This is constantly an issue with Björk. Homogenic often gets talked about as something like a Mark Bell record with Björk singing on it. And think of how Missy Elliott's music is often discussed. How many seconds into the article or profile before Timbaland is mentioned or credited?

Like Björk said, it seems like the 10 meter radius is a pretty hard and fast rule. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for them.

Unless someone is willfully singular in their work process and public persona - think of Wendy Carlos or Laurie Anderson or someone else along those lines - any dude walking past the studio is assumed to be "the man behind the curtain."

(And then that outspoken singularity carries its own risk of stigma and judgment.) ((Bah.))

I remember a very similar angry sentiment expressed by M.I.A who was furious that all the credit for her music went to white males, and not to her, when SHE wrote and made the music herself.

I have a similar experience working in video production. I write, direct, shot, edit and apply sound design. Me, by myself generally or with the help of a friendly critic or collaborator who can bring fresh eyes to a project.
But yeah, when I mention that I work alone at parties or film festivals, people treat me like I'm a talking dog. I actually had a guy ask me one time if men had a hard time taking direction from a "pretty girl." I was floored- I'm a 30-ish woman with a master's degree.

This has always bothered me a ton -- especially when I read that horrendous Pitchfork/M.I.A. exchange. Pitchfork's reviewing always been pretty blatantly sexist (not to mention increasingly daft), but that was sort of the last straw for me. (I wish, however, that M.I.A.'s take on the whole thing weren't so oblique and fragmented, because she was making a very good point.) I don't frequent the site anymore.

On a related but tangential note (and I'm not meaning to thread-hijack! I just saw a link, because I've been thinking about these things), I find similar problems from an ethnic angle when it comes to musicians from non-western-European locales (or to many -- mostly black, Appalachian or American Indian -- musicians in America) and the white men who "discovered" them. I tried recently to discuss with my boyfriend, who's really into gamelan, West African drum music and old-time Appalachian music.

So often, I hear references -- from him and most people I know who are into folk musics, American or otherwise -- to the music most often as a "field recording," suggesting the person who recorded it, not the person who played it, is the agent. (I mean, if I taped a Bob Dylan concert, would anybody call that a folk music field recording? Hell no.)

And why is it that names like Secret Museum of Mankind and Alan Lomax figure more prominently in that white male music nerd lexicon than that of, say, Cheika Reno?

I'm rater disappointed that the editor (apparently) didn't approve my previous comment, which contained an excerpt of Pitchfork's response.

Far be it from me to defend the insufferable hipsters at Pitchfork — and yes, music journalists have ascribed too much credit to Diplo for MIA's work — but, in this particular case, it looks like Björk was mistaken to cite Pitchfork as the origin or even the most egregious example of the problem.

There really is a lack of female electronic artists, which is an explanation (though not a justification) for why certain writers find it so easy to dismiss the ones who are out there.

As an experiment, I sat down for a few minutes and tried to think of some primarily instrumental female electronic artists. I only managed to come up with Mira Calix, Neotropic, and Hecate. If you include vocal artists you'll find more, like Björk, Peaches, and I guess MIA (though I consider her more of a hip-hop act). But the point is, there aren't many compared to the number of dudes out there. And of course this is all subject to the same self-perpetuating cycles that keep women and men out of other traditionally gendered pursuits.

Also, Mark Bell is a genius. I love LFO. (Just throwing that out there.)

Ah, I see. My apologies then.

While I think it's obvious that assumptions that Bjork's collaborators deserve more credit than she for her music can be ascribed to sexism, I also think it's important to recognize that Bjork's ability to choose strong collaborators is one aspect of her genius.

Late addition: Delia Derbyshire's obituary, which holds more information condensed in there than any of the previous links: http://delia-derbyshire.dyndns.org/cmj-obit.html

Wow. I can't believe I missed this post. One of my pet topics.

It's horrible to admit, but after 10 years in a band, when I finally set out to make my own solo record I kind of made a conscious decision to either do it all myself or, if an outside engineer was needed, to get a female one.

I call it Sven Gali Syndrome.

It used to happen to me as a DJ. Once in such a blatant way that it was actually just laughable: I was the in-store DJ at a record store, that day I had been DJing for hours, my bf at the time walked into the booth to say hi and just as he did a customer walked up. I was 1) sitting in the DJ seat, 2) had my hands on the mixer and 3) had the headphones on, but nonetheless the guy asking my bf what "he had been playing". Being a smart cool guy, my bf laughed and said: "Oh no, I don't know anything about DJing--She's the DJ". heh heh.

I could on about this for hours, but I will spare you and leave you with just two more notes about this.

- Bjork (one of my fav artists) is sooo dead-on about this: people (men and woman alike) just seem to not be able to conceive of the idea of a woman producing music: they can't picture her understanding things like that, can't compute that she'd rather buy gear than clothes or a new purse, and also can't get why she'd 'for real' spend hours in a studio alone working on stuff. (e.g. upon telling a female musician about some new equipment I bought, she said: "Oh wow, you're just like those male producer types!")

- Sadly, given the above, I think the world still needs some of us to do it truly on our own (almost like a controlled study) before they 'get' that it's possible.

BUT... I'd be anyone gets the wrong idea and jumps on me for being mean/sexist toward guys, I'd like to say that some of my biggest supporters, mentors, partners, and champions have been guys, and it's in part thanks to them that I've come this far. Many male musicians are open to female musicians and producers.

(etc. etc. etc. ... I'll save it for some future thesis ;-))

PS - no female electronic artists? give me a break. And I'm not going to get into listing them all. Then again, give me a comprehensive list of "male rock musicians" and I'll consider it. ;-)

PPS - female composers have similar problems. In fact my informal survey says most people see "composer" as being a male word.

D'oh--looks like my long-winded and link-filled post on Delia Derbyshire was held by the anti-spam software. She's worth checking out, since she's very much a pioneer of electronic music.

polly6 - where might I be able to hear your music/mixes?