The 1975 Take a Stand

The 1975 has never shied away from breaking boundaries and standing up for social causes. Be it racial discrimination, sexism or even gender inequality, they’ve always been very vocal about their opinions and now, they’ve done it again!

The 1975’s frontman t, Matty Healy, recently discussed his commitment to gender equality in festival lineups. This comes after numerous UK based festivals have entirely ignored female performers in their lineups. Speaking particularly about the Reading and Leeds festivals, they’ve faced backlash from a number of artists and fans alike, over this issue.

Of 91 artists and bands announced, only 20 are women or at least one member of the band is a woman. And out of the 18 acts that will take the main stage, only three are women. In fact, statistics have shown that over the past few years, there hasn’t been a single music festival lineup that’s even come close to an even 50/50 ratio of male to female or non-binary artists.

In response to this, Healy explained that it was all about taking a stand, “When it comes to big sociopolitical issues and governments are involved, sometimes action or protest can just be ignored. But when it comes to the music industry, we can change that.”

“Take this as me signing this contract – I have agreed to some festivals already that may not adhere to this and I would never let fans down who already have tickets. But from now I will, and believe this is how male artists can be true allies,” he added.

A number of other artists have followed in his footsteps and right now, this is definitely the need of the hour, among many other things. Because, at the end of the day, all musicians hope to gain the recognition they deserve and gender should not become an obstacle to reaching that goal.