How to Be a Woman in Music
The Waves: Gender, Relationships, Feminism
Slate Podcasts
4.2 • 903 Ratings
🗓️ 9 November 2023
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week’s episode of The Waves, what’s it like to be an indie musician? Slate senior producer Cheyna Roth is joined by singer and songwriter Dessa. They dig into her newest album and how she has benefited from and been hurt by being a woman in the music industry. Later in the show they explore the breakup song - and all the gendered expectations that go along with writing one.
In Slate Plus: What do a dentist, neuroscientists, and puppeteers all have in common? They’ve worked with Dessa.
If you liked this episode, check out: Penis Politics
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth and Vic Whitley-Berry with editorial oversight by Daisy Rosario and Alicia Montgomery.
Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to thewaves@slate.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the waves, slates podcast about gender, feminism, and making it as a woman in |
| 0:10.3 | music. Every episode you get a new pair of feminist to talk about the |
| 0:13.8 | thing we can't get off our minds and today you've got me Shaina Roth, senior |
| 0:17.6 | producer at Slate. Later in the show I'm going to be joined by musician |
| 0:21.2 | Dessa. She's got a new album out and she's an expert in being a |
| 0:24.7 | woman in the music industry. I've been thinking about music a lot lately. I'm in a bit of a |
| 0:30.0 | podcast rut, surprising I know given my my career so I've started listening to music more |
| 0:35.1 | putting the old Spotify on shuffle and seeing what happens even though I've never been what you'd call a |
| 0:40.4 | music person I'm suddenly listening to a lot of Taylor Swift, don't ask why, it just sort of happened. |
| 0:47.6 | And like I do with any new interest, I found myself doing a lot of googling, which got me thinking about how fans and haters alike have treated |
| 0:54.4 | Taylor Swift over the years. |
| 0:56.3 | It hasn't always been good. |
| 0:57.4 | In fact, a lot of it hasn't been good. |
| 1:00.1 | But then, the collective, we, have never been great to our female artists. |
| 1:05.0 | I did some digging into equality and awards and the music charts. |
| 1:08.5 | In 2022, only 30% of artists on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart were women, which is actually a drastic |
| 1:15.6 | improvement. |
| 1:16.6 | Women are less likely to win non-gendered grammies and other awards. |
| 1:20.4 | They have to work harder to get half as far as male musicians. |
| 1:24.0 | We expect more from them, but treat their output as less than. |
| 1:28.0 | Even with artists like Taylor and Beyoncé having the biggest tours of the year. People still question their validity as |
| 1:34.5 | artists and question the topics they choose to sing about. The attacks can be |
... |
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