Who Run The World? Men In Music

Words: Gracie Erskine

It’s easy to point the finger of success towards global stadium sell out, platinum selling stars, pop sensations, and the unignorable role of Taylor Swift, when discussing female success. In reality, the disparity between male and female acts on festival lineups, shows there’s a void to fill.

With every festival lineup seemingly playing musical chairs this year, asking for more female names seem niche when we should just be asking for variety. Tramlines, Isle of Wight, Boardmasters and Kendal Calling all occupy male only headliners, with Truck giving us the joy of a token Wet Leg performance to dispute any misogynistic argument that may arise from there. However,my issue with that is simply Wet Leg are not headline material, even for Truck, and no Brits Rising Star Award and strange Chaise Longue performance from two years will not change that. Understandably, these mid-tier festivals cannot afford to run the risk of change: easy, popular, tried and tested artists will always sell on the prospect of ‘having a good time’. These festivals are not at the forefront of the industry and its not necessarily their leading role to advocate for change, but they are upholding the massive post-covid trend of live music, therefore should do something.

This is where the duty falls on Reading and Leeds and Glastonbury, arguably the UK’s biggest and most reputable festivals. However, RandL only have 1 of their 6 headliners being female, granted their audience does mainly consist of school leavers, its TV coverage and iPlayer streaming factors make it a household name unlike the others. With such a young audience, there are still kids who love music that go to RandL, and where are these girls’ idols to look up to? There are no British working-class women headlining these huge festivals, yet we’re able to pull international stars to fill headline spots, filling the void where our local female artists haven’t been given the opportunities, due to being labelled and undermined with the quick swipe of ‘pop’. Glastonbury retracted their statement of an all-female headline lineup, however do stand strong with 3 out of 4 (including the Legend Slot) being female. Emily Eavis stated to Cosmopolitan UK last year that she has ‘been trying to raise the flag around gender and festivals for a long time’, so where are other festivals’ efforts?

Where do we call the line? Is it lack of large alternative female stars to headline these festivals, or the festivals themselves for not choosing them? Critics are quick to hype up the ‘next best thing’ with female artists, but lack in the pursuit of promotion or awarding. Why shouldn’t we grant Wolf Alice a headline slot, a critically acclaimed band, yet they get stuck behind their male peers? Why shouldn’t we see The Last Dinner Party clutching the slot in a few years? Why shouldn’t we? We don’t run the world, the men in the music industry do.