Why we must stop dancing to the sound of our own oppression | Madame Gandhi — Transcript

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1. 0:13So often,
2. 0:15I'll take a fitness class,
3. 0:17or I'll go to a music venue,
4. 0:19or, really, anywhere that plays music in the background,
5. 0:23and I'll find myself loving the rhythms
6. 0:26and the melodies and the beats ...
7. 0:29And then I take a second to listen to the lyrics,
8. 0:31lyrics that, for example, place us in a position of subservience
9. 0:35that we would never tolerate in any other context.
10. 0:38And I'm aghast at the degree to which we normalize sexism in our culture.
11. 0:43I listen to this music and I'm like,
12. 0:45I don't want to have to turn up to the sound of my own oppression.
13. 0:48You know, music is one of the most powerful forms of communication,
14. 0:54because it has the potential to either uplift or oppress.
15. 0:59Music caters to the emotions. Music caters to the soul.
16. 1:03Music opens up our soul.
17. 1:04It opens up our channels to receive information
18. 1:07about somebody else's walk of life,
19. 1:09to inform our own roles.
20. 1:11And while I have no problem with male fantasy,
21. 1:15what I do have a problem with
22. 1:17is that, according to a recent study, only 2.6 percent of all music producers
23. 1:23identify as women.
24. 1:24That means an even smaller percentage identify as trans or gender nonconforming.
25. 1:29And why does this matter?
26. 1:31Because, if we don't own and control our own narrative,
27. 1:34somebody else will tell our stories for us,
28. 1:38and they will get it wrong,
29. 1:39perpetuating the very myths that hold us back.
30. 1:43And I'm not here to tell other people how to make their music.
31. 1:48But I am here to provide and design the alternative.
32. 1:52One strategy I take in my music
33. 1:55is making uplifting, energetic, percussive global beats
34. 2:00and placing lyrics on top of them
35. 2:02that genuinely describe my life's experiences
36. 2:05without contributing to the oppression of anybody else.
37. 2:09It's funny, because it's the same reason
38. 2:11as to why we excuse so many problematic lyrics;
39. 2:15it's because we love how the beats make us feel.
40. 2:19An example of this is my song "Top Knot Turn Up."
41. 2:26(Music: "Top Knot Turn Up")
42. 2:43(Sings) I turned off my phone's notifications so I have more time /
43. 2:47No bubbles to trouble my clear state of mind /
44. 2:50One thing to know, I'm not here to please /
45. 2:52Hair tied up, I do it properly /
46. 2:54My time is not your property /
47. 2:56When I'm productive like my ovaries, eyy! /
48. 2:58Give a grown girl room to breathe, basic rights and her liberty /
49. 3:01Free from insecurity that the world's projecting onto me /
50. 3:05Please do not trouble me when I am focused /
51. 3:07The future is female you already know this /
52. 3:09I'm fighting against the corruption on SCOTUS /
53. 3:11Turned up in my top knot since when I first wrote this /
54. 3:15It's a top knot turn up It's a top knot turn up, turn up, turn up.
55. 3:19It's a top knot turn up It's a top knot turn up, turn up, turn up.
56. 3:23It's a top knot turn up It's a top knot turn up, eyyy.
57. 3:26It's a top knot turn up.
58. 3:28(Music ends)
59. 3:30I want us to keep making sex-positive, beautiful music
60. 3:34about joy and freedom.
61. 3:36I want us to embrace our own pleasure
62. 3:38just as much as we embrace our own pain.
63. 3:40I want us to celebrate the authentic,
64. 3:43nuanced,
65. 3:44multidimensional aspects of our human existence,
66. 3:48rather than perform false narratives of degrading sexuality
67. 3:53in order to feel accepted or loved.
68. 3:56And another strategy that I take in my music
69. 3:59to combat the misogyny that exists on the airwaves
70. 4:02is to visually depict the very world I wished we lived in.
71. 4:05In the music video for my song "See Me Thru,"
72. 4:08which is like a vibe-y, queer electronic R and B song,
73. 4:12I cast two of my dear friends, Ania and Dejha,
74. 4:16to play the role of the lovers, because they're married in real life.
75. 4:20But what you don't know is that they also are behind the camera
76. 4:23concepting and directing the entire video.
77. 4:28(Video) Heyyyyy ohhhh My emotions were tired
78. 4:38Music should be safe and accessible for all to experience.
79. 4:42As you can see, it's not about losing the sex appeal or swag
80. 4:45that music has,
81. 4:46it's about writing messages that infuse tenderness and positivity
82. 4:50into music that motivates us and challenges us.
83. 4:53And while we as musicians absolutely have the responsibility
84. 4:57to make music that isn't disempowering,
85. 4:59the consumers can be part of the change, too.
86. 5:02Firstly, we get to choose which songs we want to mute
87. 5:05and which songs we want to turn louder.
88. 5:06We get to say, "I respect myself enough to say I don't want to listen to this,
89. 5:10and I don't want this to be in anybody else's space, either."
90. 5:13Secondly, we can simply ask ourselves:
91. 5:16"Does this music or this message
92. 5:18contribute to the oppression of somebody else?
93. 5:20Why am I tolerating it?"
94. 5:21And finally, we can all be choosing to make playlists or DJ-ing music
95. 5:25that provides the right vibe or mood that we're looking for in that moment
96. 5:29without the problematic messaging.
97. 5:31Why does this matter?
98. 5:32Because it's teaching algorithms in our streaming systems and our world
99. 5:36exactly what it is that we do want to listen to,
100. 5:40creating long-term change and a feedbacking mechanism
101. 5:43that impacts the entire industry.
102. 5:45This is not a message
103. 5:48for just a small group of people.
104. 5:50This is a message that affects everybody,
105. 5:53because when we protect and liberate our most vulnerable genders,
106. 5:57we liberate everybody.