Friday Figures - 1 Apr

Whilst we applaud visibility of underrepresented women artists on the Billboard charts in its simplicity, the reality of splits and genres remain more nuanced and complex (especially given the songwriter gender disparity of the very same charts). And this rise simply does not exist in all other areas, especially that of producers and credited songwriters for women overall. 

“More women of color than white women wrote songs that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End Chart in 2021, which reverses a drop for underrepresented women observed in 2020. However, 2021 is still below the 10-year-high of 44 women of color witnessed in 2019. For white women, the previous three years have shown little change.”

Read the full USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report here.