Female mis representation in the festival industry - Drown in sound

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4148139-guyliners--why-do-uk-festivals-have-so-few-female-headliners

Why do female festivals have so few female headliners?

Hello and welcome to 2014, the year that Dolly Parton played a tiny saxophone at Glastonbury, Dappy was booed off stage at the Isle of Wight and the Fresh Prince played fresh pauper by joining Calvin Harris onstage at T in the Park.

Another banner year for British festivals then? In a way, sure - but not so much in others. The Telegraph recently pointed out that there aren’t really any women headlining the UK’s major festivals this year. And, when you start to look into it, there aren’t really many women playing the main stages of British festivals this year. And, actually, when you think about it, there aren’t really all that many women even playing British festivals this year.

One band turning the tide at Reading is Blood Red Shoes. Making up part of the 15.9% mixed-gender bands playing the UK festival circuit this year, the Brighton-based rock duo are playing the mainstage too. “I think a lot of people don’t want to face that there could be something wrong,” guitarist, singer and songwriter Laura-Mary Carter (pictured above by Mike Burnell) told us when we talked to her about the gender split of British festivals this year. “But if you look at the figures, the ratio of women playing festivals full stop... it’s hard to believe the figures are so different.”


NOISEY VICE

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/if-were-going-to-end-music-industry-sexism-the-dialogue-around-it-has-to-change?utm_source=vicefbuk

IF WE'RE GOING TO END MUSIC INDUSTRY SEXISM, THE DIALOGUE AROUND IT HAS TO CHANGE

Ever since Miley Cyrus stepped on stage at the VMA’s and wiggled her flesh-tone PVC pants in the direction of Robin Thicke’s upsetting trousers, the media has gained an obsession with calling out sexism in the music industry. The latest institution to be called-out on its bad form are the Reading & Leeds Festivals, which managed to assemble a 89.6% all-male bill. Gender equality is currently at the forefront of public consciousness so, justifiably, people flipped their collective lid.

(Perfect Pussy, slaying.)

Of course, the Reading & Leeds line-up has always been a bigger broccasion than a Match of the Day panel. What’s changed isn't the percentage of female acts on the bill (last year's was actually slightly higher), but people’s readiness to call out injustice when they see it. But we are still at the stage of identifying problems that are a long way from being fixed, and we have reached a point where discussion of gender in music tends to have an understandably negative focus. Pointing out the wrongs is obviously an important step on the road to change, but with so much criticism and so little progression, have we created a climate that’s just too overwhelmed by negativity?

Female mis representation in the festival industry - Nme

http://www.nme.com/news/paloma-faith/83156

Faith discussed lack of female acts on festival line-ups at Brit Awards last night

Paloma Faith has spoken about the lack of female acts on festival line-ups, stating that the people in power within the music industry have a "responsibility to show diversity". The singer was asked what she thought about the low number of women on this year's Reading and Leeds Festival bill during an appearance on the Brit Awards red carpet last night (February 25). 

"I think when you have the power to book things like that and to broadcast and things like that, it's your responsibility to show diversity," she said. "I know on my small scale of world that I am the boss of, I make sure that everything is represented: race, class, colour, gender, the lot, so I think that anybody in a high-powered position needs to be doing that. In any job." 

http://bcove.me/g4ewnxle

Paloma Faith says festival bosses have a 'responsibility to show diversity'

Female mis representation in the festival industry - The Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-festivals/11016441/Where-are-all-the-women-headlining-music-festivals.html

Where are all the women headlining music festivals? 

None of the original headliners for this summer's major music festivals were women. 

Alice Vincent reports

If Lily Allen hadn't stepped up at the last minute to fill in for Two Door Cinema Club's Friday night headline slot at Latitude in July, there would have been no woman headlining a major music festival this summer.

In fact, without Paramore, the American punk rock band fronted by the flame-haired Hayley Williams and Arcade Fire, which featured two women in its Glastonbury line-up, there would be no women gracing major festivals' main stages in the top slot at all.

Across Isle of Wight, Glastonbury, Latitude, Reading and Leeds Festivals, V Festival and Bestival, solo female artists comprise, on average, less than 16 per cent of the total acts playing.

All-female bands make up less than a quarter of that figure, at 3.5 per cent. By comparison, all-male bands occupy nearly 43 per cent of the acts on the six festival line-ups. Mixed bands make up 15.9 per cent, and male solo artists nearly a quarter at 24.3 per cent.

Female artists such as Dolly Parton, Kelis, MIA, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Cate Le Bon have achieved some prominence on festival bills, but the same women musicians are appearing repeatedly over the course of the summer, suggesting there are more playing than there actually are. Take Lily Allen, who took Glastonbury and Latitude's main stages by storm, and will warm up for Paolo Nutini and The Killers' Sunday night slots at V Festival next weekend.

"If you look at aspiring musicians in the past, particularly in the rock, indie and dance worlds, there were more boys than girls trying to make a go of it and therefore more breaking through. Things need to and I believe are changing. Often the most interesting artists at Reading and Leeds are female."

Female mis representation in the festival industry - Noisy Vice

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/its-not-just-reading-and-leeds-females-are-under-represented-in-every-festival-line-up-2015

IT’S NOT JUST READING AND LEEDS, WOMEN ARE UNDER-REPRESENTED IN EVERY FESTIVAL LINE-UP

"That’s a shocking amount. That’s less than ten percent. And, unfortunately, the problem goes way deeper than just Reading and Leeds."

Just take a look at the line-up for this year’s Slam Dunk festival, announced this morning.

Leaving the female acts on the bill, there’s just one name: PVRIS.

Looking back at other line-ups, it’s clear there’s a wide spread lack of female artists on loads of festival bills. Download features only nine bands with non-male members and both T in the Park and Coachella’s rosters look bare when the male-fronted artists have been removed.

Startlingly the empty festival poster campaigns impacted me massively, visually showing this massive decline in female acts at festival articulated the enormity of this problem conveying this in a visual way.

In her book Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys Viv Albertine stated that “women were sneered at whatever they did, so to rise above that you had to be doubly scary." But as 2014 proved – a year where females dominated the pop charts and news cycles – things have progressed since then.

Do festival bills clearly seem to prioritise male acts?

The unintelligent and stunted humans of the world believe it’s because “80% of bands with girls in suck” – but that’s just not true. You only need to spend five-minutes working at a music publication or sifting through Soundcloud to find that actually 80% of all music sucks, regardless of gender.

Reasons behind less women on line ups:

• One reason there may be less women on the line-up, with specific focus on the rock festivals, comes down to Britain’s alt-rock scene. As Noisey writer Hannah Ewens found when writing about the UK alt-rock scene, it’s too often a place where  “girls are a) side-lined, b) fetishised and/or tokenized for having great music taste or c) dismissed as the girlfriend that doesn’t like music at all.” And rock festival line-ups seem to be pretty reflective of this, cementing the image of a male-engineered environment where it’s far too hard for female artists to gain some proper recognition.
• Melvin Benn, the managing director of Festival Republic who booked Reading and Leeds - claims women aren’t side-lined, and insisted in an interview with Gigwise that there’s “an abundance of opportunity” for female artists to get on festival bills. It’s an insistence that tries to shift the blame, suggesting that the opportunities are equal, but the availability of quality artists isn’t, so it’s supposedly impossible to have balanced line ups. This was ‘explained’ in the most hamfisted manner possible by Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman when he was quizzed by Wondering Sound’s Megan Seling last summer as she investigated his festival’s dodgy oversights. “If you Google-search bands in the world, the vast majority of them are male. That’s a correct assumption, right?” said Kevin.
• This bullshit 'assumption' is the main problem causing the cyclical pattern in which less and less female artists are getting booked, when, in reality there are plenty who are absolutely killing it right now. Where’s Perfect Pussy – not only the best named band in the world but also, in front-woman Meredith Graves, perhaps the most important female figures in punk since Kathleen Hanna? What about Against Me! who put out one of the best albums of last year or Sleater-Kinney, who reformed this year? Then you’ve got White Lung, Joanna Gruesome, Savages, and Warpaint – all examples of bands that could feasibly be placed on any rock-heavy line-up, anywhere in the country.
• If, as many bookers would have you believe, the Reading and Leeds line-up is reflective of the average music attendee’s iPod, then it’s because female artists are still being neglected, not because they don’t exist. The blame doesn’t just lie with the festivals – the country's leading music magazine, NME, have put just eight women on their cover in the last three years, and scanning over Kerrang's past issues page shows although they're doing their part, the cover is rarely given solely to a woman, suggesting the media also carry some culpability.
• But increasingly, as all of the above female artists have proved, they’re gaining recognition from releasing music that rips, regardless of whether they’re given a main stage or a cover. And power to them. But it’s up to the music festivals – who don’t have ABC’s to retain – to showcase the talents of female artists with the same spread as their male counterparts. Maybe they need better bookers, maybe the bands mentioned above weren’t available, but neither of those reasons are good enough to result in a 90/10 gender split.

HANNA WANTS... TO HEADLINE LEEDS FEST, LET HANNA DO WHAT SHE WANTS

NME PLEASE PICK ME

NME, YOUR COVERS NEED ME

Que giant list of female acts who should be playing at festivals:

noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/its-not-just-reading-and-leeds-females-are-under-represented-in-every-festival-line-up-2015


From evaluating this website and selecting the key information, I can take my findings to the crit, along with other research from other sources and form a strong sided debate into which I can create promotional material promoting this cause.

Leading me onto to more thorough research about the underlying problems such as reasoning as to why women may be being under represented, opinions, quotes, figures and statistics.

Using sources focussing with strong music roots such as Noisey vice, to more mainstream news outlets The Telegraph, this broader form of secondary research gave me a wider result to conclude what the problems were researching quotes and articles from men and women of different professions and different social classes.

OUGD505 research project - Leeds festival

I have stumbled upon an issue surrounding festivals/the music industry and how females are unfairly represented in this element of the music industry.

WOMEN ARE UNDER-REPRESENTED IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

How it would look if the Reading / Leeds line-up only included the acts that have a female musician in the band.

Here shows a poster of the bands and acts playing at leeds festival which are a female act, or involve a female in the band, the poster indicates how non of the headlines acts contain women and how they are a giant minority in this department. 

Delving into the music scene as the festival season was approaching I stumbled upon topics such as sexism and gender inequality in the music industry, this topic shouted out me as I felt it was serious enough to form a substantial field of work, with scope for a variety of ideas, yet subtle enough and also on trend to fitting into festival time of the year.

Secret 7 submission

Peter Gabriel's sledgehammer

Subtly reflecting Peter Gabriel's sledgehammer, straying away from the animated, vibrant video.

Here shows the development of my secret 7 cover.

I guess the concept for this sleeve relates to the spermatozoa in the beginning of the Sledgehammer video, I have chosen to do this subtly and to stray away from the animated, flashiness found in the video for the track to create a contrast between the song and the sleeve.

This piece is rather abstract as my style of work goes, leaving a lot to interpretation and concept rather than the usual bluntness which can be found with my work.

In my mind the shape appeared like a petri dish found in a science lab, the uncountable amount of blurred white lines appears as if there are an infinity number of these shapes, which could relate to millions of spermatozoa.

 I experimented with the shapes I created to create numerous designs, but I felt that these took away from the concept and the simplicity of the initial shape.

  

Here I mocked up my final on a S7 record sleeve to give it a place and remove the flat 2D look which a finished design normally has.

http://issuu.com/ryan_daley/docs/secret_7_finished

Secret 7 Sledge hammer research

After listening to each of the songs this year's secret 7 had to offer, I have chosen to create a sleeve for Peter Gabriel's sledge hammer due to an idea I had when watching the video.

The beginning of the Sledge hammer music video introduces the reproductive process and this reflects growth through out the video, a focal point of this addition to the song.

I don't particularly feel that the video reflects the message of the song, but each, the video and the song are valued in their own ways.

"REAL PROBLEMS - GRAPHIC SOLUTIONS" workshop COP

"REAL PROBLEMS - GRAPHIC SOLUTIONS" workshop

Working in groups, create a proposal for an outcome

Problem solvers and not just graphic designers

Morning:

Technology

Money/Economy 

Business

Food & drink

Health/Fitness

Psychology

Politics 

Environment

Education

Research news and current issues surrounding this area - find one specific problem or research issue further.

Our topic found was - Health/Fitness

Potential research topics which I have found:

Researchers may have unmasked mystery of cannabis 'munchies'

Plain packaging 'may help smokers to cut down'

Media heralds the discovery of 'infidelity gene'

Shouting 'OW!' may help increase pain tolerance

A third of over-70s report 'frequent sexual activity'

Sugary soft drinks linked to earlier periods in girls

'Ibuprofen unlikely to extend life'

Memory gaps in graduates a 'stroke warning sign'

Katie Hopkins: what fat people need is a kick up the a---

We have chosen to progress with the story about Katie Hopkins

'Fat people aren't sexy': Katie Hopkins drops three stone to prove obese people are LAZY

OUTSPOKEN Katie Hopkins dropped from a size 18 to a slinky size 8 in just a few months to show that anyone can slim down

"Last year the outspoken TV personality caused uproar by saying she 'wouldn't employ obese people because they look lazy' on ITV's This Morning."

After gorging on 6,500 calories a day, the 5ft 7in former reality TV star went from a slimline 8st 12 to a hefty 11st 13lbs.

"People tell me I'm lucky because I'm 'naturally slim', but I don't agree," she adds.

"We were all born with the same sized bones - if you put too much in and don't move enough, you're going to get fat and I think I've proven that."

Katie was monitored to make sure her weight gain had no adverse effects on her health, but found the process very mentally challenging.



"I didn't cry at the birth of my children, I didn't cry at my weddings, but I cried a lot at getting fat!" she added.

Fattism and hate crimes

Jamie's research

Problems about health / fitness

1) People sitting down for too long is causing problems!

Research has suggested that remaining seated for too long is bad for your health, regardless of how much exercise you do.

Studies have linked excessive sitting with being overweight and obese, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and premature death.

Prolonged sitting is thought to slow the metabolism, which affects the body's ability to regulate blood sugar, blood pressure and break down body fat.

Many adults in the UK spend more than seven hours a day sitting or lying, and this typically increases with age to 10 hours or more.

This includes watching TV, using a computer, reading, doing homework, travelling by car, bus or train – behaviours referred to as sedentary – but does not include sleeping.

Experts believe there is something specific about the act of sitting or lying for too long that is bad for our health.

One of the largest pieces of research to date on the subject – involving almost 800,000 people – found that, compared with those who sat the least, people who sat the longest had a:

112% increase in risk of diabetes

147% increase in cardiovascular events

90% increase in death caused by cardiovascular events

49% increase in death from any cause

2) This girl can - This campaign is aimed at larger woman who feel like they will be judge if they get involved in fitness so they do not exercise.

3) Wait loss - For this we as a group will research Kate Hopkins 'Fat project'.

Too Fat To Work

Quotes

- Lazy and lack ambition.

- Changes a persons first impressions.

- Would someone put you in front of a client? Do you look dynamic or disciplined? Highly efficient? ... No.

- Sickness issues are a big risk with over weight people. We lost £16.8 billion because of sickness.

- Over weight people know you have to give a good first impression and they choose not to change themselves.

Can you be big and happy?

Quotes

- "Fat people that are happy are in denial".

- No discipline .
- Less healthy, more prone to type 2 diabetes.
- Influencing things like 'Plus size range for children' - 3-16. In shops like M&S & BHS.
- Sets an example to children.

Matthew's Research

Scientifically Proven Facts About Weight Loss (Forbes Online)

1. Cutting calories by dieting is much more effective for loosing weight than improving the amount of exercise. "If you want to achieve a 300 kcal energy deficit you can run in the park for 3 miles or not eat 2 ounces of potato chips.". Exercising also makes you hungry which makes you eat more anyway.
2. Regular exercise is needed though, as it keeps your metabolism from slowing down, which keeps down the rate at which we gain weight.
3. After gaining and loosing weight it is harder to maintain the same weight than it was to maintain the weight before you gained and lost it, which means that it's much more effective to make sure you don't gain weight than it is to lose it.
4. The idea that some diets are better than other diets for losing weight is a myth, any diet will work as long as it's stuck to.
5. It doesn't matter what you eat when you're on a diet as long as you're counting the calories. Eating 500 calories worth of salad will have the same direct affect on your weight loss as eating 500 calories worth of chocolate.
6. Allowing yourself to get hungry makes you more likely to make poor decisions regarding diet and exercise, and so it is 

Plan and develop a graphic response to address/ resolve this issue

Design decisions and justification based entirely on your research and contextual understanding 

Evaluating the Idle man brief

After creating a mind map here are the key point me and Rosie summed up:

• Idle man - 21 year old males. Creative campaign

• Posters, billboards, leaflets / fliers - mock up packaging 

• Idle man sums up their cliental into 3 types of people
• Jester which I summa 

Professional project boards:

1. Target market, what they're asking.
2. Contextual research, competition etc
3. The style we're developing
4. Proposal of the designs we'll create

Evaluating The Idle man's design style

Choosing to evaluate The Idle man's style of design to give me an idea of how to, or how not to design in correlation with their style of creativity.

Having found these simple vector icons from their website, This shows a very minimal approach to design and branding, something which doesn't hold much personality or concept.

These styles of iconography are not something which appeal to me as I don't see them having much personality or style, something which I would want to stray away from if I create icons, and when we create illustrations for this company. This works hand in hand with the illustration partner that I have chosen, as her work is far from simple or clean cut, like these. 

Taking a lot more of a hand drawn approach rather than these vector, digital designs.

This typeface is iconic and connection to the Idle man's brand, a very clean cut sans serif typeface. 

The bold uppercase finish which this has portrays their sense of style and individuality.

Contextual research for THE IDLE MAN - How fashion advertises effectively

Having began the collaborative project of design for the YCN competition brief for the company The Idle Man, I have now decided to begin my contextual research into male clothing outlets to see how they effectively market their apparel.

I have initially chosen to view the most popular websites of many of the clothing companies a 21 YO male would use:

Despite the fact that we are not redesigning their website or creating an app, it is relevant to get a feel of how the competition do things to make sense in my head of what to do and what also to avoid doing to get the edge on this competition.

ASOS

Asos has to be the biggest online supplier of men's clothes for this age range, I know personally that when ever I'm shopping online Asos is always a site which I visit and I generally purchase from there multiple times per year.

They are known for their diverse range of clothing which they stock, from companies such as Primark and River Island to massive higher end fashion companies such as Vivian Westwood and DKNY.

Difference to IDLE MAN

The thing with ASOS is that the massive range of garmets which they sell (also for both genders) means that the shopper must be quite savvy and specific in what they are looking for, rather than idle mans's approach of giving the customer a guiding hand. 

"Truth be told, they find it confusing and often stressful to pick out a style that works for them. They’d like a bit of a guiding hand." [The Idle man YCN]

Keywords:

Individual, Edgy, Diverse, variety 

Here is the homepage for ASOS, as you can the see the pungent illustrations immediately catch your eye showing this site is quite artsy and modern in style. Their homepage is very much focussed to men despite Asos supposedly targeting both genders. 

Something which the outcome from my brief for Idle man and Asos's website will have in common is the use of illustration, in this sense the use appears arbitrary and just to create a background and a feeling of 'party' and young people's lives. 

When you've selected an item this is the screen which ASOS takes you to, offering you more photographs of the piece as well as informed description they also offer suggestions to wear with the piece to complete the outfit, similar to what the Idle man is asking.

River Island

Being a typical high street brand, River island has less of a sense of edginess than that of ASOS's brand, targeting all ages from 16-30 and aiming at people with a lower budget of that of Asos.

River Island is a stand to store when purchasing clothes, by which I mean, with this store, you know what to expect and you get it, non of their clothes will blow your socks off, but if you're looking for the classic look, River Island will suffice.

Difference to IDLE MAN

As i've mentioned, River Island does not have the edginess factor such as ASOS or the Idle man, this is a massive difference which has resulted in their site looking a lot less arty and stylish.

A big difference between this company and TheIM is that River Island only sells their own brands of clothing and not bigger companies or products like TheIM does, this retains River Island to staying at the bottom of the pond hoping to be more.

A very unisex website, if not swaying towards the female side of the market from their homepage.

Nothing about this site, for me, jumps out as interesting, edgy or different. The clothes appear to be boring and bland and the design is very standard and clean.

Here is the close up of a male garment on their website, similar to Asos's page like this, they show various shots of the clothing as well as recommendations of what you should wear this with.

Simple, plain and effective, it's not winning any votes from me.

Chimp

One of the more alternative clothing stores, found in Leeds this outlet has much more of a concept and personality than the previous two. Similar to TheIM with the brand it sells, but this company ventures a lot further from the mainstream and is a very alternative store. 

Selling a slightly higher end range of products to Asos and very far away from what River Island sells, Chimp is a very specified store for people who know what they want.

Difference to IDLE MAN

"Chimp is a very specified store for people who know what they want." This would be one of the major difference to what previously has been investigated. Avid fans of Chimp's clothes are their customers are the people who shop their, they have a loyal customer base and that is the way they intend to keep it.

The immediate feel when you arrive on Chimp's site is that they're loyal of the brands they sell and straight away that is projected into your face, displaying some alternative Puma shoes, something which your everyday shopper would not be interested in.

Their clothing selection displays the brands they sell and photographs of they way they present their clothing, which is quite artsy and different.

The Range of brands which they are representing is something which is very direct and specific, brands which your typical River Island shopper would not be interested in.

Unlike the previous two websites, this one does not show what you could wear their clothes with, most likely because they don't have enough of a range to show this.

An idiot's guide to politics - Research

Deciding on the topic that I wanted this whole brief to focus around was an overwhelming feat to decide upon. I began by visiting news websites, reading news papers and seeing what was trending on reddit to gather some inspiration which strayed away from the normal of 'politics, healthy eating, animals' etc.

As mentioned topics such as political change mainly Facebook's 'Educate inspire change' and Anonymous immediately interested me but as mentioned before, and with meetings with my tutors, I was advised to get to grips with a more light hearted topic which I could enjoy researching and designing for.

A show that follows the presenter of 'The revolution will be televised' in which he interviews people on the street who would be part of the "Facebook Generation" to shine light on why these people are not voting and why this is happening.

• 'Politics is about every part of your life, everything you love'
• 'Off their tits on politics'
• 'When young people have a chance to make a difference, they get out and vote'
• 'Hostility and suspicion of west minister'
• [politicians] seems to say one thing and do the other
• 'Seeing the mainstream politicians as the same
• 'Good luck in the hopeless race'
• 'Rosette wearing politician making promises I can not keep'
• 'Stopped listening'
• 'Less than a quarter of under 25's intend to vote' 24%

• 'Lie to get elected, break every promise to make to get into parliament'

• 'Make a promise before election - break it after election'

• 'Less than a quarter of under 25's intend to vote' 24%
• Cutting pensions -fire department etc
• Nick Clegg's personal pledge to students not to cut fees
• 'huge disconnect between people and politics'
• Peter Stringfellow - conservative party donor 
• Labour £12M donations last year
• 'Ed Milliband doesn't excite or engage the election'
• 'It doesn't mater who you vote for - big money always wins'

• Anonymous hackers

• 'When we get real representation the of course I will vote'
• Russel Brand poster boy for ' no vote'
• 'Look elsewhere for something that might be of service to humanity'
• 'Dont vote for the same reason you don't drink nail polish - theres no point'
• Activism
• Focus E15 mothers
• 'Disillusions and disconnected and politics has no real place'

Risks in this generation not voting?

• rising rents, rising house prices, zero hour contracts
• Change.Org
• Designing petitions to catch the eye- John commentary
• 'Broken promises have alienated the publics trust more than anything else'
• 'Most serious lie an MP can tell would be to Parliment'
• Covert flights - Jack straw - kidnapping of a Libyan
• 'not against the law for an MP to deliberately and knowingly lie to parliament'
• 'Making lying in the House of Commons illegal'
• 'UKIP has a problem with Liars in their midst'
• 'Throw the liars to the Lions'
• #Makelyinghistory  

• 'Facebook generation needs to engage or they'll be the big losers'