Girls within the music business held on to their positive factors in climbing the charts in the direction of equality in 2024 however made little new floor, in response to a brand new research by USC‘s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
Girls made up 37.7 p.c of artists throughout the Billboard Sizzling 100 12 months-Finish Chart final 12 months, however that was little modified from 35 p.c in 2023, which in flip marked a big enchancment from 22.7 p.c in 2012.
Forward of the 2025 Grammys, the brand new report from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative underlined how positive factors made by girls have solely held, and never accelerated. For instance, there was no main floor made by girls producers in 2024 as they solely accounted for five.9 p.c of manufacturing credit.
The share of underrepresented artists in 2024, at 44.6 p.c, fell markedly from 61 p.c in 2023. And solely 22.7 p.c of all nominees in six main Grammy classes for this Sunday’s awards present are girls, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report concluded after surveying the report of the 12 months, album of the 12 months, track of the 12 months, greatest new artist, producer of the 12 months and songwriter of the 12 months competitions.
“Girls artists in 2024 noticed little change. In reality, it’s the variety of males that has declined whereas the variety of girls in 2024 was in keeping with prior years. This means that it’s fluctuations within the variety of males, not positive factors for girls that’s driving these findings. For these fascinated about seeing change within the music business, this isn’t an indication of progress,” Dr. Stacy L. Smith mentioned in an announcement.
Her report examined 13 years and 1,300 songs from the Billboard Sizzling 100 12 months-Finish Charts. The share of ladies songwriters in 2024 was 18.9 p.c, simply down from 19.5 p.c in 2023, although nicely up from 11 p.c of songwriters in 2012.
And the place girls of shade accounted for the positive factors seen in 2023, that wasn’t the case in 2024. Final 12 months, the variety of girls of shade working as songwriters dipped, whereas the variety of white girls songwriters elevated.
Simply over half, or 54 p.c, of songs in 2024 featured at the least one lady songwriter, little modified from 2023. “The music business is a mirror to the movie business—there may be plenty of fanfare about supporting girls, however little precise change among the many hottest songs,” Dr. Smith added.
“Till the individuals within the government ranks and A&R roles take critically the dearth of ladies within the business, we are going to proceed to see little change,” she argued.
