The music industry tends to be a male-dominated field, yet more and more women are making their presence known, especially at the Nelsonville Music Festival.
Last year’s festival featured 16 bands with women in a main or major supporting role in the group, and this year’s festival goes even further. Eighteen acts feature a majority of women as the head of the band, and many of these acts are nationally known.
Tim Peacock, executive director of the festival, said that it’s not the organizers’ intention to take precedence on women over men or vice versa — he just enjoys quality music.
“When we started booking it this year, it was very male dominated,” Peacock said. “We like to have a diverse lineup.”
Multiple acts — such as Jessica Lea Mayfield, Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside and Those Darlins — have gained a strong national following, and some have even landed performances on late night talk shows.
Jessi Darlin of Those Darlins sings about her experiences with male rockers on the road in her song “Be Your Bro,” in which she said that many guys are just looking to have sex, even if they’re married and away from their families.
While the music industry has traditionally been very male-dominated, she said more women are coming out of the woodwork.
“Being a girl in a band and touring all the time, there are a lot of women, but at the same time there are a lot more dudes,” she said. “The more that time goes on, the more women see other women and go ‘oh I can do that too.’ ”
Sallie Ford, lead singer for Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, said that it’s not necessarily that more women are coming into rock and roll, but more so that rock and roll is making a resurgence.
“Hopefully rock is coming back and people are tired of this folky stuff,” Ford said.
“(Playing rock music), you can still be vulnerable and write about things that matter, but you can do it in a way that’s energetic. I think that’s why girls are into rock — it makes a live show more interesting.”
In the past few years, women have truly reached great heights in the rock music scene, but many instead turn to country and pop.
Even well-established acts, though, are trying to support more women singers and instrumentalists. During Jack White’s recent performance on Saturday Night
Live, every member of his backing band was a woman.
“You don’t really see women taking the lead guitar solo but it’s happening more often,” said Angela Perley, a Columbus-based country artist playing for the festival. “It’s really inspiring to know that there are really cool women artists out there.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
