Is the American Music Establishment Sexist And Racist?
The not-so-peculiar case of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone
That’s not a trick question. I think the answer is an obvious “yes,” but I have been accused of exaggerating or being into conspiracy theories for saying so.
The music establishment (meaning the corporations and institutions that shape the commercial music industry) has a well-documented history of racism, sexism, and xenophobia. I’ve written about some of this in previous columns, for example, here and here.
Forerunners of Women in Rock
As part of my research into the antecedents to women in rock, I began digging into the history of women in popular music before rock took shape. I was floored by what I found, and have become a fan of a whole bunch of artists I had never known existed. Stick with me! This is wonderful and fascinating and sometimes frustrating stuff.
Are You a Foreign Artist? You Are Officially Not Wanted Here.
(In Part I of this series, I took on the Grammys, and by extension the American music establishment, for their willful refusal to give proper respect to music from other shores and their rank hypocrisy in pretending they do. But this is worse than cultural bigotry — it is actually reflected in official government policy. Read on…)
The relative invisibility of women and brown people in rock music is often assumed to be due to “those people” simply not being interested in, or talented at, that kind of music. Aside from being demonstrably idiotic, such attitudes are self-fulfilling when held by people like label executives and key music press members. We don’t know much about women or brown people in rock because the industry and its media franchises, like Rolling Stone, actively ignore them.
Rolling Stone was founded as a newspaper focusing on rock music. It grew into one of the most important and influential journals covering the popular music industry in general and branched out to political investigative reporting (some of which is quite good). But rock music always remained its main calling. Rolling Stone was a principal player in the foundation of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and imprinted its biases and preferences onto the Hall.
Those biases and preferences turn out to have a strong racist and sexist component. Think this is a conspiracy theory? It’s not a new criticism, but now we have the smoking gun. Jann Wenner, founder and long-time publisher of Rolling Stone, has just published a book containing his (self-curated) interviews with the “most important” figures in rock music. Notably, every single person he chose to include is a white male.
In an interview with the NY Times, he was asked why that was the case. From the Times itself:
“Regarding women, Mr. Wenner said, “Just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,” and remarked that Joni Mitchell “was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll.”
His answer about artists of color was less direct. “Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right?” he said. “I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.””
Aside from the comical absurdity of these remarks, I had to laugh at Wenner putting anyone down as not being articulate. In the quotes above, he clearly couldn’t even string together a coherent sentence.
Why is this important? Organizations that put out garbage commonly defend it by claiming that they are just giving the public what they want. They shrug off any responsibility by saying it's what we want, whether that is toxic junk food, biased journalism, or bland, repetitive music. In reality, they shape what we want.
What we call “influencers” today used to be called “taste-makers,” and a handful of them decided what we knew and liked. Rolling Stone played a major, active role in convincing Americans that rock music is only made by white men, which became a self-perpetuating stereotype. If you have been reading my column, you know that nothing could be further from the truth.
The good news is Wenner was fired from the Board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame following this interview.
Here is the full Times article about the announcement:
Glad you tackled this, Charles......it needed to be discussed here ('Stack), and I wasn't about to touch it! Not only am I allergic to controversy, but I'm not even gonna bother calling Wenner's statements anything more or other than, simply, stupid. I'll let others parse out the array of "ists" and "isms" they (and he) deserves.
I'd love to see our female writers (and whomever!) come out and, in force, lift up our female artists even more (as you've been doing for months!) in the coming days and weeks.
Wenner's idiocy should be turned around and used as fertilizer for growth.