Andie Aronow's platform Women That Rock is running its first tour this month, a five-city run featuring Abby Holliday and Charli Adams that started August 7 in Washington, D.C. and continues through Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago and Nashville by August 15.
Aronow founded Women That Rock in 2018 as what she calls "a music discovery platform that's dedicated to amplifying the voices of femme talent in person and through the digital world." The idea began almost by accident: while dating a punk musician and immersed in the scene, she started an Instagram account spotlighting female artists, built on experience from a childhood singing jingles for Hasbro and Kidz Bop, a music-business degree from NYU's Clive Davis Institute, where she now also teaches as an adjunct professor, and internships at the Recording Academy, Geffen Records and Mom + Pop Music. The account, done for free, "ballooned"; it now has 65,000 followers, and the New York concert series has run alongside it for years.
Aronow said the biggest challenge in building the tour was money. Where a single show splits ticket revenue with a venue, a tour meant reaching out to hundreds of brands for sponsorship, and most said no, citing budget or a requirement to give only to official nonprofits. She said she suspects the retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives has played a role, along with a shift toward influencer marketing. Apparel brand TomboyX signed on as the tour's sponsor.
She cited data from USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative showing that women made up 37 percent of artists on Billboard's Year-End Hot 100 but just 18.9 percent of songwriters and 5.9 percent of producers on those same hits; across 13 years of charting songs, more than 93 percent were made without a single woman producer. "Under the surface, the percentages are still pretty abysmal in terms of the market share of opportunities for women," she said.
Aronow said she hopes newer efforts like the all-women Daisy Chain Fields Festival use their platform to lift emerging artists rather than simply recreate a Lilith Fair-style lineup of stars who "don't need more money." Asked what an all-women festival might look like in practice, she predicted it would run smoothly: "it will not be a shit show... nobody's getting trampled. It's not going to be Fyre Fest."
She said Women That Rock tries to use inclusive language and keep its lineups from ever being "all white, straight female girls," extending its mission to non-binary and trans artists as well as racial diversity. Her advice for the wider industry: hire more women in every role, from studio engineers to label executives, and back it with real budget rather than gestures. "It's so micro... labels and studios and talent bookers can do the same," she said.
The facts
- Women That Rock's first tour started August 7 in Washington, D.C.
- The tour runs through Brooklyn, Boston, Chicago and Nashville by August 15
- Abby Holliday and Charli Adams are on the bill
- Andie Aronow founded Women That Rock in 2018 and now also teaches at NYU's Clive Davis Institute
- The platform's Instagram has grown to 65,000 followers
- Apparel brand TomboyX sponsors the tour
- Annenberg Inclusion Initiative data says women were 37 percent of Billboard Hot 100 artists
- The same data says women were 18.9 percent of songwriters and 5.9 percent of producers on those hits
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