Diversity vs Meritocracy: What the Music Industry Really Needs

The gender representation debate in music refuses to fizzle out, and when festival season rolls around, the same scrutiny makes the rounds again. Social media erupts with line-up graphics covered in red ink, blotting out every act not fronted by a woman or non-binary performer. The intention is always the same: to hold organisers accountable for inequality. But in aiming for fairness, are we risking meritocracy in favour of optics? And more crucially, are we asking the right questions when we demand more diversity on the main stages of male-dominated festivals, especially in genres like rock? There’s no denying that there are institutional problems in the industry that need addressing. But the call for representation for representation’s sake doesn’t solve the deeper issues—it just papers over them. When there are already hundreds of fiercely talented female artists dominating the charts and reshaping genres on their own terms, the argument that women are being universally shunned starts to collapse under the weight of its own simplicity. Let’s step back and actually look at what the music industry needs right now, and whether the fight for better representation is addressing the real causes of inequality—or just its symptoms. Festival Line-Ups: Visibility or […]

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