Fighting for Acceptance

On Thursday October 19th I attended a film documentary that took place at Harvard Business School. The film was entitled, “Beautiful was the Fight”. The film was made by Dave Habeeb. The documentary was about female singers and bands trying to make it in the music industry in Massachusetts.

The film also talked about how women are treated in the music business not only in Massachusetts but throughout the United States. That there’s a certain look a label wants you to have and if you don’t either you don’t get it. Or when a female singer does have what a label wants, they have her dress in a different style where she can’t be herself. Or they want them to dress more provocatively.

In the documentary a lot of the women singers in Massachusetts were talking about how performing is where there supposed to be and what there meant to do. They also don’t feel comfortable doing anything else. What people don’t know is out of all the states Boston has the most female singers than male singers. Music is different in Boston than in any other state because the music is rougher. Perhaps the music is like this because of the female singers trying to be accepted in an industry dominated by men. They are trying to prove the record labels that you don’t have to be young or pretty or dress sexy to sell a great album. To be an artist it should be the music itself and not the way the person looks.

Constantly record labels want women to look young and dress sexy because they believe that’s what sells records. They forgot what matters most making good music with great vocals and lyrics, not just looks sell an album. Music is not visual, maybe when buying an album cover but then when a person listens to it. If the fan can tell the person’s heart is not into it, then how is that album supposed to do well? A musician should be able to be themselves, being authentic is what sells to audiences. Record labels just think one way, but they refuse to think in a different mindset cause there too concerned in making money and changing their old ways in fear of losing money. One singer said a person taking photos of her for her records album cover was flirting with her and the singer felt so uncomfortable with this. Women should not be treated as an object man are not treated like this in the music industry why should women be any different?

One of the singers in the film, Ruby Rose Fox, said while doing her first album at a recording label the manager wanted her to sing higher than lower. He wanted to mold her into what he wanted her to be, and she mentions that it really ripped her confidence apart being told this. Another singer named Hayley Jane says when she goes online, she sees dirty messages from fans that make her feel uncomfortable by saying to her she’s hot. She said when she gets good feedback from other fans when they say to her that they love her music she said its hard to feel good about the positive feedback when you hear the negative feedback your first given. She says when she realizes she’s treated this way due to his gender its hard not to get mad. Carisa Johnson singer says that women are taken advantage of and makes her must be always alert. She says it makes me feel like I must be confrontational. She says I used to stop smiling and being myself cause of this. Then again, she says she doesn’t want to change who she is as a person. Rainy Stanford, a drummer tells story of a cymbal stand she had a problem with fixing it. A guy came over to her and said to her slowly what to do. He then asked her if she got what he said. This is unacceptable women should not be treated like this. That’s why it's important for women to support others not only in the music industry but in all different workplaces and in personal life situations as well. Chelsea Berry mentions that guys were tough on her too saying to her always that she didn’t know what she was talking about. She said being a women shouldn’t be any different working in the music industry than a man that works there. Ronnica a guitarist for the band called, “Mint Green”, says she says women must work 1000 times harder than men in the music industry. That women must constantly prove themselves. Another artist said she was doing a photoshoot and the guy wanted her to dress in a leotard and stand next to a graffiti sign and that was not even the image she wanted to put out to her fans. She wanted to look like herself, she didn’t feel happy with the image they were portraying her as. Saddie Vada a singer for a band said a lot of times people made her upset because they thought she was a plus one for the band she was in or a helper for the band. One time she says she will never forget a guy told her to get off the stage and asked her what she was doing there.

One artist mentions that if she ever is offered a million dollars by signing a contract, she would ask herself if she would still be happy doing what she loved to do. Or would she be happier making a lot less money? Another singer mentions that making a living as an artist is hard to do as one occupation. A lot of independent artists have more than one job. A lot of artists hope to make more money in the craft they do. Ruby said what made her want to be a singer was her sister died and her parents went missing, and the radio meant a lot to her during this hard time. She said being part of Daves documentary made her feel seen and she said she loves the camera following her and making her feel important. Music should be about the music not the appearance. Sex does sell but when people buy music on the cover, and they put that cd into the cd player and hear the music and its not good there not going to buy that person’s album again. That’s what a lot of labels don’t understand.

Women are taking over the music scene. They are making a movement to support other women not only in Boston but throughout the United States. One singer talks about how you must leave Boston to have a successful career. When you think of an artist you think of them going to New York or California not Boston but a lot of great female solo singers and bands with great talent of writing songs and vocals are in Boston. People don’t know about, and they should because they are missing out on great music. Jazzmyn Red she said that for an artist to help them go through the music industry they need supportive friends and family to help them go through this journey. She said I want to write a song I want to write for myself and not what someone wants me to write for them. GRCB is a girls rock campaign Boston empowerment program in Massachusetts. For girls in this program using music education and performance to get through being a strong woman and have girls know not to be taken advantage of. A singer says with this program for girls through music within 5 to 10 years the GRCB campaign will be powerful for girls to use these skills they learned in GRCB for later on when they grow up and are in the music industry to be strong and not take. One singer says that she wants to model for her daughter. If her daughter doesn’t see what she wants in the world she encourages her to go out and create it. Another singer also says, “If you’re not hearing music go out and make it. If you don’t want to see music, you like go and create your own venue.

Boston female bands one singer notes that people go to a certain point in their music career, and they can’t push through the envelope anymore more to go to the next level. She feels like an artist, that’s what she’s going through. Boston is a great place for independent artists to flourish. Some fans expect new artists for their first time on stage to be great right off the bat but for artists to get better they need to be on stage as much as possible to further their music career. Cause practice makes perfect. Every artist must start somewhere with their first gig and improve from there. With having people come see you to check out new music and not minding if it's your first time playing. There is able to being open to hearing a new band and it gives these upcoming artists a way to develop their craft more and to learn from their mistakes to get better. One guy that sees new bands says he likes seeing new bands cause your able to interact with the band members. Where with mainstream artists you must pay a lot of money to see them and wait several hours to talk with them. Then when you talk with them there’s no connection cause there’s only a limited time you can talk with them. Hayley Jane said at the end of the movie there was a Q and A and when someone asked her how technology is affecting the music industry. Hayley said to her that technology is making artists get more creative to get people to purchase physical album copies instead of digital downloads on music sites. She said for one of her albums to get fans to buy physical copies she had to do a coloring book album cover.

There used to be a lot of small venues for upcoming bands but there’s only one left. There's a venue that has only all-female singers and bands it called, “ONCE”. Ruby Rose Fox made a concert for all female singers to perform at on stage together. She wanted to make an environment where all the women singers are together and let them know there’s other women going through the same things that they are going through. So many people in the media pit females against each other saying that one artist hates another and creates drama. In the Q and A held after the movie, “Beautiful was the Fight.” Ruby says when she was younger, she knew another female artist she was jealous of the girl’s blonde hair and the blonde hair girl admits she was jealous of Rubys voice. When you’re younger as a kid you feel the need to go in defense because your insecure about yourself and trying to find your true self. When Ruby got older, she realized this that women are really competing with themselves with an internal struggle then actually having a competition with someone else. She said we must support one another instead of fearing one another.

The documentary was beautifully done. During the Q and A and a man asked Dave the director of the movie of how he found these artists to put into his movie. Dave said to him that going to ruby’s show she made where all the female artist gathered with one another for one night on stage. He said he made a connection with certain artists, and it was easy then for him to know what singers he wanted to interview for his documentary. Dave said he tried to represent all female artists from all different genres, but he felt bad not being able to feature classical music in the documentary. When asked a question during Q and A if he is going to make any other documentaries, he said he does have something in the works but can’t talk about it at this time.