Photo courtesy of the artist
Icelandic national treasure Björk is currently in Australia for the June 3 opening of her new art exhibition, Björk Digital, a collection of virtual reality videos and immersive spaces inspired by her latest album, Vulnicura. During the launch of the exhibition, she hit on one of the music industry's most raging topics: sexism."The fact I'm a woman and I can do what I do, it's kind of unique, really. I've been really lucky," she said. "But I have been hitting walls. What's really macho, for example, is music journalism. It's really like a boys' club. They like music that is… well, a lot of it is for boys."An artist with nearly 30 years' experience under her belt, the singer-songwriter, producer, and DJ has been speaking up at length about the issue. Last year, in an interview with Pitchfork about Vulnicura, Björk lamented the fact that the media repeatedly listed her collaborator Arca as the sole producer, when they co-produced it together. Before that, her Vespertine collaborator Matmos got all the production credit, when "they didn't do any of the main parts," she corrected. "[Matmos'] Drew [Daniel] is a close friend of mine, and in every single interview he did, he corrected it. And they don't even listen to him."Earlier this year, Tri Angle Records boss Robin Carlon stepped up to set the record straight. "I'm constantly being asked if Bjork is in charge of her records," he wrote in an Instagram post. "Simple answer; yes. She is the boss. 100 percent. She writes, produces, composes, sings. She might bring people in to facilitate her vision, but first and foremost it is HER vision. Guys (and it's always guys) need to understand this. She needs no one. How much incredible music does one woman have to release until people cut this crap?"In a later comment, he added: "If someone like B[jork] is suspected of being some kind of vacuous vessel, then what the fuck hope do other newer female musicians have?"