Bjork is PISSED

**Monika.mhz** · 02-28-2009, 04:47 PM

via http://www.bjork.com/

i saw in the last issue of iceland's newspaper in english : “grapevine” , that valgeir sigurðsson was credited for having written all the instrumentals for my album vespertine . could i please offer a correction :

i have noticed last 7 years that mr. sigurðsson has often been credited for either writing or producing that album . i´d like to say that he didn´t write it or produce . he was a computer programmer for a third of it and a recording engineer for a third . The other two thirds were done by other engineers and programmers .

here is the creditlist to show you the correct crediting of vespertine .
i don´t understand where that misunderstanding has come from

could be one of four options :

1 :the pop critics of this world have not totally yet worked out the difference between engineering , programming , writing and producing electronic music . visually this appears very similar . a man/woman sitting in front of a computer . not as different as for example a drummer , a brass arranger and an engineer . but these are 3 completely different jobs which journalists must start to see the difference

2: it could be that this is some degree of sexism . m.i.a. had to deal with this with the respected website pitchfork.com where they assumed that diplo had produced all of her kala album without reading any credit list or nothing , it just had to be , it couldn´t have been m.i.a. herself ! it feel like still today after all these years people cannot imagine that woman can write , arrange or produce electronic music . i have had this experience many many times that the work i do on the computer gets credited to whatever male was in 10 meter radius during the job . people seem to accept that women can sing and play whatever instrument they are seen playing .but they cannot program , arrange , produce , edit or write electronic music .

3 : i´ll admit that one thing could confuse things : people have to use their ears and actually read the creditlist to get this information . all the music i have made : like for example string arrangements , synthbasslines or programming of electronic patterns , i never play myself live because i want to give 100% of myself into the singing i either ask the computers to play it or i get other musicians to play it . this could confuse things .

4: one thing that could have kept this misunderstanding alive is that neither me nor valgeir sigurðsson have bothered to correct it

but i am doing it now

i hope this correction will be a positive input into more discussion about this

warmth
björk.

p.s. just read that pitchfork.com credited nico muhly for the choir arrangement of “hidden place” from vespertine . also that he has done string arrangements for me . this is not true . journalists : please read the creditlist before you write your articles

**tekki** · 02-28-2009, 06:00 PM

I can imagine she's pissed about this!

Hell, I would be outraged!

**BentoSan** · 02-28-2009, 06:05 PM

Yeah it sucks to be a chick in the music industry

**tekki** · 02-28-2009, 06:51 PM

Is this why Moniker talks about her boyfriend, that's doing al the music writing? :eek:

**Monika.mhz** · 02-28-2009, 07:05 PM

lol, that's the joke. "omg girls can't write electronic music" it's kind of a serious problem in the industry, but I try to make light of it so when people DO become jerks about it I can laugh instead of taking offense.

**tekki** · 02-28-2009, 07:16 PM

True that.

But, why do people miss out on women like Björk, Monica Kruse and Ida Engberg?
(Just to name a few)

**j1n** · 03-02-2009, 09:38 AM

Kristy Hawkshaw sure knows how to write some EDM...just IMO women arent as interested in EDM as men are...seriously you go to a trance club/house club you can tell by the guy:girl ratio is kind of off balanced =P..but when you go to a club thats playing top40 shit and you got the house packed full of hoochie mamas...but i go for the music so EDM ALL THE WAYYYY!!!