women dj's although i think proportionally there are a lot less women than men. this comes down to a variety of reasons. but to say they get it easy cos they're women flies in the face of most of their experiences. the scene is completely make dominated, and men dont like them encroaching on their turf; they're taken less seriously, and have to work much harder, akthough if they happen to be good looking then they'll get the work (business as usual then).
another aspect is sociological; guys do electronics, get uber geeky about synths, make speaker boxes, make circuits etc, and although this world isn't only a male domain, it mostly is .... so fewer women comeinto it from directions that flow kinda logically for guys.
ignorance is bliss i see...
+ what lm and lp said.

[leedsquietman]

I think you're in a pretty unique position LM, but enjoy it.

I remember when I was at uni in the 90s chicks who weren't into electronic music often went to 'trendy' electronic club nights because a) they could get drugs and b) for whatever reason, they thought they wouldn't get hit on because a large chunk of the males present would be either gay or geeky sci-fi nerds who would congregate in a corner and talk about Star Trek conventions and leave them the hell alone. This was my mileage and this was in London during the 90s. It was almost taboo to hit on a girl at electronic music clubs unless you were plying them with ecstasy first ...

Most of those same women would then go home and listen to Tori Amos (the smarter ones) or Take That and Boyzone (the typical ones).

[leisuremuffin]

another aspect is sociological; guys do electronics, get uber geeky about synths, make speaker boxes, make circuits etc, and although this world isn't only a male domain, it mostly is ....

http://www.flowerelectronics.com/

http://www.cyndustries.com/



i'm sure there's more.



.lm.