The problem isn’t actually the Billboard Awards or the charts: the problem is that this suggests record labels are spending their money to sign and promote significantly more male artists than female artists. IS THERE ANYTHING TO BOLSTER THIS? PERCENTAGE OF MAJOR MALE ARTISTS ON MAJOR LABELS VS FEMALE? There are many possible reasons for this. Labels may assume that male artists are more in line with what the market demands right now. There is undoubtedly ingrained sexism in the industry towards women, which includes a bias to take them less seriously as artists, songwriters, and producers. And the Annenberg Institute found a sharp drop-off in representation from 2016, when women were on 28.1% of the most popular songs; so perhaps in 2017, there is a statistically significant difference in the number of well-established artists who are women releasing records. That said, shy of 30% isn’t gender parity, and that number is troubling.
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