- Due out October 9th, the book compiles 63 interviews that author, producer and DJ Samantha Parsley compiled over the course of a six-year research study.
- A new book coming out this autumn will explore gender inequality in electronic music, with a focus on how female and gender nonconforming survive—and thrive—in an often male-dominated space.
Minor Keys, written by DJ, producer and University of Portsmouth professor Samantha Parsley, is the result of a six-year research study by the author. (Parsley is also the founder of In the Key: a directory championing women, trans and non-binary electronic music producers.) She describes Minor Keys as “the first research-led book to focus on gender inequality in electronic music production.”
Adopting an intersectional lens, the book combines Parsley’s own experience in the music industry with interviews from 63 artists hailing from around the world. “I was starting to DJ and suddenly realised ‘Wow, there’s not many women DJing and even fewer producing,” Parsley told Resident Advisor. “But I didn’t want to focus on the reasons we don’t do things–I wanted to focus on the reasons we do.”
One chapter profiles collectives including Sisu, Change the Beat, Music Production for Women (MPW), Psy-Sisters and The F-List. In Parsley,’s words, these groups all represent “incredible grassroots activism in gender and electronic music,”—organising she finds especially urgent in an industry that can favor homogeny over diversity.
“Bro culture reproduces itself; if your networks only include people like you, those are the people you book and whose music you play,” she added. “Over time, what counts as ‘good music’–basically that of white men–comes to stand for all music.”
Parsley said this dynamic fuels the “unseen labour” gender minorities shoulder while navigating discrimination, sexual harassment and skepticism over their abilities–a burden she and University of Glasgow professor Marianna Johannson call “ameliorative work.” Parsley defined this as “the hidden, ongoing effort required just to be taken seriously in a white, male-dominated environment where you’re doubted, patronised and constantly forced to prove your worth.”
Parsley hopes Minor Keys will draw the eye of powerful gatekeepers across the industry–”the cis white men basically”–and inspire change. “Maybe they’ll read the three manifestos at the end and realise there are small actions we can all take,”she shared.
Minor Keys is out on Bristol University Press October 9th—pre-order it here.
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