The Gender Revolution in Techno
The music industry, particularly the electronic music scene, has been traditionally characterized by a sobordination of women. It was not until very recently that appareances of women in stages across the world started to be common. White, middle-class men have tradionally dominated the field, historically blocking the entrance of women, LGBTQ+ people or racialized men.
But in the last 10-20 years things changed massively and radically. For the first time in history, it is no longer rare to find gender-balanced line ups in clubs and festivals across the world. If we look at the line up of Berghain in 2004, we see a virtually 100% male composition. The same would happen if we look at the line ups of Sonar 2004, TimeWarp 2004, and so many others. On average, we will find a gender distribution of one woman every 10 or 20 men. Today, if we look at any of the line ups of these mentioned clubs or festivals, we will find virtually egalitarian gender distributions. The gender revolution seems to have arrived to the electronic music scene.
However, counting the gender distribution of line ups might show a simplistic approach to gender inequality in the music industry, and much more should be below the surface. We have seen women artists complain of sexual harassment or being ignored by labels in greater proportion than men.
***This is a non-funded, activist project from Prof. Tomás Cano to show the disadvantages of non-cis-white-men in the electronic music industry. Because this is a militant project without economic resources, we ask you for patience and support***