Hello! Thank you for tuning into this week’s installment of music news. We don’t know about you but this week has been a particularly difficult one for us concerning the news, and so I think we’re all in need of a big lift….
With this in mind, we’re so excited to announce the launch of another weekly round up, this time in the form of AM’s New Music Picks! Co-founder Hermione kicked things off yesterday with a gloriously vibrant collection of tunes from artists such as Sierra Blax and Blood Wizard that you’ll be adding to your playlist faster than you can say ‘21st June’!
Happy Belated International Women’s Day to all! Monday 8th March saw the music industry celebrate incredible female/non-binary talent across the globe, as well as providing a prime opportunity to take stock and strategise a number of ways we can all work towards achieving gender parity. We absolutely loved this video by BBC Radio 6 Music that features some brilliant female artists talking about other women who have inspired them sonically.
Classical Music Twitter has been taken over by hashtags such as #PlayLikeAGirl and #FemaleComposerChallenge this month, pioneered by the renowned organist, conductor and broadcaster Anna Lapwood, encouraging musicians old and young to delve into the world of underperformed repertoire.
Over the course of the last month, we’ve been delighted to interview founders of important gender equality orientated initiatives such as The F-List and Flip The Stem, and you can check those out here:
The annual Grammy Award ceremony is due to air tonight! Predicted winners include Beyonce, who’s up for 9 (!!) awards, as well as the likes of Dua Lipa and Taylor Swift, with female artists dominating the field despite only making up approximately 20% of the nominees…..The awards have attracted lots of criticism over the years, including public fury from The Weekend whose album ‘Blinding Lights’ was not shortlisted for a single award despite being the biggest seller in the world last year!
The other awards-based controversy this week comes with the announcement that Sam Smith, a British pop singer whose gender identity is non-binary, has been excluded from this year’s Brit Awards. Currently, the awards system maintains traditional artist categories, with prizes for British solo male and British solo female acts, but as long as committees insist on categorising solo / group acts through a binary gender lens, there is seemingly no room for artists like Sam who uses ‘they’ / ‘them’ pronouns.
Thanks for reading! It’s been a busy week and we have plenty to share with you all this week. As ever drop us a message on apocalypsemusicsite@gmail.com and follow us on our socials to stay up to date!
Words by Pia Scattergood & Hermione Kellow
Photo © Apocalypse Music
