So it's probably good I didn't finish the update to my article on Mariah Carey's shunning in 2018 by the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
Why? Well, because the glittery industry giant that is Carey is fresh off (we say this every decade) one of the most lucrative and successful years in her career; so naturally, Carey was finally inducted. I say finally because it took 3 consecutive nominations to get the win.
Along with Annie Lenox's/ Eurythmics' induction, 33 women are now nestled together in the 'hall.
Now, was it because of my hard-hitting investigative journalism that this happened? Yes, absolutely. Ok maybe not, but for my initial article I did genuinely try to reach out to the PR firm and had the following brief exchange to clarify how their process works and if they wanted to give a statement on the numbers of women inductees:
(Spoiler alert: I never heard back.)
Since then it's becoming a lot more commonly discussed by the press as to why women are shut out of industry prestige so often; even when the disproportion is so obvious and unsettling. Some pop culture critics argue that the music industry has yet to see the #metoo movement make waves like it has in Hollywood; perhaps 2020 is its' unfolding. It's not just the SHOF; NPR recently discussed a similar trend in the Rock Hall of Fame, celebrating Whitney's Houston's induction this year while simultaneously discussing the rampant underlying discrimination. While discriminatory practices serve as the nails keeping the boy's club treehouse sturdy, they pull at the threads of authentic American musical narratives that include women, women of color, queer stories, and voices on the margins. The guest on the segment, music and journalism Professor Evelyn McDonnell, argues the trend of women in music seeing their contributions left out of prestigious institutions is the norm. She goes on to use Big Mama Thorton as her example, arguing Thorton (original vocalist for "Hound Dog") had arguably the superior version over Elvis, yet unsurprisingly only the King's name lies etched permanently in the Rock Hall.
(This is important particularly when looking at the accusations of Elvis stealing from Black culture to buttress his success). Janet Jackson, at the Rock Hall induction ceremony, called the organization out, declaring: "Induct more women" while refusing to perform as per ceremony tradition.
In 2019 the SHOF, after snubbing Carey for a second year, inducted Missy Elliot (once again a major Carey collaborator); Elliot represented the only woman voted in last year. With Carey's belated induction this year, she and Annie Lennox (nominated with Dave Stewart for their work in the Eurythmics) became the 32nd and 33rd women, respectively, inducted. Carey became the fourth Black woman ever.
Read that again. 50 years, 453 inductees, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame found 4 Black women worthy of being honored for their songwriting contributions. If we wanna talk numbers; that's less than 1%. (Gloria Estafan was also nominated this year but not inducted, highlighting the major barriers Latina women experience in the music industry.)
When All I Want for Christmas is You reached #1 this past holiday season 25 years after its debut, Carey became the first artist and songwriter in history to have a number one song on Billboard in 4 separate decades. This occurred just weeks before announcing the SHOF inductees; plus the introduction of Nile Rogers, who seemed invested in diversifying the organization in 2019 as the chairman seemed to solidify the odds in Carey's favor. But the fact that Carey had to become the most successful songwriter of all time* just to gain an industry accolade that her male counterparts with half the resume have is not an accident.
Not convinced there's a huge conspiracy of old white men wearing dark velvet blue robes in a high rise, alternating between sipping martinis and gray goatees while they systematically choose which woman's career they will plot to block and then destroy next?
Well, that's your choice, but the "boy's club" in music that shuts women's voices out is real. As I type this, the 2020 Grammys has probably just finished; but the interesting story actually came in the days leading up to the event. Deborah Dugan, Grammys' CEO, was suddenly suspended this week; she then spilled some MAJOR TEA in response about the Grammys and the industry in general, stating that she had faced years of sexual harassment and catcalling, was made unaware that her preceding boss was an accused rapist, and that Grammy nominations were changed, essentially as part of business deals.
Guess who was explicitly named in Dugan's lawsuit as one of the artists who has been dismissed by the Grammys regularly for major awards, regardless of their industry stature?
via GIPHY
*In terms of numbers, no other songwriter has written more #1 singles than Carey. For a bit of a nuanced debate, you can bring in Mccartney/ Lennon, whose songwriting partnership collectively garnered more #1s. However, it becomes impossible to untangle the two from one another, therefore leaving it impossible to rate them from outside of a songwriting duo.
Why? Well, because the glittery industry giant that is Carey is fresh off (we say this every decade) one of the most lucrative and successful years in her career; so naturally, Carey was finally inducted. I say finally because it took 3 consecutive nominations to get the win.
Along with Annie Lenox's/ Eurythmics' induction, 33 women are now nestled together in the 'hall.
Now, was it because of my hard-hitting investigative journalism that this happened? Yes, absolutely. Ok maybe not, but for my initial article I did genuinely try to reach out to the PR firm and had the following brief exchange to clarify how their process works and if they wanted to give a statement on the numbers of women inductees:
(Spoiler alert: I never heard back.)
Since then it's becoming a lot more commonly discussed by the press as to why women are shut out of industry prestige so often; even when the disproportion is so obvious and unsettling. Some pop culture critics argue that the music industry has yet to see the #metoo movement make waves like it has in Hollywood; perhaps 2020 is its' unfolding. It's not just the SHOF; NPR recently discussed a similar trend in the Rock Hall of Fame, celebrating Whitney's Houston's induction this year while simultaneously discussing the rampant underlying discrimination. While discriminatory practices serve as the nails keeping the boy's club treehouse sturdy, they pull at the threads of authentic American musical narratives that include women, women of color, queer stories, and voices on the margins. The guest on the segment, music and journalism Professor Evelyn McDonnell, argues the trend of women in music seeing their contributions left out of prestigious institutions is the norm. She goes on to use Big Mama Thorton as her example, arguing Thorton (original vocalist for "Hound Dog") had arguably the superior version over Elvis, yet unsurprisingly only the King's name lies etched permanently in the Rock Hall.
(This is important particularly when looking at the accusations of Elvis stealing from Black culture to buttress his success). Janet Jackson, at the Rock Hall induction ceremony, called the organization out, declaring: "Induct more women" while refusing to perform as per ceremony tradition.
In 2019 the SHOF, after snubbing Carey for a second year, inducted Missy Elliot (once again a major Carey collaborator); Elliot represented the only woman voted in last year. With Carey's belated induction this year, she and Annie Lennox (nominated with Dave Stewart for their work in the Eurythmics) became the 32nd and 33rd women, respectively, inducted. Carey became the fourth Black woman ever.
Read that again. 50 years, 453 inductees, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame found 4 Black women worthy of being honored for their songwriting contributions. If we wanna talk numbers; that's less than 1%. (Gloria Estafan was also nominated this year but not inducted, highlighting the major barriers Latina women experience in the music industry.)
When All I Want for Christmas is You reached #1 this past holiday season 25 years after its debut, Carey became the first artist and songwriter in history to have a number one song on Billboard in 4 separate decades. This occurred just weeks before announcing the SHOF inductees; plus the introduction of Nile Rogers, who seemed invested in diversifying the organization in 2019 as the chairman seemed to solidify the odds in Carey's favor. But the fact that Carey had to become the most successful songwriter of all time* just to gain an industry accolade that her male counterparts with half the resume have is not an accident.
Not convinced there's a huge conspiracy of old white men wearing dark velvet blue robes in a high rise, alternating between sipping martinis and gray goatees while they systematically choose which woman's career they will plot to block and then destroy next?
Well, that's your choice, but the "boy's club" in music that shuts women's voices out is real. As I type this, the 2020 Grammys has probably just finished; but the interesting story actually came in the days leading up to the event. Deborah Dugan, Grammys' CEO, was suddenly suspended this week; she then spilled some MAJOR TEA in response about the Grammys and the industry in general, stating that she had faced years of sexual harassment and catcalling, was made unaware that her preceding boss was an accused rapist, and that Grammy nominations were changed, essentially as part of business deals.
Guess who was explicitly named in Dugan's lawsuit as one of the artists who has been dismissed by the Grammys regularly for major awards, regardless of their industry stature?
(You can read Deborah Dugan's entire lawsuit here. That's my bitch for life, whistleblowin' the whole damn industry).
Did your head fucking explode yet guys? It's kind of all making sense. Lest we forget, Carey was once married to Tommy Mottola- the once CEO of Sony music. After she divorced his ass, it's well known in the Carey community that he systematically tried to block her success. Even before their divorce, he wanted to control her career by whitewashing her music and discouraging her move into incorporating hip hop and r&b elements into her sound. Her infamous 1996 Grammy snub for her 1995 album Daydream- the first to see her collaborating with hip hop producers like Jermaine Dupri and rappers such as Ol' Dirty Bastard- came a year before she separated from Mottola. Daydream, nominated for 5 awards that year- including Album of the Year- went away with nothing that night. To this day, "'Daydream' remains "one of the best selling albums of all time." Mottola is still getting called out for his sexist, controlling tactics over young female recording artists: in her newly released memoirs, singer Jessica Simpson claims that when she was only 17 years old Mottola would not sign her until she lost 15 pounds.
Even Diddy is pissed now. For ALMOST AN HOUR, the Bad Boy for life highlighted the systematic discrimination in the music industry. He brilliantly articulates why this all matters in the first place: “So right now, with this current situation, it’s not a revelation. This thing been going on — not just in music, but in film, sports, around the world.For years, we’ve allowed institutions that have never had our best interests at heart to judge us, and that stops right now...For most of us, this (music) is all we’ve got. ”
While songwriters such as Carey are the de facto owners of their song (or co-owner, along with any other writers) it is common practice to sell these rights to publishers to receive song distribution and advertisement while still collecting revenue. If in 2015, the top 5 publishers had control of almost 11 million songs in their catalogs, and these five are already huge conglomerates (think Warner, Universal), then whoever owns the publishers must be pretty close to the top of the club. Well, newsflash- they're privately-owned conglomerates. Example: Warner Music Group's parent company is Access Industries- "an American privately held multinational industrial group.[1] It was founded in 1986 by businessman Leonard "Len" Blavatnik, who is also its chairman. Access's industrial focus is in four areas: natural resources and chemicals, media and telecommunications,[1] venture capital[2] and real estate.[1]"
When juxtaposed with the sexual harassment faced by female performers/songwriters in the industry, they can often feel pressure to either stay in an uncomfortable situation or forego their music publishing rights in order to escape to a new contract. Check out this recent scene from Love and Hip Hop: Miami, in which artist Amara La Negra, is looking to leave her manager Julian after an uncomfortable sexual advance along with his alleged shady business dealings:
When juxtaposed with the sexual harassment faced by female performers/songwriters in the industry, they can often feel pressure to either stay in an uncomfortable situation or forego their music publishing rights in order to escape to a new contract. Check out this recent scene from Love and Hip Hop: Miami, in which artist Amara La Negra, is looking to leave her manager Julian after an uncomfortable sexual advance along with his alleged shady business dealings:
It may seem silly when we say "boy's club" but it's just mimicking the same chain of business like any other in capitalism, and it favors White supremacy. Within the confines of these chains, we will always see the narratives of marginalized voices silenced, or what can be worse at times- dulled. To repeatedly nominate Carey- who even had the grace to introduce Dupri for his induction speech- yet fail to induct her for two years straight has meaning itself. It says "We do see you. We aren't ignoring you. We are picking you up, analyzing you, and rejecting you. But we'll see if you're good enough next year. (Meanwhile, some dude from an 80's hairband walks in-Oh hey Joe you drunk son of a bitch get in here!!!! Good to see you, good to see you.)
At the end of the day, all we have is our own story, and the right to tell it. And one of the first ways the oppressor seeks to dominate is through silencing the oppressed; stealing and hiding their stories as if they don't matter. kicking them under the rug, or lying that they aren't good enough. It is, therefore, an act of subversiveness to write your story in a song under our working capitalist system.
This is now toted in the press as a "woman problem;" The SHOF has a "woman problem" the Rock Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammys have a "woman problem." Let me tell you this: nobody has a woman problem. We have a sexism problem; a racism and classism problem. It's important to take a look at these things and analyze them because if we don't pay attention, art and history become reflective of only a small portion of reality and threaten to wash away a lot of really important and meaningful contributions.
Diddy gave us 365 days. I don't know about you but I don't want to be on the other side of Diddy's disappointment.
via GIPHY
*In terms of numbers, no other songwriter has written more #1 singles than Carey. For a bit of a nuanced debate, you can bring in Mccartney/ Lennon, whose songwriting partnership collectively garnered more #1s. However, it becomes impossible to untangle the two from one another, therefore leaving it impossible to rate them from outside of a songwriting duo.
This was a Brilliant and impressively researched article. Kudos
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