Ellie Goulding says #MeToo changed music industry for the better
Ellie Goulding has voiced her thoughts on how #MeToo has made the music industry safer.
The #MeToo movement first gained traction in October 2017 after various women came forward with allegations of sexual abuse against Harvey Weinstein, who was later convicted and jailed for two counts of rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020. It led to a reckoning across the entertainment industry, with more women coming forward with their experiences with other powerful male figures.
In a new interview on Radio 4, the singer explained that the industry has implemented better protection for younger artists than it had when she first began her career in 2010. She also mentioned she had felt “discomfort” when working in studios with male producers.
“I definitely think the landscape has changed a bit, especially since the MeToo movement,” she said, adding that her own record label now has chaperones for young artists.
“I think that was really, really important for people to keep speaking out about their individual stories, because I know a lot was happening and just wasn’t being talked about. I don’t think a lot of people felt comfortable to talk about their personal studio experiences.”
Asked whether she had felt vulnerable herself while working in recording studios, Goulding said: “I had experiences which, in my head, I sort of normalised and thought, oh, ‘maybe this is just a thing’. You know, when you go into a studio and afterwards the producer asks if you want to go for a drink. And I’m quite a polite person, I don’t like letting people down. I don’t like disappointing people.
Goulding continued: “You don’t want it to be a romantic thing, but it’s like there was always a slight feeling of discomfort when you walked into a studio and it was just one or two men writing or producing.
“And I had to try and figure out whether it was just me, something going on in my own head. But then hearing so many other stories, similar stories from other female musicians and singers, I realised that I wasn’t alone in it at all. It wasn’t just me, being particularly friendly.”
Goulding added that such advances were a “kind of currency” in the music industry.
“It was like a sort of unspoken thing where if you’re working with male producers, that was almost like an expectation, which sounds mad for me to say out loud, and it definitely wouldn’t happen now. I mean, very rarely, because things have just really changed.
“For example, younger artists at Polydor, my record label, will now have chaperones when they go to the studio. And they also have a chance to speak to a counsellor or speak to someone about about their experience as an up-and-coming musician.”
She added: “It’s a vulnerable place when you’re in a studio writing music.”
Meanwhile, earlier this month Goulding announced an orchestral show at London’s Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
The multi-platinum singer will take over the Royal Albert Hall with the orchestra on April 11, 2024, to perform classical rearrangements of tracks from her back catalogue, including cuts from her latest album, ‘Higher Than Heaven’, which she released in April.
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Emma Wilkes
NME
