ASCAP hosts all-female songwriting camp to improve diversity

NASHVILLE In a spacious recording studio in Nashville, two singer-songwriters, Priscilla Renea and Jillian Jacqueline, were working through a song idea, trading suggestions for lyrics and melody on the theme of resurrection.

“When you least expect it.,” Jacqueline started off. “Resurrection!” says Renea with a flourish. Shortly after, Mary J. Blige walked into the studio and the two women stopped singing. They were trying to come up with a song the Queen of HipHop/Soul might want to record, but it wasn’t quite ready yet.

“We were trying to get a head start on you,” Renea told Blige.

The setting last week was the first allfemale songwriting camp organized by the performing rights organization ASCAP under a new music industry diversity initiative called “She Is the Music,” started by Alicia Keys and other top female music executives.

A report earlier this year from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative analyzed women’s roles in popular music, including artists, songwriters and producers. The report found that women were underrepresented across the board. From 2012 to 2017, women comprised just 22 per cent of artists that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and just 12 per cent of songwriters. A mere 2 per cent of producers were female.

The camp aims to change those stats. Some of the women involved were already established as artists themselves or hit songwriters, while others were still building their careers. The writers at the camp had songs recorded by Beyonce, Rihanna, Miranda Lambert, Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, Pitbull, Carrie Underwood and Hillary Scott. Joining them were also female producers and female engineers, some of whom have worked with artists like Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Jason Derulo.

“By putting this camp together and showing how successful it can be, we hope we can inspire others to do the same thing,” said Nicole George-Middleton, senior vice-president of membership for ASCAP.

In Nashville, songwriting camps are commonplace, sometimes organized by a performing rights organization, or a publisher, or by an artist looking to co-write. This one was unique, bringing together writers and producers from all over the country who have backgrounds in R&B, pop, country, electronic, hip-hop and more. George-Middleton said they selected the women based on how they might work together and ASCAP wanted to have an artist like Blige that had a strong voice and a story to tell.

“It means so much to me because these women are really incredible songwriters and they are excited to work with me,” Blige said.