Women of Color’s Struggle in the Music Industry

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October, 2021

By Nicole Muriel

**The interview with Olga Lucia Rivas was originally conducted in Spanish.

Every year, the Grammys is the biggest night for music in celebrating and awarding its’ most prominent artists, and every year, a group is left out of the major nomination categories: women, and more notably, women of color.

“I think now it’s [the Grammys] been sort of equal because more powerful women like Doja Cat, Megan thee Stallion, and Cardi, are coming into the music industry,” says Jacqueline Holmes, 22, who makes sure to watch the show every year. “But it was very male-dominated.”

The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s report ‘Inclusion in the Recording Studio?’ looked at the gender, race, and ethnicity of artists, producers, and songwriters across 800 popular songs from 2012 to 2019.

Though the number has increased over time, the total amount of female Grammy nominees from 2013 to 2020 is 11.7% or ‘143 out of the 1,220 nominations,’ with men being 88.3% of the nominees.

The Grammy Awards are very representative of the music industry as a whole as it is one of the major music awards shows for all its performers as well as the producers, songwriters, and others who work on the music behind the scenes.

Within the industry, however, the gender gap is vast. The USC report states that when it comes to women, 21.7% are artists, 12.5% are songwriters, and 2.6% are producers. 

Across the 800 popular songs the report looked at, they found that the top male songwriter, Max Martin, has 43 credits while the top female writer, Nicki Minaj, has only 19.

Though the producing percentage is very low, the percentage of women of color who work as producers is even lower, with ‘8 out of 1,093 producing credits,’ going to them.

Holmes adds, “Women of color really make the show more than any others, I want to say, because they have to work their asses off twice as hard to get the respect they need.”

Being a person of color in an industry that is mostly run by white men is overwhelming, especially for women, who would not only face racism and discrimination but sexism from both co-workers and consumers of the work they put out.

“I grew up in a very white part of Texas and all my friends were white or Asian. Growing up, I didn’t want to be Hispanic, even though I was white, I didn’t get treated like a white person.” 

Andrea Nunez, who goes by the stage name Nunu, is a 22-year-old Venezuelan Latin pop singer. Nunez resided in Texas but now resides in Manhattan.

Singing in her native tongue was something Nunez would refuse to do for a long time, no matter how many times family and friends would encourage her to.

“I feel the reason a lot of Hispanic singers go through that, even Selena Quintanilla, is because the music industry until recently has been very white and English-dominated,” voiced Nunez. “It’s like you’re not going to make it if you don’t speak English.”

Nunez says she would sing only in English due to what she felt was ‘internalized racism,” and wanting to fit into the categories that the music industry represented.

The singer worked with Jerry Fuentes to create and release the songs she has out on streaming services and says that he was the reason she began singing in Spanish and overcame the ‘internalized racism’ she had felt.

Working with Fuentes on her music and writing her first songs in Spanish with him is what showed her how much easier and faster it was for her to write and create in her native tongue

Aside from discrimination, Nunez says she has been lucky enough to work with men behind the scenes who do not disrespect her and instead help her create her music.

Although she has felt no discrimination from men behind the scenes, it’s a bit of a different story when it comes to men who consume her music and visuals.

“Machismo in the industry doesn’t really bother me, because I know I’m proving them wrong, and it pisses them off sometimes when they see that I sexualize myself without their consent, I guess.”

The sexualization of women of color in both music videos and song lyrics is very prevalent within music, with their portrayals, whether as background dancers, models, or the performer herself, being oversexualized.

Christina Estes-Wynne’s report ‘A Failure of the Music Industry: The Frustration of Women of Color’ states how women of color are often objectified and portrayed very sexually in popular media.

Estes-Wynne comments on how this is the ‘idealized version of women of color,’ and how this can affect the younger generations and act as an influence.

“I feel like women of color outside of a few bigger musicians are very much used as accessories,” said Jae Barrera, 19, an avid music listener. “They’re often just background dancers or used as some sexual object.”

Olga Lucia Rivas is a musician who was the director of the first all-female salsa orchestra in Cali, Colombia. The group was called Son de Azucar and gained a lot of popularity in the 80s.

Rivas recalled how the group would face discrimination for their genders, with men not thinking they wouldn’t make it or play very well because of that. The men they encountered would help them along the way but turn sour when they began gaining popularity.

They also had a specific attire, that Rivas described as “sexy, but not vulgar,” as it would bring trouble for them on stage.

“Sometimes you would be performing on stage and we were wearing skirts, and there were men who would sneak under the stage to look up our skirts. So we would have to wear shorts under them.”

The musician comments on the difference between Colombia and the United States, making it clear that she hasn’t really felt any sexism or racism towards her in New York City compared to her home country.

“A lot of women of color are not credited for their work and instead are just there, when they’re even there because even diverse background dancers can be rare, to fulfill some weird fantasy,” added Barrera.

The sexism and racism faced by women of color in the music industry can be very stressful and make them feel like they have to dress or act a certain way. 

Estes Wynne’s report briefly touches on how even though men are the dominant figures in the industry and women are often sexualized by them, there have been female performers who have challenged these norms; artists like Lauryn Hill, Cardi B, and Miss Eaves are just some examples.

“If I’m going to be out there and put myself in a sexual position, I’m going to put it out there. No one can make me sexual because I’m already being sexual,” remarked Nunez. “If they look at that and sexualize me, then sure, but it’s not for you, it’s for me.”

Rivas mentions the stress of running the orchestra and how she would combat these kinds of attitudes to protect the women in it by having a set of rules they all had to follow.

“The rules helped not only keep our reputation clean but also protect the girls. Some of them were things like not drinking or dancing with others at venues, staying at a venue after a performance was over, especially if she still had her uniform on. If they didn’t follow the rules, they’d have to pay a fine, and it really helped keep everything under control.”

Eventually, the stress of handling the orchestra became too much for Rivas and she moved to New York City, where she plays in a church and says she has truly found herself here and couldn’t be happier.