The truth is that the EDM DJ/Producer scene is a sausage fest, it’s facts. Over 32 million people attend music festivals every year in the US, 51% of the attendees are women, but over 94% of most DJ lineups at EDM festivals are men. EDC Las Vegas set the groundbreaking record of having 15 female DJs in their 250 person line-up in 2018 which averages out to 6%. There were only 11 out of 200 DJs at Ultra 2016 and only 4 female DJ’s were nominated for DJ Mag top 100 in 2017. Only 6 women have been nominated for Producer of the year award in the entire 59-year history of the Grammy’s and it’s been 15 years since the last nomination. There’s no denying that EDM is a male-dominated entity.
But why is that? I’m Amina Zena, and I’m a female DJ/Producer currently living in New York City. I’ve been playing instruments my entire life when I was in the middle school band and high school choir there was always an even amount of boys and girls, but once I got into college I started working at a radio station and almost all the DJ’s and staff were men. In 2015, I started taking DJ lessons at Dubspot in NYC, and considering that NYC is made up of 52% women I was surprised to be only 1 of 3 females in a 20 person class. Once I got into the production courses the following year I was the only female. It wasn’t until 2017 that I met another female producer and we laughed about what its like to be the only female at a producing seminar and how awkward it can be to be. So we sat down and came up with a few conclusions as to why there aren’t as many female DJ/Producers.
The imbalance of female DJ/Producers has a lot to do with how we’re taught to view men and women in society. It’s not that women aren’t as musically inclined, because in the singing world women often dominate the charts and ticket sales. I think specifically in the EDM community more men are producers because of the language we use surrounding the term producer. We call producers engineers, and engineering has always been seen as a more scientific job and one that’s better suited for men. DJ’s lead the pack, and men have been taught to be leaders while women are supposed to be passive followers. Producing is often spoken about through a technical, mathematical lens, even one of the major DAWs that’s used in the industry is called Logic, and according to society logic is for men while emotion is for women. But in reality, music is a special blend of math and emotions and is one of few activities that involves simultaneous use of both sides of the brain. Music is the universal language, it transcends age, race, gender, and its time for the EDM festival lineups to reflect that.
So it’s not that women couldn’t produce if they wanted to, because so many women do. It’s just that it’s not been marketed to us in a way that seems relatable according to society’s idea of what a woman should want to do. Being a DJ/Producer is also a tough business, so on top of needing the necessary music skills, you need to be an entire brand. It’s only very recently in human existence that women have had as many rights and economic opportunities as men, and based on everything going on with the #metoo and the #timesupnow now movement, it can be intimidating for women to pursue a career in entertainment.
So what we need to do in order to fix this imbalance is to join together and support the female DJ/Producers who have sacrificed so much to keep the party going and pave the way for the future generations. My goal is to create the first all-women stage at an EDM Festival for this upcoming 2019 season, with at least 20 female DJ/producer acts and I challenge EDC Las Vegas to top their record and be the first to support women in this way. If you’re a female DJ/Producer who’s ready to work together to create a positive change I’ve started a Facebook group called “The Female Dj Lineup” where we can stay up to date. Let’s keep the PLUR alive in the EDM scene and put more female DJs on that stage than ever before this upcoming Festival Season!
Written by,
DJ/Producer
“Amina Zena is a real party rocker!” - Agent Orange
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