Glastonbury 2023: Guns N’ Roses car crash and Lana Del Rey’s brilliance highlights the struggle female artists face
Female artists face a tougher battle than their male counterparts. The fact that Guns N’ Roses were handed the keys to drive rock ‘n’ roll on the Pyramid Stage off a cliff while Lana Del Rey was stowed away on the Other Stage delivering beauteous brilliance is the perfect testimony to that. Guns N’ Roses’ set was so stilted and dated, in fact, that it resulted in a mass exodus that meant Del Rey’s crowd swelled to a comparable size, proving that punters would be more than happy to see her headline.
While it was notable that she didn’t do a lot to fully cement her position as a headliner by showing up 30 minutes late and suffering a set curtailing consequence. As a result, Del Rey’s all too brief showcase of class and skill was an indictment against the uphill battle women face even at what is meant to be one of the most progressive spaces in music. Lizzo’s blistering set to a massive crowd before Guns N’ Roses also reinforced the same argument.
This isn’t just a case of politicising a shit performance by old ‘GNR’; it was widely touted long before their comical display that they might not be up to scratch, so it is firmly indicative of the gender bias in the music industry that they symbolically got the nod of the main stage ahead of one of the world’s most loved female artists.
Emily Eavis was hailed earlier in the festival by Texas’ Sharleen Spiteri, who announced to the Glastonbury crowd: “Emily Eavis is a massive supporter of female musicians. Not because she’s ticking a fucking box to put us on these stages, she’s putting us on these stages because she thinks we’re fucking amazing.” Perhaps she should start thinking that they’re amazing enough to headline moving forward.
A BBC study last year saw that only 13% of UK festival headliners were female. This highlights how they are judged to a higher standard. Even now, despite the evident disaster of Guns N’ Roses’ performance and the accepted brilliance – delay hitch aside – of Del Rey’s show, there are still murmurings that she might not be big enough to headline. The fact that she gets 55 million monthly listens on Spotify while Guns N’ Roses only get 28 million, highlighting her superior contemporary relevance, is lost amid this murmuring.
As Maggie Rogers told Newsbeat in response to the data: “It feels awful. The music industry has been largely run and dominated by males since the beginning of time. I’m sure that every female act can tell you a story of growing up, walking into a guitar shop and just having your dreams crushed”.
Adding: “It’s interesting, in a post-#MeToo era, because this imbalance is something we’ve had so much conversation about, but still in the music industry, [the proportion of women working in it] is a horrifying number.”
Addressing the imbalance of who is granted headline slots at festivals is a good way to go about changing this curve. Let’s hope that the chalk and cheese of Guns N’ Roses’ car crash and Lana Del Rey’s scintillating show at this year’s Glastonbury Festival help to amplify the cause.
