Linda Perry and Women at the Grammys
by Bruce Headlam
Broken Record is a podcast hosted by Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam. On the show, the musicians you love talk about their life, inspiration and craft. And then they play.
This week, we featured the incredible Linda Perry, one of the only women considered a go-to producer in the music industry. She’s worked with top artists like Pink, Christina Aguilera, Adele, Alicia Keys and Dolly Parton.
We interviewed Linda Perry just a few days after the 2019 Grammy Awards, where she had a) put together the Dolly Parton tribute that pretty much stole the show and b) lost to Pharrell Williams in the Producer of the Year category.
We were surprised to find that this was her first nomination given her history producing P!nk, Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani. What’s less surprising, given the medieval standards of the music industry, is that no woman has ever won the Grammy in the producer category (or “Producer of the Year, Non-Classical,” as it’s officially called).
There wasn’t even a female nominee until 1990, when Janet Jackson shared a nominee with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for her Rhythm Nation 1814 album. Mariah Carey shared a nomination with Walter Afanasieff the next year and Paula Cole was nominated in 1998. The next year became the high-water mark for women in production, with two nominees, Lauryn Hill and Sheryl Crow. They both lost, despite Lauryn Hill winning just about every other possible award for her Miseducation album. In 2004, Lauren Christy was nominated as part of the Matrix team that produced Avril Lavigne’s album.
Incredibly, that’s it. No other female nominees until Linda Perry this year. It would be easy to blame the lack of female producers overall in the music business, but that’s a separate issue. There have been high-profile female producers. They just haven’t been nominated.
Consider three names: Joni Mitchell, Madonna and Missy Elliott. Since 1975, when the academy starting handing out the award, Joni Mitchell has co-produced The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Mingus, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm among others, and Turbulent Indigo, which won the Grammy for Pop Album of the Year. These albums are treasured by musicians (Prince revered Joni Mitchell) but she never received a producer nomination.
She co-produced some great-sounding albums like Ray of Light and Music but the argument against a Madonna nomination might be that she’s really a performer who works with established producers and they do the dirty work of twirling knobs, checking levels and firing the drummer (again) for being late. But Phil Collins worked with a co-producer and that didn’t stop him from being nominated, or even winning in 1986.
And Missy Elliott is, well, Missy Elliott. She has created some of the most interesting sounds that have come out of any studio in the past 20 years. Isn’t that what producers are supposed to do?
Linda Perry does a lot of work behind the scenes to encourage young women in music. We asked her if the industry would be better with more female producers. Her answer: “I don’t fuckin’ know, man.” (That’s why she’s Linda Perry.) Still, if the industry wants to encourage more women to become producers — if only for political, face-saving reasons — they should start by recognizing the ones they already have.
