Shatter silence, raise hell and run riot: music and gender in Spain 2018–2021

Abstract

Gender issues have fortunately become a topic of growing interest in research into contemporary music and artistic scenes. With the aim of obtaining data on the exclusion of gender in the current conditions imposed by COVID-19, the investigation is focused on learning how women in the cultural and artistic sector have offered resistance to the cultural policies that continue to discriminate them. The methodology focal point is geared to examine the issues related to the practices that have condemned women by history and how gender inequalities are expressed in the 21st century. The study’s base is an intersectional sample of 20 female interpreters and professionals of the musical industry in the Spanish territory in different roles and genres: producers, managers, singers, composers and music critics. The answers were drawn first from radio interviews with a qualitative slant during 2018-19 and later in the post COVID scenario in spring of 2021, and organized in three analytical categories: profession, prestige and recognition of women's musical creations/productions and how their representation was portrayed by media/public. The results provided some meanings relevant to the opportunities and careers they could access. Although the arts and culture are women's worlds are pierced by cumulative disadvantages: gender stereotypes, difficulties in reconciling work and family life, objectification and sexual harassment, the conclusions extracted divulge claims in synthony with their own responses: the more i fight, the more i feel alive!; what if women had the power?; and no more twenty feet from stardom.