Björk has slammed media coverage of the DJ sets she performed at Houston’s Day for Night festival over the weekend. The legendary Icelandic artist was in the Texas city to get behind the decks — as were Aphex Twin, Arca, and Oneohtrix Point Never — for what she thought would be a fun chance to spin a mix of other artists’ music alongside some of her own instrumentals. But apparently many reviewers were focused less on the audio and more on how much of Björk was visible, accusing her of “not ‘performing'” and “‘hiding’ behind desks.”
“I am aware of that it is less [than] a year since I started DJing publicly so this is something people are still getting used to and my fans have been incredibly welcoming to me sharing my musical journey and letting me be me,” she wrote on Facebook today. “It’s been so fun [for] the nerd in me editing together pieces of other peoples’s songs for weeks, [getting] to share the different coordinates I feel between some of the most sublime music I know.”
Björk went on to condemn the sexist stereotyping that dissuades women from experimenting with less conventional sounds. “Women in music are allowed to be singer-songwriters singing about their boyfriends,” she wrote. “Men are allowed to go from subject to subject, do sci-fi, period pieces, be slapstick and humorous, be music nerds getting lost in sculpting soundscapes but not women. If we don’t cut our chest open and bleed about the men and children in our lives we are cheating our audience.”
This is hardly the first time that Björk has put the music industry boys club on blast. Earlier this year a 90s video resurfaced of the young artist giving her pertinent thoughts on stereotyping to a Spanish TV host. A few months later she called out the film industry for its treatment of women over the age of 30. Safe to say, she’s sick of the bullshit. “Let’s make 2017 the year where we fully make the transformation!!!” Björk signed off today. “The right to variety for all the girls out there!!!”
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Photography Ari Magg
[The Passionate Issue, No. 244, June 2004]