James Blake has called out Billboard after the music magazine said that his partner, Jameela Jamil, 'inspired' his music when actually she worked alongside him to help create the album.
After an interview with Billboard the publication tweeted out that ‘his girlfriend Jameela Jamil inspired the record.’ But considering she actually helped create the album, he wasn’t too impressed with that phrasing.
‘Not just inspired it,’ he replied to the tweet, ‘she actually worked on it. I even said it in the interview, but people focus on ‘inspired’ because the idea of the ‘muse’ is so romantic and pervasive.’
‘In addition, women who help their partners with their album, being a sounding board and often their only emotional support during the process, almost invariably go uncredited, while majority male producers come in and make a tiny change to a track and they’re Mr. golden balls,’ he continued.
His response has received a ton of support from fellow male musicians and women who work in the music industry. Quote tweeting Blake, Labrinth responded saying ‘I love this… my wife is a massive reason why I’ve even got the finish line on a lot of the music I’m releasing.’
‘We probably wouldn’t even remember Star Wars without Marcia Lucas,’ added one commentator noting the huge edits she made her husband’s most successful film. ‘Not to mention all the work Carrie Fisher did behind the scenes rewriting lines.’
‘As a woman who has made heavily impactful actual production choices, played therapist to the talent, and put out many fires during sessions only to receive an assistant engineering credit at best: Thanks,’ added Ainjel Emme.
The notion of being someone’s muse has long-been romanticised - what's cooler than being a muse? But do you remember the name of the world’s most famous muses? Elizabeth Siddal, Francoise Hardy or Pattie Boyd? Probably not. Because, so rarely are they actually credited for their work in bringing new art into the world.
So it’s unsurprisingly really, that ignoring female contributions to something is as pervasive in music as elsewhere. Because, historically it has happened much more egregiously to many women.
Throughout history women have been defined by inspiration rather than action.
Take architect Denise Scott Brown, whose husband was awarded a prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize for work they’d done together. Gerda Taro, a pioneering war photographer whose pictures are still often credited to her partner Robert Capa. Margaret Keane, whose husband claimed credit for her paintings for years.
In modern music alone there are plenty of examples of women being uncredited for major roles in a song coming to life. Bebe Rexha writing David Guetta’s Hey Mama, Kesha’s guest vocals on Flo Rida’s Right Round, Becky Hill’s entire vocals on Wilkinson’s Afterglow.
Consistently, men have brazenly profited off of the genius of women while they fight to be recognised for their own work. Hopefully, with people like Blake calling it out, this tide is starting to turn.
Read More: Women in parliament changing the world...
Inspiring Female MPs - Grazia (slider)
1 of 10Danielle Rowley, 28, Midlothian Scottish Labour MP
Speaking about her groundbreaking announcement, Danielle perfectly highlighted just how ridiculous it is that it's even a taboo to mention your period. She said on Twitter:'A lot of unexpected coverage of me talking about my period - which is great, but also highlights the need to talk about periods more openly.A woman mentioning her period shouldn't be such huge news - let's use this opportunity and work together to get to a place where it's not!'
2 of 10Jess Phillips, 36, Birmingham Yardley Labour MP
Jess brought social media trolls to account when she called for those who post abusive messages online to lose their anonymity. The MP told parliament that she once received 600 rape threats in one night and is threatened with violence and aggression every single day online. The online community is so hostile towards women that Amnesty International have led a campaign calling for Twitter to take greater responsibility for preventing online abuse. Jess told the House of Commons that people should have to disclose their real identity to social media platforms, with hope that it would not only deter people from abusing women online but also enable us to hold them to account.
3 of 10Heidi Allen, 43, South Cambridgeshire Conservative MP
Heidi, alongside Jess Phillips, shared an emotional account of her own abortion with parliament earlier this month. In an attempt to reform Northern Ireland's abortion laws, she told the Cambridge independent that she felt she needed to share her story:'I had intended to say it because I had a feeling nobody else would.'I thought it probably needed saying.'I suppose it is very easy to make issues like that just about procedure and legislation and words and policy but, actually, it is about people's lives.'Jess Phillips too opened up about her own abortion, also sharing harrowing stories from women in Northern Ireland who had terminated pregnancies.
4 of 10Stella Creasy, 41, Walthamstow Labour MP
The original lead of cross-party calls for Northern Ireland's abortion laws to be brought in line with the rest of the UK's, Stella received tons of hate mail over her campaign to protect women's right to choose. It was in her call for debate over abortion that Heidi Allen and Jess Philips were able to talk about their own terminations.
5 of 10Penny Mourdant, 45, Portsmouth North Conservative MP
The Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mourdant launched the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Securitywhich calls for more women to be at the centre of the DFID's peace, security and humanitarian programmes. As secretary of state for international development, she has attempted to reform the aid sector by creating an independent safeguarding unit that prevents exploitation. This comes in the wake of a series of sex scandals against leading charities earlier this year.
6 of 10Wera Hobhouse, 58, Bath Liberal Democrat MP
Wera Hobhouse brought Gina Martin's upskirting campaign to parliament as a private members bill set to outlaw the vile crime. While the bill was subsequently blocked by two male MPs, a third reading of the bill is set to continue on the 6th of July with Gina stating 'the Government Bill will become law as it'll get through the later stages more quickly and won't be objected to.'
7 of 10Maria Miller, 54, Basingstoke Conservative MP
It was off the back of the upskirting bill that Maria Miller and Jess Phillips have met with Wera Hobhouse in an attempt to include a revenge porn amendment. It would ensure there was a blanket ban on voyeuristic images regardless of the intention in taking it, as the MPs feared people would attempt to bend the wording of the upskirting law to avoid conviction by arguing they took the image with no intention of causing distress. They also wanted to introduce an amendment that would ban false pornographic images, in which faces are photoshopped onto explicit images. However, they were told it was impossible to introduce further amendments. This comes after Love Island stars Zara McDermott and Laura Anderson became victims of revenge porn this week.
8 of 10Mhairi Black, Paisley and Renfrewshire South SNP MP
As part of the discussion about classing misogyny as a hate crime, Mhairi Black spoke out about the misogynistic and homophobic abuse she receives online every day. She also asked parliament to reflect on their own environment, stating, 'Only a few weeks ago I was physically pressed up against a Member (of Parliament) in the voting lobby who is accused of sexual misconduct because there's so little room.'Acknowledging she has the 'same right and influence as any other elected man', she spoke up for the female staff who aren't in her position.
9 of 10Melanie Onn, 39, Great Grimsby Labour MP
Leading the charge to make misogyny a hate crime, Melanie highlighted the 'link between low-level harassment of women and more serious sexual assaults' that was found by Westminster's all-party group on domestic violence. In her constituency, the rate of domestic violence is particularly high. As a result, she has called for a law change to have misogynistic acts such as wolf-whistling, leering and sexual comments in public to be made a criminal offence.
10 of 10Monica Lennon, 37, Central Scotland Scottish Labour MSP
Monica introduced a Member's Bill into Scottish parliament that would see the creation of free universal access to sanitary products. Proposing also that schools, colleges and universities provide free sanitary products in their toilets, she led the campaign that stands to end period poverty in Scotland.