Trigger warning: sexual misconduct, grooming.
Counter-culture, pioneering new sounds, self-releasing and regulating. These are all aspects of the music industry, in particular the indie scene. Its acceptance of others and recognition of smaller artists makes the indie scene, on the surface, seem safe and welcoming, especially for women and Queer folks. Last year, it proved to be the opposite.
In July of 2020, Burger Records, a Fullerton-based label known for its release of cassettes, and its off-beat model of signing bands, went defunct after allegations of sexual misconduct against many of their members. In many of these allegations, the women calling for action against the label have seen fault within the employees of the label itself. Artists such as Clem Creevy of Cherry Glazerr and Lydia Night of The Regrettes have posted statements against Sean Redman, the ex-bassist of a rock band, The Buttertones, and Joey Armstrong, the drummer of a punk rock band, SWMRS. In Creevy’s statement on a now-deleted Instagram post, she states “Countless women I know have had experiences like mine with male musicians and it is heartbreaking and infuriating that young girls wanting to play music or see music should ever have to endure being sexualized by older male musicians in the scene – it is disgusting and it needs to end now.”
The influx of statements says all, and the scene has to commit to creating a safe environment for minors from the beginning. “I think people just generally need to look at everything intersectionally, because when they don’t, so much is overlooked. Because honestly, even if all of them were fine and respectful people, I, as a queer Latina, would not feel safe in a room full of cishet white men, and I’m sure the same goes for most other misogyny-affected people of color in the scene,” says Chloe Rodriguez, San Mateo High School student and avid concert goer. “Male-fronted bands bands making sure to use their platforms to properly promote artists of color, queer artists, female artists, and just generally men within the scene making their intentions as clear as possible so everyone feels at least a little bit safer.” Rodriguez finalizes.
“To fix the underlying problems within the scene, the scene as a whole actually has to commit to keeping minors safe, which is not a thing it has been historically good at…it has to be a safe enough community in the first place where people are willing to look out for the other people there and willing to give people rides and making sure people make it home okay and not going to shows alone.” Ava Gawel, guitarist in the San Mateo indie rock collective, Ghosts on The Roof, states. “A lot of the most dangerous stuff come from older people being predatory,” Gawel answers “I don’t know how many men even realize that this is a problem, and there’s plenty of men in the scene that’ll cover for their buddies and I think that’s really unacceptable…this reluctance to believe victims because of, like I was saying-there’s a decent amount of queer people there, but things do end up being somewhat, not like in the pit or anything, but in terms of socialization I’m way more comfortable with talking with girls at shows than guys, and I know a lot of women and queer people who feel the same way,” Gawel adds. “Look out for each other, that’s really a lot of it. Look out for girls, look out for your queer siblings, look out for people. These are lawless spaces and I think that’s something that’s beautiful about it, but it’s also something that isn’t advocating for a lot in these spaces,” Gawel states “Last summer, when a bunch of bands were cancelled, a lot of people were individually held accountable, no one addressed the larger problem of why this happens, why this is a common occurrence in the music scene, and how we keep our friends from being hurt, that’s not something we talk about, we just hold individual people accountable and I don’t think that’s enough.”
For the community to grow and move away from the misogynistic nature that lingers within spaces we must address problems that the community experiences over and over again, opposed to looking at each and every case with uniqueness, as the problem has proved time and time again is not unique.
Female-fronted bands to support: Pleasure Venom, Fea, Generacion Suicida, The Radigals, Illuminati Hotties, Downtown Boys, Bratmobile, X Ray Specs, Dirt, Warm Bodies, GLOSS, Dazey and The Scouts, Mommy Long Legs.