ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on women in music recording, including electronic music. Pioneers include Suzanne Ciani and Pamela Z, who share their San Francisco, California, “music roots” with newer practitioners like Cecilia Wu. The USC Annenberg Study (see Chapter 1) found that in the USA, only 2 percent of producers are women; producers featured in this chapter include Kay Huang, the “Mother of Taiwanese pop music;” Salsa Chen (Chen Xiao Xa), who took home the “Best Sound” award in the 40th Golden Bell Awards in Taiwan for the song, “Love’s Lone Flower;” Elaine Martone and Erica Brenner, Grammy-winning classical producers; Linda Briceño, the first woman to win a Latin Grammy for Producer of the Year; and Virginia Read, first woman to win an Australian ARIA award. Mastering engineers include Emily Lazar, the first woman mastering engineer to win a Grammy in the Best Engineered Album (Non-Classical) category; Jett Galindo of the Philippines who does vinyl mastering; Piper Payne, past president of the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy; and Darcy Proper, the first woman to win a Grammy in the category “Best Surround Sound Album.” Recording engineers include Lenise Bent, first woman to record a platinum album; Erin Tonkon, engineer for David Bowie’s Grammy Award-winning album Blackstar; Jill Zimmerman, who engineered and assisted on two Canadian Juno Award-winning albums, respectively: July Talk’s Touch and Harrison Kennedy’s This Is From Here; and Wendy Beines, a recording engineer from Venezuela attempting to redefine her career in England.
