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Diversity is essential to the creative process. Angela Talton, Nielsen’s Chief Diversity Officer, said that “the combination of ideas from different cultures or disciplines” is responsible for some of the most innovative works in human history. For any seasoned leader, the art of bringing together seemingly incompatible viewpoints is fraught with anxiety but ultimately pays off in the form of a more cohesive team, a more complete product, a more engaged fan base, and a more secure bottom line.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the lack of diversity in the music industry across gender, race, and age continues to be a hot topic of debate. Every year, publications like Billboard and Music Week publish “power lists” dominated by white men. This has sparked discussions about the importance of giving equal credit to those who work behind the scenes as well as those who perform in front of an audience.
But how productive have these discussions really become? Are record labels making progress and allocating resources to a diverse strategy? The truth is that there is still a great deal of challenging introspective labor to be done.
This article has been developed using insights from Dom Smith, who has been vocally sound and active in his support for diversity in music.
Dom Smith, a native of East Yorkshire who earned a master’s degree in Magazine Journalism from the University of Central Lancashire, is a digital journalist and licensed therapist. Independent on Sunday readers voted him one of the country’s happiest people, and in 2012 he won the National Diversity Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. He was also a Paralympic Torchbearer for York.
After working as a Journalist in Residence at MIT in the United States, Dom relocated to the Yorkshire and Northern England region in 2022, where he now edits the music magazine Soundsphere. Before settling in Hull, the project had offices in Manchester, Chester, and York, and its journalist had worked at festivals such as Leeds and Download in the United Kingdom, Sziget in Hungary, Exit in Serbia, and SXSW in the United States.
Soundsphere promotes national and local charities such as CALM (The Campaign Against Living Miserably), Accessible Arts and Media (York), and Samaritans through live music showcases that are funded by advertorials from clubs, bars, and academic institutions looking to run work placements.
Furthermore, Dom works as a public relations and marketing consultant for various clients through his work with both the Creative Condition, and as part of Wobbling About and Rocking Out (an organization dedicated to raising awareness of disabilities and mental health).
Dom has spent much of his career as a mentor to young people, working with organizations like The Warren Youth Project in Hull and giving talks and workshops to students all over the country on topics related to entrepreneurship, the media, and journalism.
Dom has interviewed everyone from Rammstein and Placebo to Alice in Chains and Judas Priest, The 1975 and McBusted, and up-and-coming artists like Yungblud.
In his previous years of writing for Metro, Rock Sound magazine, WhatCulture, T3 magazine, NME.com, Stuff magazine, and Metal Hammer magazine (among others). Dom has recently begun writing for pop culture journalism and has collaborated with international entertainers like magician Dynamo, wrestler Ric Flair, and many more. Dom, as a drummer, has performed with many different bands across the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia (The Parasitic Twins, Seep Away).
Music industry conferences serve as a breeding ground for the “Big Ideas” and trends that top the minds of CEOs and entrepreneurs in the field. This Conversation, to return to Talton’s definition of creativity, would be lacking and, some might argue, invalid, if its participants were not representative of a wide range of backgrounds and experiences.
Unfortunately, white men and those over the age of 35 continue to be overrepresented as keynote speakers at many music and media industry events. While its members include some of the field’s brightest minds, they don’t adequately represent the wide variety of skills, viewpoints, and experiences that fuel the music industry’s current wave of innovation.
There are already concrete actions being taken by women in the music industry to increase the diversity of conference programming in a number of important ways.
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This content is brought to you by Andrea Mario.
Photo provided by the author with written permission from owner Zain Shaikh