Musician Anna Coddington speaks about the recent stories of sexual harassment and exploitation in the music industry, calling for real change throughout the music world.
Anna Coddington Photo: Supplied
Last weekend Stuff investigative reporter Alison Mau published a months long investigation into sexual harassment and exploitation by local music executives. The story named Lorde's former manager Scott Maclachlan and BENEE's manager Paul McKessar.
In the wake of that Music 101 host Charlotte Ryan penned an essay outlining her own experiences, explaining that inappropriate behaviour has been rife throughout her time in music.
Yesterday, The Spinoff's Leonie Hayden published a piece saying it was time for all men to step up and create change.
Earlier in the week, singer songwriter Anna Coddington took to social media, and with other prominent singers such as Julia Deans, Tami Nielson, Lorde, Bic Runga and others presented an open letter demanding change and accountability to take place in all tiers of the music industry
Coddington told Music 101 her Instagram post was "pure gut reaction" to reading the articles.
"We're just all sick of it. It's just completely unacceptable, I mean clearly, no-one is going to deny that. I just couldn't stay quiet about that."
There's a certain section - namely men - in the industry who have stayed quiet or been "very careful about formulating their responses", she says.
"I think they [the articles] really shook people because those are people we've all worked with. It really put ripples through the music community because like everyone's worked with those people.
"A lot of people are really triggered by it, a lot of people are reflecting on what their experiences have been and what they've allowed to happen or maybe what they didn't realise what was happening.
"People are really contemplating the reality, the gravity of the situation. I think some people aren't ready to have a response yet, and I personally don't believe in people making a public statement for the sake of making a public statement, I don't think that helps, I'm more interested in people actually doing something."
Diversity is key to making that change so women and minorities can feel safe in the industry, she says.
"I spoke in the letter about men having safety in numbers, I feel like as long as they have that we will have this problem.
"But again I want to emphasise, I'm a musician, I don't actually have the answers, I'm really just advocating for change to happen."
She explains that as a Māori woman, her experiences differ when she is surrounded purely by white men as opposed to if there are women or people from various backgrounds.
Without diversity, true equality and safety for minorities cannot be achieved, she says.
"The problem is systemic and it's everywhere, and it's top to bottom and through the whole industry. If we can take away that safety in numbers and have more diversity, we'll see improvements in many ways.
"People have been saying it's a power imbalance and men have the power. Until they have the will to shift it as well, it will be slow progress ... and accept they won't have that comfort anymore."
Despite slow progress, she asked for fans and those involved in the industry to keep insisting on change.
"There's a lot of other stresses in the world right now ... but I think the main thing is to keep it front of mind in those environments."
