February 12, 2025

“I want every girl in the world to pick up a guitar and start screaming”: A Deep Dive into Women who Create Music

How women on a national and local level navigate the music industry

By Elizabeth Griffee

The 2025 Grammy awards were a huge night for women in music, with female artists dominating the nominations in almost every category. This year's holy trinity of pop breakthroughs: Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli xcx- took home a combined six awards, all in major categories. These included Chappell’s best new artist, Carpenter’s best pop vocal album and Charli’s best dance/electronic album.

Women continued to win category after category as Beyonce received her first Album of the Year Grammy for “Cowboy Carter” and DOCHEII became the third women in over 35 years to take home the Grammy for best rap album- an achievement which she proudly spoke about in her poignant acceptance speech:

“This category was introduced in 1989, and… three women have won: Lauryn Hill, Cardi B, and Doechii.”

Nominations further solidified 2025 as a huge year for women in music. This demographic represented six out of the eight nominees for album of the year, song of the year, record of the year and best new artist. All five best pop vocal album and best R&B song nominees were women.

This awards cycle has reflected 2024’s counter-political cultural dominance of women in music. Artists like Chappell Roan, Janelle Monae, Billie Eilish and DOECHII brought queer alternative pop and rap into the mainstream. Touring pop sensations Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift spearheaded a resurgence of the girlie glam and glitter pop-star icon.

Charli xcx took over the entire summer with BRAT and brought shameless European club culture to 23 US cities during an album tour so influential that her hyperpop hits caught the attention of the Kamala Harris campaign. Beyonce turned the entire world of country music on its head and became the first black woman to debut on top of worldwide country charts with album of the year Cowboy Carter.

2024 was a year to watch women in music flourish despite misogyny. Women in music still face gendered roadblocks associated with this fame and success. The public perceives renowned women with a hyper-critical bias that reflects the unfair hyper-critical ways in which the media presents them.

Iconic Women Combat Misogyny

One of the most prominent examples of the hostile relationship female artists have with the media can be seen in the controversies of breakthrough star Chappell Roan, who has been outspoken assertive about the ways in which fame negatively affects her. During her record-breaking festival appearance tour, Roan came under fire for cancelling two shows just days before she was set to perform, citing mental health struggles. These cancellation announcements came just after the Midwest Princess took to social media to express worry about how her sudden fame has harmed her, criticizing fans for behaviors of stalking and harassment.

“I don't agree with the notion that I owe a mutual exchange of energy, time, or attention to people I do not know, do not trust, or who creep me out — just because they're expressing admiration,' Roan wrote in an Instagram post.

She compared her struggles with fame to other situations involving abuse that women are disproportionately facing. In an interview with The Face, Roan said, “I feel like fame is just abusive. The vibe of this – stalking, talking shit online, [people who] won't leave you alone, yelling at you in public – is the vibe of an abusive ex-husband. That's what it feels like.”

Roan faces backlash from her assertiveness when confronting these issues. She made headlines after performing as the VMAs Best New Artist because she confronted a photographer on the red carpet after he appeared to yell at her for missing the photography spot. In a viral video Roan can be seen pointing at the paparazzi and loudly exclaiming, “You shut the fuck up. Don’t. Not me, bitch.” Unsurprisingly, the media was quick to paint Roan in a negative light for the crime of standing up for herself, embracing the cliche pop-diva trope. The Daily Mail published an article after the VMAs incident titled, “Chappell Roan's foul-mouthed outbursts at fans who give her the fast fame she craves prove she's ALREADY a spoiled diva with an ugly attitude.”

Chappel’s concerns are nothing new. Many female musicians have gone down infamously for inaccurate and unfair cultural narratives about their lives and characters.

A notorious example of this is 70s contemporary artist Yoko Ono, who to this day is blamed by die-hard Beatles fans for dismantling the beloved band. In a 1970s interview with Esquire, Yoko Ono criticizes the racist and hateful ways that she has been portrayed in the media. She said that her relationship with John Lennon upgraded her in the eyes of the media from the status of a bitch to a witch, saying she was, “Considered an ugly woman, an ugly Jap, for taking away [Lennon’s] monument.”

This interview was featured in an article published Dec. 1 1970 titled, “John Rennon’s Excursive Gloupie,” mocking a Japanese accent and referring to Yoko, who has been married to Lennon for over a year, as a groupie. This article describes Ono, “Yoko Ono has never been happy. She was not happy as a child, as a virgin, as a wife, as a mother, as an artist. She was not able to relate to other people, she abused her husbands and some of her lovers.” The same piece describes Lennon as, “A great poet whose songs have made him rich. John’s own Restoration face, long in the nose and washed with private laughter, is that of a very successful duelist. John’s love for Yoko, declared and enacted in public, has made her famous.”

Another iconic female artist who stands as testimony to this pattern of mistreatment is Courtney Love, who is still baselessly accused of having malicious involvement in the tragic death of her husband and fellow grunge icon Kurt Cobain. A 90s Vanity Fair article about the Hole lead singer falsely accused her of taking drugs while pregnant, which led to her child being temporarily taken away from her. The Cleveland Show aired jokes about Cobain dying to avoid having sex with Love just years after his untimely death. After the success of her 1994 album “Live Through This,” snide rumors ascribing men credit for writing Love’s music circulated the music world, with The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan joking about being deserving of sole credit for the album.

“You've got to be prepared for the names they are going to call you compared to your male peers,” said Love, “You will be a floozy and a slattern. He will be virile and a ladies' man. You will be indiscriminate and desperate. He will be generous, tortured and driven.”

These patterns of inequity are well- documented. In early 2024, a report by music academics and sociologists George Musgrave and Sally Anne Gross was published regarding misogyny in the music industry. This paper documented specific under-discussed and urgent concerns. These included the impact of non-disclosure agreements on victims and barriers leading to the non-reporting sexual harassment and abuse. The report goes on to discuss gendered power imbalances seen in the industry such as limitations in opportunity, a lack of support, gender discrimination and unequal pay. Dr. Sally Anne Gross writes, “Women in the music industry have had their lives ruined and their careers destroyed by men who have never faced the consequences for their actions.”

How Stigma Hits on a Local Level

K-Ute Radio spoke with local female musicians from Salt Lake City and the surrounding mountain west. Writers Maci Monaghan and Elizabeth Griffee sat down with Blood Lemon, an all-women alternative band from Boise, Idaho before their Salt Lake City show at the DLC on Jan. 24. Blood Lemon is composed of drummer Lindsey Lloyd, guitarist Lisa Simpson, and Built to Spill’s Melanie Radford on bass. The all-female trio was brought together in 2018 out of a

genuine admiration for each other's work.

“We've been fans of each other's work and had a lot of mutual respect…we also wanted to work with more women,” Radford said.

The members of Blood Lemon have a unique perspectivesinceLloyd and Simpson are mothers. Their success in music coupled with their lives as parents counteracts the common narrative that women cannot be adequate mothers while also flourishing in their careers. This narrative is extremified when those careers are within unvalued fields and creative pursuits, such as music.

Despite this stigma, Lloyd views her musical pursuits as a critical element within her role as a parent. “It’s important to still have music in my life and to show that it matters,” Lloyd said..Simpson shared advice that her good friend and French Tips vocalist, Ivy Merrell gave her. “She told me it was important for her kids to see her doing things she loved as a mother.”

Simpson said it’s more common for famous female musicians to also be mothers than people think. “So many stories of women as both mothers and musicians were kept from me in pop culture,” said Simpson. “Like—did you know that Aretha Franklin was a teenage mother? I didn’t. Or that Björk had a son when she was pretty young and just took him on tour with her, I had no idea.”

The Blood Lemon trio hopes to continue touring and contributing to the indie rock scene. “That’s kind of the world we come from—the indie rock world,” Rathford said. “Everyone in that space brings their own influences and flavors to the table. We want to get out and play more shows.”

We also sat down with The Drought vocalist, Emmy Gilbert. Gilbert sang the Salt Lake City band through three wins as they competed in Urban Lounge’s Battle of the Bands. The indie band was set to compete in the final round right after this interview. “We’re just excited. We really like to play music for people,” she said.

Gilbert feels as though The Drought being female fronted gives them a competitive advantage over the mostly all male bands that they’ve been competing against. “There's just something that the female perspective adds to music that I don't think you can have in a band that's all men,” she said.

However, being a woman in Salt Lake’s male dominated indie music scene is not always advantageous. Gilbert says that acceptance can be hard to find in a community of mostly men.

“I'm very watchful and careful, and I don't let my guard down with new men most of the time,” Gilbert said. “I did have to fight for a long time. I mean, I still have to fight to have my opinions heard and respected by the other people.”

Gilbert spoke about how she’s observed the mistreatment of fellow female musicians who inspire her. “Women who are famous and who are really fucking good at what they do are criticized 100 times more than men,” she said. “They’re villainized for having boundaries that are completely valid.”

Gilbert’s observation of these toxic situations informs the way she carries herself. “I would say that after watching these things play out, I have more of an ‘I don't give a fuck’ attitude than I would probably without having those influences,” she said. “I really look up to women who don't stay quiet and speak their mind and ask for what they need.”

Gilbert spoke about Chappell Roan’s controversies as an example of this. “I thought people being mad at her was like, the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard in my life,” she said. “I really look up to women who don't stay quiet and speak their mind and ask for what they need.”

Gilbert hopes to keep building her professional music career. The Drought is releasing a new single titled “BLB” on Feb. 12. “My dream is that we can tour and live off of the music that we write,” she said. “I love to play music, it's my favorite thing in the whole world to do.”

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