Björk was one of the many artists to get involved with an emerging new festival in Houston called Day For Night, that focuses on hip-hop, electronic music, and digital art, and her DJ set Friday night was one of the highlights (Her traveling VR exhibit Björk Digital was also on display at the festival.) Her set was also one of many, many DJ sets by various artists, or electronic musicians who didn’t make their face or a physical performance the main focus of the music — hell you could barely see Aphex Twin himself, and his set was still a near-life-changing event.
Apparently, some comments were made specifically about Björk’s set claiming that while she DJ-ed, she was “not ‘performing’ and ‘hiding’ behind desks.” Now, given the fact that the Icelandic singer has also sung and performed live in the past, it might be worth noting that a DJ set is not a traditional performance, but claiming the singer is hiding because she has chosen to pursue this vocation is definitely a reach. Luckily for us, Björk is fiesty as they come and called out this blatant projecting in a lengthy Facebook post that skewers the media, sexist standards, and notes that her work as a producer and examining scientific topics is something else our culture assumes women shouldn’t do.
In her letter, she notes that she didn’t really used to address topics like this, but feels such a growing tide of change that she wants to help push that movement forward. She’s right — women are speaking up against double standards more than ever before, and this discussion is helping to educate those who might make mistakes because of the way our society conditions us to see gender. For instance, she also pointed out how the media embraced her when she wrote about her broken heart on Vulnicura, but not necessarily when she deconstructed atoms on Biophilia. I’m guilty of that, too, it was the more personal material that drew me to the singer in a deeper way. So every time she speaks out, she helps all of us understand our learned bias and seek to learn from it. That’s the work of a great artists, too. Read her full letter below.
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Full text below:
dear little miss media
!!!! happy winter solstice !!!
as you know the majority of my career i havent moaned about sexism and just got on w it . but im feeling there is an enormous positive current in the sky , a flow w possible changes
so i wanted to mention one thing
last weekend i djd twice at a festival in texas . it was a magical event with some of my favorite musicians djing : aphex twin , arca , oneoh trixpoint never and matmos … the list is endless !!
most of us played mostly other peoples music and would slide in instrumentals of what weve been working on recently
i am aware of that it is less of a year since i started djing publicly so this is something people are still getting used to and my fans have been incredibly welcoming to me sharing my musical journey and letting me be me . its been so fun and the nerd in me editing together pieces of others peoples songs for weeks , gets to share the different coordinates i feel between some of the most sublime music i know .
but some media could not get their head around that i was not “performing” and “hiding” behind desks . and my male counterparts not . and i think this is sexism . which at the end of this tumultuous year is something im not going to let slide : because we all deserve maximum changes in this revolutionary energy we are currently in the midst of
its gotta be worth it
anyways
women in music are allowed to be singer songwriters singing about their boyfriends . if they change the subject matter to atoms , galaxies , activism , nerdy math beat editing or anything else than being performers singing about their loved ones they get criticized : journalists feel there is just something missing … as if our only lingo is emo …
i made volta and biophilia conscious of the fact that these were not subjects females usually write about . i felt i had earned it . on the activist volta i sang about pregnant suicide bombers and for the independence of faroe islands and greenland . on the pedagogic biophilia i sang about galaxies and atoms but it wasnt until vulnicura where i shared a heartbreak i got full acceptance from the media . men are allowed to go from subject to subject , do sci fi , period pieces , be slapstick and humorous , be music nerds getting lost in sculpting soundscapes but not women . if we dont cut our chest open and bleed about the men and children in our lives we are cheating our audience .
eat your bechtel test heart out
but i know the change is in the air . we are walking inside it . therefore i leave this with you in kindness at the end of this year and i hope that in the next year even though i was brave to share w you a classic female subject matter : the heartbreak , i get to have a costume change and walk out of this role . you froze edith piaf and maria callas in it ( not one documentary i have seen about her doesnt mention onassis but no mention w male musicians the women they loved or broke their hearts )
lets make 2017 the year where we fully make the transformation !!!
!!! the right to variety for all the girls out there !!!
onwards
merry christmas
björk
