Sky slams guitar shops for ‘mansplaining’
Sky News launched an attack on guitar shops and the music industry in general over the Bank Holiday weekend, accusing music retailers of ‘mansplaining’ to female customers. It also took a swipe at festival promoters for ‘not booking enough female artists’.
In a feature by Katie Spencer, Sky News Arts and Entertainment Correspondent, broadcast on Saturday, guitarist and singer Chantel McGregor, filmed playing a Music Man in an unnamed guitar shop, said: ‘You can still go into a guitar shop in a dress and people go up to you and say ‘this is plectrum, do you know what one is?’ and I’m like ‘yes!’
‘A lot of music manufacturers probably think it’s mainly men that they’re catering for but women want to spend money on things like guitars, not shoes and handbags or whatever it is we’re perceived to buy.’
The article quoted Fender’s CEO Andy Mooney’s eyebrow-raising claim that 50 per cent of its ‘new sales’ last year were to women and also quoted the MIA’s Paul McManus who told Sky: ‘The industry is gradually moving away from the stereotypical marketing imagery of the average guitarist being a long-haired male in full rock pose… to appeal more to both genders.’
Also coming under fire were festival bookers for not featuring enough female bands to satisfy critics and another target was music industry advertisers. Guitarist Lucinda Livingstone said: ‘Making things like press materials and advertising more friendly and more gender fluid would be way better. Not just having a picture of a guy with a guitar or a picture of a girl used in a sexual way to advertise music’.
Info: http://news.sky.com/story/girls-guitars-and-sexism-in-the-music-industry-11005920
The post Sky slams guitar shops for ‘mansplaining’ appeared first on Music Instrument News.
Source: musicinstrumentnews.co.uk
