The Women In Music Research Project aims to raise awareness on how women are discriminated and treated as inferior in the music industry. We concluded on using this issue for the project after a careful consideration of topics centred on how women are presented in media.

They are idolised and praised only when they are conforming to beauty standards and social expectations. For example, women who are presented as “attractive” and “desirable” are promoted more in media compared to those who are just trying to pursue music as an art.

This has been proven time and time again by award shows, producers of music videos and more. All of this content was then put into a PowerPoint of data analysis and condensed into a script that will be used in a podcast on Spotify. This technique of raising awareness ensures that our voices can be heard on a platform which is centred around music.

WHAT WAS OUR IMPACT?

”The response from advertising the podcast so far has been positive with many people wanting to contribute to the final episode, either by making statements to refer to or by joining in as a guest speaker.

However, it has been difficult to organise all of the things required, such as access to a recording studio and a way to stream the podcast.”

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

“Don’t be afraid to speak out.

While it may be viewed as a bold move to have a podcast about problems in the music industry on a platform dependent on the music industry, it’s the risk we have to take to make our voices heard.

As well as this, the social media aspect of the project did not require any funding. Therefore, you can raise awareness on any issue you are passionate about on as many platforms as you want.”

WHAT WOULD WE DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?

“Instead of trying to condense all of the information into one script of an episode of a podcast, it would be a better idea to space out all the information across multiple episodes.

This is so that we can properly focus on one aspect of the topic at a time while keeping it engaging for our audience. Also, we would plan to record the podcast both with audio and with film so that we can use the footage and put it on YouTube to reach more viewers.”