i want to kiss her!

Drain yourself. Bleed yourself. Starve yourself. Deprive yourself of being in the single, individual life that you have because your sex has been legally determined inferior in a thousand year history. Women have never needed independence when they have a man to take care of them, so what if he doesn't see you as a person? As least he doesn't beat you. So what if he beats you? At least he's not leaving visible marks. So what if he's beaten you so badly you've ended up in urgent care under a pseudonym so he doesn't find you? At least you're still alive.

—

Stephen Scobie, on the Naropa Institute’s 1994 tribute to Allen Ginsberg

Absences of women in history don’t “just happen,” they are made.

I like to call it 'the game'.

What music companies do is come up with a brand to target a market, then sign talent to fit that market. Here's The Game: how well each album does determines how much creative control you as an artist have over the next album; you sign for multiple albums at a time, and if you make no money you're done. This means you can be 'shelved' in favor of another artist in your genre; you cannot sign with anyone else but they won't approve release of your next album.

If you come to the table with no writing chops, your job is pretty much to sing what's written for you until you can prove yourself. Example; Taylor Swift used to write pop with the people her teams chose frequently (as you'll see in a moment!), but as a superstar she's been working with Aaron Dessner from The National (and I, a former hater, give folklore a *chef's kiss*)

Aight let's fuckin go let's start with the song that made my mother ban Britney Spears from our house:

there are lots of places that list songwriters, but the easiest way is usually to check the lyric sites (which pull from those places)

Max Martin and Rami. Very famous writing/production team (both men), who have made pop songs for decades now. That album was one of their first projects together. Max Martin you may have heard of before. Here are his Billboard Hot 100 hits; you can see how he writes to the "brand" of each artist:

MAX MARTIN ALSO GOT DR. LUKE FAMOUS. Dr. Luke (of abusing Ke$ha fame) was the fucking guitarist for SNL until like 2007- but he met Max at a house party and they started swapping songs and eventually they wrote a big P!nk song together- THIS ONE:

Their next big hit was "I Kissed A Girl" for Katy Perry (who was discovered and signed as a 15 year old LITERAL CHURCH GIRL SINGING GOSPEL SONGS BY THE WAY!) Are you getting the picture? Dr Luke signed Kesha when she was 18!

Somewhere along the way Max Martin started another writing team called Wolf Cousins, which still functions as a songwriter club where he mentors other men on how to crack the charts. They made 1989 by Taylor and "Talking Body" by Tove Lo and Ariana's My Everything and Sweetener and and and - the list goes on, you can look it up.

Want a different genre? Let's check a song from someone who came to the industry with more influence and social power, at an older age: Cardi B's "WAP" (w Megan Thee Stallion). They're both credited as songwriters, but look at who else is:

Austin, James and Jorden? Yeah, I know em that's these guys, Ayo N Keyz and Megan's ex-boo Pardison Fontaine:

So, this was a kinda meh song Cardi (a brand) was making with Ayo and Keyz (recording) and Pardison Fontaine (writing) - until PF got close with Megan in 2020 and got her involved for some verses, and then they were cooking with sauce:

and THIS WAS THE FINAL PRODUCT! BEHOLD, "HOW TO RECEIVE SEXUAL PLEASURE FROM MEN BY CARDI B"

So yes, I'm sure Cardi/Megan wrote some lines on that song. Only they know who wrote which parts - but my point is this:

If you, as an artist, can't write a charting hit alone, the music companies are gonna stick you in a room with someone who can. Those people - at the company and in the room - are almost always men.

If you want to play The Game, your music gets filtered through the male gaze.

Nothing in pop is exempt from this process.

Everyone uses this model. Everyone. You like Doechii? She was put with Gotye (yes Im serious, the "Somebody I Used to Know" guy). Gracie Abrams? That's Aaron from The National again. Ryan from OneRepublic wrote songs that ended up with Adele and Ellie Goulding. Beyoncé took a song or two from him too, as well as from Ne-Yo and a bunch of others. Jack from Fun/Bleachers has a whole career doing this.

"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX? I see seven writers credited, they're the only women listed. Remember "Glamorous" by Fergie? Six writers, five are men. Miley Cyrus has star power in her brand and can request to work with who she wants, but she doesn't write well - so her new song "End of the World" credits her, and Molly from Alvvays (an amazing musician and songwriter), and then five men. Miley's first big hit that I remember was "Party In The USA" - but she's not even a credited writer. That song came from Dr Luke and a producer being put in a room with 20 year old Jessie J- and they gave 15 y/o Miley that song because it was a winner and she was an industry baby with a Disney brand who needed a song and could outsell Jessie. "Monster" by Rihanna was another big one. That was Bebe Rexha's (written by Jon Bellion and friends) until it was given to sexy sexy Rihanna and Eminem was added for star power. You can still find Bebe's version leaked on YouTube.

Halsey? Last I checked was Nine Inch Nails. Rosalia? Yes, she plays the game too. Selena Gomez- yup, definitely. Camila Cabello? Haha! Lizzo? Yeah, I think her big hits were all the guy who wrote Derulo's "Talk Dirty". I could keep going. No one is exempt from The Game.

You can be smart about it, like Megan Trainor and Lady Gaga, and study music until you're hooky enough to sign with a label who can see you as a writer and you choose your own cowrites, harmless mostly gay men or older family men, but you can't escape The Game.

As a woman: if they can scout you young and train you to be a consistent cowriter (Lana, Taylor, Lorde) - great! If you can write for others and yourself (Sia, Julia Michaels, Starrah) - even better! If you can't write for shit, you can always be a sexy sexy singer (Katy Perry, Rihanna, Dua Lipa) and have the good ol' boys write for you. (Until you're not sexy sexy anymore, at least.)

Male singers have to play The Game too; Bernie Taupin wrote for Elton John, Jimmy Napes writes many of Sam Smith's hooks, Benny Blanco has a huge career writing for the pop charts- but. BUT. Women write for women, sometimes- while men write for men and women, always.

There's a difference between being a singer/songwriter and being a ghostwriter for people. Being just a writer, as a woman? Difficult as fuck. We can sometimes break into that world (Amy Allen for Sabrina Carpenter, Lauren Christy for Avril Lavigne, Kara Dioguardi, Laura Veltz) and live on royalties without fame, but you must still write for the male gaze brand, selling something that can make music videos and tour and partner with huge sponsors- it's still a boys club. Which is why I started the post with Max fucking Martin who runs a literal songwriting boys club. His is very far from being the only one. His just specializes in this Brand Artist trash for young women, and is good at keeping trend-relevant producers around so they've haunted the charts like misogynistic Swedish ghouls for decades. Look up some recent hits and you'll see Dr Luke is out of favor and Shellback is the new hot sound, and I'm sure some new one on the way.

TLDR- there are a bunch of women in music (hello!) BUT we rarely get signed to write unless we can ALSO perform as the face of a brand; unless we can be sexy sexy marketable. Men are the radio heads, label execs, studio owners, songwriters and producers and gatekeepers, all beholden to a $30 BILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY.

So yeah. it's a fucking thing. It's at the core of how it works. Women are the face of the brand catered to a market, men hold the power.

Ive been in this since the aughts and it's been horribly sexist the entire time, top to bottom. I've been stuck in those rooms with those men. I've been badgered for sex. I've been groped (and worse) and stalked and threatened and harassed and more, and I know plenty of industry scandals where women took settlement money to stay quiet about sexual assault, discrimination and more. The hierarchy is clear to everyone. Every time you're in the label offices or studio you see some pretty young women with stars in her eyes, being shown around and promised millions by a sleezy old douchebag.

This shit is systemic. Sex sells and the companies that control everything want to make money so they make and sell sex. It's designed to sell over authentic music not produced by a huge team of marketing specialists and predatory and self-obsessed men. Once in a blue moon does someone escape this formulaic hellscape of the music charts I've tried to show here and - lemme tell you - I fucking live for the moments that they do. All of us in the music world constantly have our ear to the ground for aberrations, moments of genuine artistry and authentic creativity powering through to popularity as these huge music corporations fight with each other for space on the charts. I think the most recent for me was Gigi Perez.

When you start paying attention, it's easy to see who's making money for what. The harsh truth, from a woman in music, is that a lot of women in music are just recording artists who decide to play the game and let men write their brand while they tour and dance in music videos, and it's insidious as fuck what the end result is.

fuck this business

anyways go GO FORTH with this knowledge on how to pick apart a pop song and slay. sorry for ruining the radio for you.

oh, and don't fall for the "breakout indie music" schtick either; Chappell Roan's cowriter is Dan from As Tall as Lions and his other recent project was Olivia Rodrigo:

Evidence shows women have always hunted. They found a 9000 year old female hunter buried with weapons in Peru, and there’s a ton of other research showing women were just as involved in survival work as men.