Voices of the Movement

Welcome to Voices of the Movement, a sponsored series presented by Olay Body. Rolling Stone and Olay Body are committed to elevating the voices of these women who are a force of change in the music industry.

In this series, Olay Body will bring together some of the most dynamic and inspiring female leaders across industries to talk about their journeys and how they’re fighting for inclusivity and representation. These are mold breakers - women who rose to the top of their occupations and are constantly searching for ways to uplift those just starting out.

ROLLING STONE: WHAT DID THE BEGINNING OF YOUR JOURNEYS LOOK LIKE?

ELLA: I come from a music background so I started early. My dad is a jazz drummer in Venezuela and my uncle was a saxophone player for artists like Tito Puente. My father would put on Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughn records. It all kind of came to me naturally. In Venezuela, we have a great music program that teaches kids when they’re young as well.

But I had a crisis when I was 16. I decided that I wanted to quit music, and started to study economics. And I had one teacher that saw me trying to force myself to be someone else because I was afraid I wasn’t going to make money. They told me, “You don’t belong here. I can see in your eyes that music is your path. So I’m going to flunk you.” And they did! That became my opportunity to move forward and move to New York City where I started my studies in music.

MARISOL: I’m a Black Jamaican immigrant who grew up in New York and Florida. My family came from a very musical background as well. My father was a prominent musician in Jamaica, so the groups that played throughout Jamaica were a constant mainstay in my house and in our spaces. My mother was on the theater scene, and was always acting and writing plays. It was a very creative, artistic household.

But when I decided to find a career path, I decided to go into medicine because I thought it would promise financial security for my family in a new country. So when I went off and started pre-med, I remember one day I came back home, my father pulled me aside and said, “You know, I don’t think this is the path for you. I never really saw you as a medical doctor. You’re always in music.” He spoke to the incongruency of my passions and my career path.

And, you know, I actually protested him. I told him, “I can’t believe you can’t see me as a doctor.” But what he did was kick up the dust around this idea of me as an artist and that denying the communal music of my culture was in some ways denying myself.

WHO WERE YOUR ROLE MODELS COMING UP? WHO DID YOU LOOK TO WHEN YOU STARTED TO MOVE ALONG YOUR PROFESSIONAL PATHS?

ELLA: I like to point to Marta, the Brazilian soccer star. When they lost their most recent World Cup match and she was going to retire, she was crying and said that when she started, there were no role models for her. It feels the same in music production. I didn’t have a role model to look to, especially a female one. I knew about Quincy Jones, I knew about many producers that were doing great things, but my journey was very lonely. I had mentors when I was performing and I was preparing as a trumpet player and as a vocalist. I have many great mentors back in Venezuela as well. But the music production journey was very lonely for me.

MARISOL: It was similar for me. There were women critically teaching and writing in music therapy spaces, but they weren’t being placed at the forefront of our public discourse. I had to lean on my family, especially my mother, who was persistent in her work, and then artists and community scholars from different disciplines. I knew I needed to draw from their spirit and persist as well. Nina Simone will forever be someone I look to for her rebel spirit and for demonstrating the liberatory function of music and what freedom sounds like. Also, Zora Neale Hurston’s work looks at humanity and all its layers without any apology. As a therapist and educator working with people, particularly minoritized women at significant times in their lives, I often need to draw from places outside of my profession to cultivate a culturally sustaining and justice-oriented approach that honors their whole being.

ROLLING STONE: WHAT BARRIERS ARE YOUR INDUSTRIES WE STILL STRUGGLING WITH WHEN IT COMES TO REPRESENTATION?

MARISOL: The lack of Black women in music therapy stems from multiple factors, particularly the ways Black women’s voices have been displaced from the public discourse of music and health. It’s done to such a degree that some Black women may not know they have a right to these professional spaces, that their communities and their musical legacies have paved their existence and they belong. As we re-historicize and re-story our professions, we see the erasure of Black and female, femme, and non-binary voices and deliberately center them as an act of resistance and care.

ELLA: The music industry has been around a long time and has specific challenges, especially when it comes to gender. We’re seeing a lot of conversations about giving more power to women, but the reality is that there needs to be funding. There needs to be money available for those women to develop their craft. I personally have experienced it as a New Yorker. There are a lot of programs and grants available for musicians and for artists. But the reality is that for Latina and Black women, the opportunities for them to fund their own projects are minimal. The grant process is complex to apply for and if an artist doesn’t want to pursue a commercial music career it’s very hard.

Women are still vastly underrepresented in music. A paltry 2.8% of producers on the Billboard Hot 100 Year End Chart in 2021 were women; only a single woman of color was included in that list.

Olay Body is committed to exploring the intersection of science and beauty, creating products that reflect every hue and shape. Grounded in their dedication to representation and empowerment, Olay Body is supporting women who are fighting to make their professions more inclusive. Keep an eye out for more inspiring stories of powerful women in music in future editions of the Voices of the Moment series.