Is a woman's arse really worth more than her art in 2024?
And what does that say about the state of music, feminism and so-called progressive society?
Imagine.
It's 2007 and you walk into a random basement bar in Soho for a late night drink.
As you descend the stairs you see posters up for a singer-songwriter night. You're unphased, could be great, could be awful but as long as the beer's cold it doesn’t much matter.
You reach the bottom of the stairs and push through the heavy wooden door covered in band stickers and there on stage is a red-haired hopeful sitting behind a keyboard with her nerdy drummer to one side. There's no bass player, no guitarist, odd setup you think.
You thirstily approach the bar and turn your back to the stage to order your pint, at which point the drums start up with metronomic accuracy and you hear this....
The confessional lyrics are unnervingly close to the bone and sung in an unaffected North London accent that perfectly complements the unvarnished vignettes contained in each song. It doesn't happen often but you've stumbled across a gem, a popstar in the making, Kate Nash singing her debut single 'Foundations'.
Now, fast forward to 2024. Kate's been in the business 17 years. It's not surprising, she's an original voice and unique talent and yet to fund the tour of her most recent album '9 Sad Symphonies' she has started an OnlyFans account and is selling pictures of her perfectly pleasant posterior to pay her crew.
Before anyone jumps down my throat I am not judging Kate. As I already mentioned, it's 2024 and she is a grown woman who can do whatever the hell she wants regardless of any man's opinion, least of all mine. But I am not cheerleading her either, I'm not inwardly screaming YAAAAAS KWEEN as so many others online have because although its her choice, having read her statement online, I have to wonder how much choice she really had.
In the first paragraph of her Instagram statement Kate asks us not to be sad for her but in the second she laments the fact that no one would give a shit about her tour if she wasn’t using her arse to “shine a light on the problem”. How can I not be sad about that?
As I said, I am not here to judge or to praise Kate so why am I writing about her at all and what has any of this got to do with being Pro-Human? Well, despite a British number one album and nearly two decades in the business it seems that even in 2024 the best way for Kate to make money whilst still making music is to dehumanise herself, to turn herself into an object for the leering male gaze, and even more sadly she's not the only one.
One of Kate's contemporaries Lily Allen has recently taken to selling pictures of her feet on OnlyFans too. When she announced her new career path on X one user responded:
“Imagine being one of the biggest pop stars/musicians in Europe and then being reduced to this.”
Which prompted Allen to clap back with:
“Imagine being an artist and having nearly 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify but earning more money from having 1,000 people subscribe to pictures of your feet. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
Her response implies that, like Kate, objectifying herself on camera was not her first choice but, as a famous female who would like to continue making music, it is one of the few choices that will pay her enough to avoid a 9-5 and keep doing what she both loves and is best at.
How did it come to this?
HERE is where do I get to pass judgement because there are definitely culprits to blame. First and foremost is the music industry, probably best described by Hunter S. Thompson as, "a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men (and women) die like dogs."
Since the invention of Napster the major music companies, of which there are now only three, have failed time and time again to anticipate the future or do anything about it because they are a bunch of grifters. They failed to protect their business model at the turn of the century and outright threw their artists under the bus when "negotiating" streaming deals with the likes of Spotify and Apple. Even now, during the vinyl revival, they are fucking up due to their boundless greed as
so brilliantly exposed in his post last year:
I also blame the tech industry and its almost entirely white, male, middle-class CEbrOs who are so entitled that they view almost every aspect of human endeavour as free raw material for them to code, commodify and commercialise via platforms that pay artists pennies and shareholders billions. Case in point - Daniel Ek, the CEbrO of Spotify, who earned more in the 12 months to April 2024 than any artist has ever earned on the platform EVER!
Daniel Ek monthly listeners: zero; streams equivalent: 115 billion; stream rank equivalent: world’s number-one artist.
To a lesser extent I also have to blame the so-called fans who have forgotten that music is not a free commodity that flows from the bottomless reservoir of the Internet but is both an art and craft practiced by musicians who have dedicated hours, years, even lifetimes to perfect, so pay them will you?
Honestly, I am staggered at how much money people will throw away every day on coffee and croissants and cupcakes and other alliterating foodstuffs that are mass-produced to provide a moment of pleasure and a lifetime of plastic packaging. Just…fucking…why? One small (I refuse to say “tall”) Starbucks latte every Monday to Friday amounts to £16.80 (US$21.37) per week, £67.20 (US$85.49) per month or £806.40 (US$1025.85) per year and you have NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT!
Sure, I stream on Spotify but I have already bought three vinyl albums from record shops, a CD direct from the artist and pre-ordered another from Bandcamp this month! IF you have the means, show support for the artists you love, not the corporations you tell people you hate, otherwise you'll lose them and end up writing boring Substack posts about why modern culture is so rubbish!
Finally, and this is where I could get myself into trouble, I have to look at what's happened to feminism. The goal of feminism was, is and always should be equality and part of that is about NOT objectifying women but viewing them as, y'know, human beings just like men but with lady bits! However, somewhere along the line 21st Century feminism seems to have given its blessing to ‘self-objectification’ as though it's okay to be seen as a commodity as long as you do it to yourself, which strikes me a self-defeating. At the end of the day, the men looking at you don’t see your alleged empowerment, they see your body parts displayed on a digital shelf for their pleasure.
So, what happens next?
Even if you start brewing your own coffee and spending what you save on albums and gigs the music industry is still screwed so what, if anything, happens next?
First, I’m hoping that as AI slop fills up Spotify true music fans will be driven from the platform directly into the arms of artists or at least better platforms like Bandcamp and, yes, Substack that recognise the value of the art not just the tech.
Second, I a hope that the social backlash against “overconsumption-core” will convince people how much money they are wasting on landfill products every day that could be better invested in music, art and other less-wasteful and longer-lasting pleasures.
Finally and most crucially I believe that the 20th Century media business models are dead and we must all let go the teenage dreams of being “discovered” or “getting signed” and realise, as artists, we are also entrepreneurs and it’s up to us to increase the value of our work rather than give it away to middle-men or shift that value elsewhere i.e. OnlyFans. After all, how long will it be before Kate or Lily decides that the music is simply not worth the effort and they are better off doubling down on butt shots and feet photos for a living? Humans respond to incentives and I want them to be incentivised to make more music, not take more photos. If paywalling their pictures works, maybe they should pull their music from Spotify and paywall that too? Speaking of which, you can buy Kate’s new album direct from Bandcamp now!
Recommendations
Apologies by the way for the lack of posts lately, I have been trying to wrap up the year and am currently on holiday with my family in Japan but I have big plans for next year and I hope you will come along for the ride. In the meantime, amuse yourself with these recommendations.
My new full-cast immersive audio drama is out, co-written, produced and directed with my partner
at and based on an Amazon best-selling horror story by F.K. Marlowe, you can listen now and even buy us a coffee if you like, https://buymeacoffee.com/prettyneatproductions.The UK’s best funk band (featuring my brother on lead guitar) Soul Grenades has a new album out on December 27th and this is the lead single, ‘Dopamine’!
I am feeling thoroughly conflicted having watched thew new Stephen Moffat (Dr. Who, Sherlock), four-part drama ‘Douglas Is Cancelled’, which is a sure sign of a great show. Episode 3 is essentially a two-hander between Karen Gillam and Ben Miles as he interviews her for a dream job in his hotel room, dancing deftly over the line of appropriateness and back again to infuriating effect.
That’ll do ya! Standby for dispatches from Japan and the inaugural Human of The Month coming soon. Nx
I for one won't be spending any money at Bandcamp. This post from Louise Distras is the reason why.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-152588571
What a well written revelation of an article.
I had no idea what to expect from the title but I didn't expect to find out that both Kate and Lily were on OF because it pays better than music.
By the time I'd got to that point I was already thinking that OF isn't, or at least wasn't originally reserved for people selling skin, why not push their music through a similar service. Patreon perhaps. Surely the world is ready for a self publishing style way to consume music that gives the power back to artists?