ABSTRACT
Support from the media has historically formed an essential component of the promotion process for the work of any popular music artist. For a woman artist, however, disparity has existed between how she might view herself and her work, and how the media has represented her. Helen Davies has addressed this in her examination of ‘a range of tactics’ that she states have been used by the music media ‘to obscure and denigrate the work of female artists’ (2001, p. 302). These include being ignored completely, defined by gender only, described as female equivalents of male stars, awarded unfavourable comparisons with men, placed in competition with other female artists, asked questions in interview on subjects that place emphasis on their femininity, insulted as women, depicted as physically small and childlike, and appraised according to their appearance and clothing with their sexuality foregrounded (pp. 302–3). Although these tactics are said to concern ‘female artists’ in general, they provide a useful context for this chapter in which I examine the representation of the female singer-songwriter and the female singer-songwriter/producer (or artist-producer) in an area of print media within the arts sections of the British broadsheet press. I focus on two musicians, Thea Gilmore and Isobel Campbell, examining their representation in three publications, The Guardian, sister publication The Observer, and The Independent, between 2002 and 2010.
