NOT BAD FOR A GIRL founder Martha Bolton on why balanced lineups start years before the poster, and why "fewer women DJs" doesn't hold up.
Debates about representation in electronic music tend to get heated fast. Comment threads and panel soundbites distort arguments that deserve more space, whether that's about lineup balance, studio access, mentorship or safety.
With that in mind, Attack is starting a four-part series that gives people working on these issues the room to discuss the situation in greater depth. At the heart of the series is a simple question: can we close the gender gap?
The questions remain the same for each interviewee. No one is asking for consensus; that’s impossible. But by opening up the floor, we can help build a broader understanding from other people’s perspectives and experiences.
First up is Martha Bolton, founder of NOT BAD FOR A GIRL, the London-based collective and booking agency built exclusively around women and gender-diverse artists.
Attack: If there are simply fewer women and gender-diverse DJs in the talent pool, is it fair to expect more balanced lineups?
MB: It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation.
If there are fewer women and gender-diverse artists in the talent pool, we have to ask why that is. Is it because the talent doesn’t exist? Or is it because the pathway into the industry hasn’t been equally accessible? Some people like to argue the former, but the research clearly shows it’s the latter.
At NOT BAD FOR A GIRL we’ve worked with hundreds of incredibly talented artists. The challenge isn’t that they don’t exist. It’s that they often haven’t had the same access to opportunities that help build a career, whether that’s studio space, mentorship, early bookings or industry networks.
It’s not just barriers to entry - it’s also the experience people have while they are in the industry. I often say it doesn’t matter how many women you get into a studio if a significant proportion are going to experience sexual harassment or discrimination once they arrive. We know those experiences are far more common than they should be. If people don’t feel safe or respected, it’s no surprise that so many decide this industry isn’t for them.
By the time you’re looking at a festival lineup, all of those experiences have already decided who made it through. So I don’t think lineups exist in isolation. They’re usually a reflection of everything that’s come before them, and just one part of a huge, wide issue.
[quote align=right text="If you spend years looking at line-ups and never seeing anyone who looks like you, or constantly feeling like you have to prove you belong, eventually some people decide the industry just isn’t for them"]
Some promoters would argue that their job is to sell tickets, not to fix structural inequality. What would you say to that?
Ok but this argument misses the point. When did we start positioning diverse lineups in opposition to ticket sales? I think one of the biggest myths in dance music is that women and gender-diverse artists don’t sell tickets. We’ve built an entire business around exclusively booking women and gender-diverse talent. We've performed and run events all over the world, and we’re working with the biggest brands in dance music. So from my experience, that just isn&rsq