A daily chronicle of creativity in film, TV, music, arts, and entertainment, produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from November 2014 – March 2020. Host John Horn leads the conversation, accompanied by the nation's most plugged-in cultural journalists.
The countdown is on to Sunday’s Grammy Awards at Madison Square Garden, but what is usually a celebratory week for the music industry has received a sobering reality check.
The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has released its first-ever examination of the music industry.
The initiative has in the past spotlighted the diversity shortcomings in the film and TV industries, but the new study — titled “Inclusion in the Recording Studio?” — paints a disheartening picture for female artists, songwriters and producers.
The study looked at 600 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 2012 and 2017. Results showed that in 2017, 83.2% of artists were male versus 16.8% female. For songwriters, 87.7% were male while 12.3% were female, and among producers, 98% were male and 2% were female.
When it comes to Grammy nominees in the top categories between 2013-2018, 90.7% were male and 9.3% were female.
Despite the prominence of artists such as Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj and Adele, there's a big fall-off after those top names.
Stacy Smith, founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, spoke with John Horn on The Frame.