The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Line Out: Block Party

Coachella Features an Embarrassingly Low Number of Female Performers, the Block Party Does Not

Megan Seling — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:40:27 -0700

Last week Buzzfeed crunched some numbers and discovered that only about 16% of this year's Coachella performers were or featured a female. 16%? Ouch!

Yesterday a writer at Slate weighed in, theorizing that it isn't just a problem with Coachella—the lack of women on the bill mirrors many other big music festivals (including Lollaplaooza, Bonnaroo, and Sasquatch, which I calculated also has a pitiful 16%). That isn't just Coachella, Bonnaroo, et al.'s fault, though—it may also have to do with the musical genres they tend to focus on:

...the real problem at most of these festivals lies in the alternative subcultures they celebrate. Formed out of the male-dominated music scenes of jam music (in the case of Bonnaroo), late-’90s indie rock (Coachella), and early ’90s alternative and grunge (Lollapalooza), these festivals tend to celebrate diversity while dismissing the most popular pop acts—the ones who tend to dominate the charts and who tend so often to be female—as frivolous or corporate. As the festivals expand beyond their narrow roots, maybe fans and organizers should start to take the commercially and critically successful female acts they currently deride more seriously. Surely some of them are worth the kind of herculean effort—and often exorbitant cash—required to reunite groups like The Stone Roses (who headlined Coachella this year, in front of a disappointingly small audience).

You can read the whole essay here.

Out of curiosity, I took a look at this year's Capitol Hill Block Party. Turns out bands and musicians fronted (or co-fronted) by a female member take up over 30% of line-up (and almost 40% if you count the bands that have women, but not as a front person or co-frontperson)! Sure it could be better, but that's certainly not bad, especially in the grand scheme of male-dominated music festivals.

Good on ya, Block Party. Way to show the big boys (literally) how gender diversity is done.

The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper: Line Out: Block Party

Coachella Features an Embarrassingly Low Number of Female Performers, the Block Party Does Not

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