Summer Updates
The Gender Amplified Music Festival is a little over a month away on September 28! Check out these summer updates as things heat up:
Brooklyn Radio highlighted Gender Amplifed in June and asked founder Ebonie Smith to list her top 5 female music producers. As Ebonie remarks in the profile, “It’s difficult to list my favorite women in music production because there are so few of them who are well known!” Still, Ebonie goes beyond “Where are all the female music producers?” to showcase some incredibly talented women. While many are known primarily as musicians, Ebonie makes note of the technical skills that have also contributed to their success.
Policy Mic joined in on the conversation with an article on Gender Amplified and the lack of women producers in the music industry. Editor Julianne Ross notes, “some of the few women who have made it in the industry say contributing factors include a lack of recognition for their achievements along with the perception that women are either not interested or simply incapable of the work required. The problem is exacerbated by frequent industry assumptions that … [misattribute] the production of an album to a man.”
Dina Tyson ’13 echoes Ross’ observations in her blog post, “To the Beat of My Own Drum: Why Gender Amplified Matters to Me.” Her own experience as a woman drummer has been that there is a common misconception that women are simply not interested in music or incapable of the skills that the industry requires. Dina’s post just one story about the need to support women to find their voice in this often male-dominated industry.
While focused on music, Gender Amplified also hopes to encourage a conversation about women’s participation in the STEM fields more widely, starting a discussion about industries of science, technology, engineering, and math through the lens of the art and science of music production. A recent segment of NPR’s All Things Considered mentions new research that demonstrates the power of role models: in communities where more women were in STEM careers, “girls were as likely as boys to take physics, or even more likely.”
If September 28 can’t come soon enough for you, we invite you to check out all the other great feminist music festivals happening this summer! We are also adding new workshops to the Gender Amplified schedule, with music industry professionals such as Abhita Austin, Future Music Moguls Production Instructor at NYU and Founder of Hidden Chapel Studios; Michele Darling, Director of Education at DubSpot; and Erica Glyn, a NYC-based singer, songwriter, and producer.
Finally, Gender Amplified successfully raised over $1,500 in our Indiegogo campaign earlier this summer. A big thanks goes out to everyone who has supported the movement, and to our great donors:
Anonymous
Joe Adams
Geri Armine-Klein
Sarah Cane
Elizabeth A Castelli
Taja Cheek
Caroline P Churchill
Talya Cooper
Cristina Crosby
Rebecca Eisenberg
Kim F. Hall
Satya Hinduja
Anne Jonas
Andrea Martin
Erin Mathews
David Mullins
Martín Perna
Jeane Reveendran
Martin Rozenblum
Kathryn Tobin
