In The Key Of She – a musical feminist initiative launched by British multi-hyphenate Samantha Parsley – has opened an online directory of more than 250 women and non-binary people in the electronic music sphere.
Launched earlier this month, the directory complies DJs and producers from all around the world, organising them alphabetically and by genre. It’s set to evolve regularly, too, with a note on the site calling for visitors to submit their own suggestions for artists it may have missed. At the time of writing, the directory lists a total of 261 names across 38 genres.
Each entry on the site includes links to the listed producer’s website, social media and/or contact options, as well as information on their genre and location. Many of the listings also include detailed blurbs about their histories, careers and releases. Have a look at the full directory here.
In an interview with Resident Advisor, Parsley – a DJ, producer, academic professor, industry consultant and co-chair of the Association for Electronic Music – said the concept for the directory came out of frustration over the lack of diverse women and non-binary producers being commissioned by event promoters.
“Promoters have little idea of where to begin looking for artists to diversify their events,” she said. “Meanwhile, their contact books are filled with the same artist names, making it a vicious cycle that leads lineups to stay predominantly white, young and male.”
Parsley compiled the directory in tandem with fellow academic Alex Wright (aka Hide The Soul), and told Resident Advisor that she looked to position it as “a positive response to the myth there’s a lack of gender minority electronic music producers”.
In The Key Of She was initially launched as the Leverhulme Trust Fellowship, founded by professor Samantha Warren as “an academic research project to explore the career experiences of women on the technical side of electronic music production”. It’s since grown into a multi-faceted platform for genre-diverse artists, producers and DJs, offering resources and “championing diversity in the electronic music industry more broadly”.
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Noted on the site is that women make up only two to five per cent of producers and DJs currently booked for EDM clubs and festivals around the world. “If we are serious about helping more girls and women get into tech-heavy creative industries,” it says, “investigating the electronic music industry is a good place to start.”