Equalising My Music

As we've just stepped out of Women's History Month - a month within a year that has seen more female voices and achievements lifted to the limelight than I can remember in recent times - I wanted to reflect. We're nowhere near the point of seeing as many women as men in music or the music industry, and having that be the norm. It is wild to think because when I think of the charts right now, almost every name that comes to mind is a woman. It wasn't until I stumbled upon the Smirnoff Equalizer tool which judges your Spotify listening habits and tells you how the percentage sits between men and women, that my eyes were opened.

I went into this thinking that maybe the percentage would fall in favour of men but I was expecting a pretty even ratio overall. You can imagine how shocked I was when the percentage was 72% Men, 28% Women - and even that miniscule number was well above average. Absolutely crazy. So for the last month I've been keeping my ear to the ground for more music from women and here are some of my favourite finds.   

Moonchild
Their latest video for "The List" popped up on my YouTube Recommended list and I can't even tell you what made my click it but next think I knew the song was 3/4 in and I'd already followed them on Spotify and liked all their socials. Led by the fantastic Amber Navran, is one of my favourite new discoveries, bringing me buttery neo-soulful goodness.

Anaïs
Now I'd been seeing this name pop up all over Facebook for quite a while, however, it wasn't until her EP before zero came out a couple of weeks ago that I really had a listen. To say that I was impressed might be an understatement. The first track on the album "nina" is the perfect opener; displaying anaïs' vocal acrobatics and piquing the listener's interest before cementing it with this banger...


 
Tired Lion
I was so sad that I hadn't heard of these guys before - especially after living in Australia for as long as I did. Hailing from Perth, this band led by Sophie Hopes, gave me just about everything I didn't realise I needed this year from an indie rock band. Witty and thought provoking lyrics, varied levels and killer riffs - and that was just after the first song "Japan". Imagine how I felt after this...




That's barely the tip of the iceberg to be honest. A few other exciting artists I came across in just the past couple of weeks are Nubya Garcia, Grace Carter, Madison McFerrin and Flohio. Despite a lot of space in this industry being taken up by men, this clearly isn't stopping women from putting out gold. After this month my eyes are finally opened, and I won't stop digging until my listening habits reflect that.