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13 Gender in Music Production: Perspective Through a Female and Feminine Lens (2/4)
209 Gender in Music Production
Another female mode of music production in practice is related to clean-
liness and organization to create a pleasing and calming atmosphere in the
studio. Rivero notices that many female producers that she has worked
with “are gentler with the equipment and have a cleaner studio environ-
ment” (K Rivero 2019, interview communication, 7 February). Grzesiks’
practice is to prepare for her creativity by “ensuring that all the technical
aspects” are ready so she can enter her creative space. This “allows for her
process to flow without getting caught up in the technical elements”. The
female modality of her music production is evident in her practice with
more mindfulness, attention to detail, and organization (A Grzesik 2019,
interview communication, 15 March). Van Den Hurk’s studio is very clean
and organized. She has “a system for everything” and her studio set up in a
particular way for efficiency, suiting her workflow. Van Den Hurk has had
someone comment that, “you can clearly see it is a woman’s studio”. She
notices that “the studio gets messier sooner when there’s a male engineer”
in there (F Van Den Hurk 2019, interview communication, 27 March). I’d
like to acknowledge that not all men are messy and not all women are tidy,
though for many women, creating an aesthetically comfortable, pleasing,
and calming atmosphere is conducive to productive music-making.
Botta’s approach to practice is to help her clients be comfortable and
prepared for the recording sessions so that they capture the desired emo-
tion in the recording. She does this by allowing her artists to rehearse to
“get used to using microphones and the studio environment before hitting
record” (S Botta 2019, interview communication, 17 March). Van Den
Hurk uses her intuition in the studio when working with an artist or client
to “pick up on their emotions and stresses” and make them comfortable.
When the artist is comfortable, it makes a better recording and session.
She does this not only in her actions, but also with how she chooses the
“process to flow”. She is conscious of how she communicates with clients.
She says, “some clients perform better when you are warm and with others
you need to be strict”. She sets the studio space to suit her client by “dim-
ming the lights or lighting candles to make the artist more comfortable”
(F Van Den Hurk 2019, interview communication, 27 March). Preece is
more intuitive in the studio. She thinks about every session in the studio
as an experience: “It doesn’t matter if you don’t get what you set out to
achieve the first time, as each time you can reflect on what happened and
go back and change what’s needed. This helps artists to grow and learn
their own processes” (P Preece 2019, interview communication, 2 April).
Warren also feels as a female producer her approach to practice can be
“more accommodating in the studio than her male counterparts” (A War-
ren 2019, interview communication, 12 April). Missy Thangs believes as
a female producer she is “very adaptable and can mold to suit” her artist’s
style, and connect with the artists. She’s “very malleable and soft, nurtur-
ing” and personal to get to the heart and capture the emotional intention
of the music, though she can “be a hard ass if need be”. She works with
her intuition and “finds out the artist’s intention” for the music and works
with this. She likes to “hear what they are doing and find opportunities”
in their music to inspire her further with the production (Missy Thangs
210 Louise M. Thompson
2019, interview communication, 31 March). Another female modality of
music production in practice is the way that Botta thinks and feels about
creating music for someone. Botta feels that most of her clients want to
create music that is “really personal to them, songs about breakups” and
current life events. She thinks “as a producer they have entrusted their
baby to you. It’s special, it’s precious to them and the producer is the one
that has to breathe life into it” (S Botta 2019, interview communication,
17 March). Angela McRobbie attests that “[t]he role of the music producer
within the popular music industry has been recognized as a profession
strongly associated with notions of power and control” (McRobbie 1978:
66–96). These women show that in a female modality of music produc-
tion, the power and control lie with capturing a great performance. Some
of them do this with what might be called a feminine approach to their
practice, by making the clients comfortable with a gentle manner, and by
using their intuition to read the client’s needs, intentions, and processes.
Gendered modalities of music production can be seen in many female
producers’ practice with their workflow. Rivero believes women have
different workflows in the studio “as females think differently to males”
(K Rivero 2019, interview communication, 7 February). A Hundred
Drums believes females convey things or communicate musically, “due to
thinking differently” than men (A Hundred Drums 2019, interview com-
munication, 8 March). Missy Thangs believes that her “interface” of prac-
tice is very “effeminate due to women thinking differently to men” (Missy
Thangs 2019, interview communication, 31 March). Warren has a unique
workflow with the way she “arranges music, as she doesn’t write linear”.
She doesn’t start at the intro and work forward (A Warren 2019, interview
communication, 12 April).
The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach to practice is another female
modality of music production. Warren uses DIY in her practice with use
of “a USB microphone in a closet with blankets to deaden the room”. She
also uses methods of self-teaching with certain gear, though she prefers to
have someone walk her through something rather than to read a manual.
She enjoys gaining knowledge from video tutorials and gets “more ben-
efit” from these than a manual (A Warren 2019, interview communica-
tion, 12 April). Grzesik also uses DIY in her practice with methods of
“self-teaching” (A Grzesik 2019, interview communication, 15 March).
Preece uses a DIY approach in her production by “fixing our audio gear
and making our own cables, instruments, synthesizers and controllers”.
The Ironing Maidens also “make their own website and do their own mar-
keting”. Preece also uses methods of self-teaching for learning new gear
and techniques (P Preece 2019, interview communication, 2 April). Kear-
ney defines the history of DIY as an “anti-corporatist ideology, which
grounded various leftist movements, committed to creating non-alienated
forms of labor and social relations” (Whitely. Ed. Kearney 1997: 215).
Further explaining, feminist DIY has been a major access point for women
to create music by providing “safe women-only spaces for the learning of
skills as well as rehearsal and performance, challenging ingrained tech-
nophobia and giving women the confidence to believe that, like the boys,
211 Gender in Music Production
they can be music-makers rather than simply music fans” (Whitely. Ed.
Kearney 1997: 216).
Feminine modalities of music production are evident in the gentle
approach that female producers have to their works. Preece’s feminine
modalities of music production are notable in The Ironing Maidens’ music
as it is “less aggressive and more about the story in the lyric and political
message” that they are sharing. Preece has a gentle approach to processing,
including refraining from over-compressing the drums. She explains, “All
the production in our music supports our message of the social inequalities
of women in the home and in music production” (P Preece 2019, interview
communication, 2 April). Van Den Hurk doesn’t like to overly compress
her sounds and likes them to be more “natural and organic,” compared to
some men’s productions which are polished and heavily compressed and
“shape the sound heavily, harsh and squeezed into shape” (F Van Den
Hurk 2019, interview communication, 27 March). Warren also has these
feminine modalities of production in her works, with gentle processing
on the drums, and she regularly uses a wet reverb. She also has a gentle
approach to her arranging style and is “not aggressive with muting things”
in the mix (A Warren 2019, interview communication, 12 April). Rivero
explained that another feminine modality of music production is having
less aggression or a gentle touch with the faders. “Women have a different
touch on the fader, it’s not aggressive” (K Rivero 2019, interview com-
munication, 7 February). Grzesik says that typically, males may have an
aggressive approach to production and their studio processing, whereas
“women may have a lighter touch” when it comes to this. She also adds:
“Then how much of this has to do with the fact that men can get away with
more”. She gives the example of times when she has gone out on a limb
and taken chances with being more aggressive with her processing and
“guys have been like, yeah, I don’t think this works here”. She says, “Who
knows if a guy tried this same thing he could have gotten away with it”.
Although this is of course speculative thinking, this appears to make her
think that women’s approaches have less to do with our gendered natures
and potentially more to do with our timidity as female producers. We have
a subordinate position in the field and studio environment, which impacts
our creativity due to “wanting to fit in, be hired again, and please people”
(A Grzesik 2019, interview communication, 15 March). A Hundred Drums
says she has “some songs that are feminine sounding and others that aren’t
feminine at all”. She doesn’t believe that the process of music production
is a gendered process, or that she does anything different in the studio
compared to males. She has collaborated with male dub-step producers
and recognizes similarities that can be explained as “genre-based process-
ing”. Though by contrast, she believes her female modalities of production
are subtle in the finer detail of her productions, what she calls “the essence
of it” (A Hundred Drums 2019, interview communication, 8 March).
Gendered modalities of music production were revealed in many female
producers’ works through their gentle approach to processing, and were
evident in many female producers’ practices. Their feminized approaches
were demonstrated through the creation of homely spaces to create in,
212 Louise M. Thompson
cleanliness, organization, a unique workflow in the studio, and the use of
DIY culture. The approach to practice these women have shown with their
clients in regards to using their intuition to read what the client wants and
needs, and their softer personality styles as producers, are arguably gen-
dered modalities of music production.
CONCLUSION
This study concludes that while the experience of one’s gender may not be
conscious in an approach to music production, the feminine manifests as a
distinct aesthetic throughout this analysis. Many participants found it hard
to think about music as gendered. Wood remarked that “music is math and
emotion” and doesn’t believe in the cultural anthropological perspectives
to music theory. She thinks “of herself as human” and found it hard to
judge the femininity in her practice (C Wood 2019, interview communica-
tion, 26 March). This demonstrates the fact that women’s approaches to
music production are diverse and that not all female producers will or will
seek to express femininity through their practice. Farrugia notes the dis-
advantages that female electronic music producers face when their music
is categorized as women’s music, which results in harsher criticism and
potentially distances male fans and lessens the amount of airplay as elec-
tronic music is mostly consumed by and generated through male DJs (Far-
rugia 2012: 68). Macarthur explains that some believe the label ‘women’s
music’ illustrates the perspective that it is separate from men’s music, illu-
minating the perspective that men’s music is simply music (Macarthur
2002: 2). Many women want to gain recognition for their music produc-
tion practice, but they want it to happen without reference to their gender,
with the belief that relating gender to practice diminishes the impact of
their work. Like myself, Macarthur was also aware of demonstrating the
difference of the feminine aesthetic to celebrate validity in the practice of
females. She says: “It becomes obvious that I want to demonstrate its dif-
ference in order to celebrate its worth. On the other hand, it is apparent that
I am painfully aware of the deficiencies involved in such an argument”
(Macarthur 2002: 3). I believe these deficiencies will dissolve along with
the gender inequalities in music production with further research and rep-
resentation of the female producer and her practice. Celebrating the femi-
nine aesthetics of music production and focusing on the representation of
females in the environment of music production will eliminate the sense of
devaluation that female producers feel with the intersection of their gender
and practice. By acknowledging that women, just like men, bring a range
of skills into the process of music production, those of us who feel pas-
sionate about this subject will help balance the female-to-male producer
ratio and generate more awareness of women’s productions.
Many believe the representation of music production in the media leads
to the belief that production is a male domain. In the majority of discourse
around the subject and on social media, the representation of a producer
is male, with images of “a male behind the console or with a boom mic”
(K Rivero 2019, interview communication, 7 February). There is a lack
213 Gender in Music Production
of articles written about female producers, and even the high-achieving
female producer lacks publicity in the media. Botta noticed that articles on
the male producer of the year are prevalent in the media and feels “there is a
natural gravitation to write about male producers” (S Botta 2019, interview
communication, 17 March). Lieb comments on how important media rep-
resentations of the female are to be interpreted as a reality for the audience:
Historically, women have been underrepresented in the music industry
and in society (e.g., women only got the right to vote in 1920 – less
than 100 years ago). This makes the few representations of women
that we see all the more important from a social inuence standpoint.
(Lieb 2013: 163)
Preece believes “as an educator that research into the female producer and
her practice needs to be researched and published in the academic world,”
leading to a larger representation of females in the field. That will “ben-
efit the culture of music production with assets to everyone in the indus-
try, males included” (P Preece 2019, interview communication, 2 April).
Grzesik feels “the more that we see women involved in this industry, the
more women will feel comfortable joining the industry” (A Grzesik 2019,
interview communication, 15 March). Providing the dominant ideology and
identity of a music producer as a male not only marginalizes over half of
society, but it can also lead to issues in regards to the creation of identi-
ties for female producers in the industry and those wanting to access the
industry. Marian Wright Edelman explained: “You can’t be what you can’t
see” (Marian Wright Edelman; Spelman College 1959). We need more
female role models of music producers to be represented in the media and
in music production discourse. This will address the gendered assumptions
and “inspire more women to the field” (K Rivero 2019, interview commu-
nication, 7 February), giving aspiring women producers someone to identify
with.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks are due to Dr Jodie Taylor for her mentoring and support with
guiding me toward relevant information sources, giving me feedback on
drafts of this chapter, and for inspiring conversations on gender and music.
I would also like to acknowledge the help of my colleague Wayne McPhee
from the Masters in Creative Media program at SAE Institute Australia for
his feedback on the drafts of this chapter, along with the interview partici-
pants for their time and openness in interviews. A final thank you to my
daughter Charli Gaiter, for her patience and being my foundation in life.
NOTES
1. Fieke Van Den Hurk is a studio producer/engineer from Graveland, a small
village half an hour from Amsterdam, in The Netherlands. She has a Masters of
Music degree and has worked for Wisseloord Studios since 2012 as an engineer.
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