The 1975 frontman Matty Healy took the opportunity to call out music industry misogyny during this year’s Brit Awards.
During the ceremony, The 1975 was named Best British Group, beating out competition from Years And Years, Little Mix, Arctic Monkeys and Gorillaz.
In lieu of a traditional acceptance speech, though, Matty instead chose to speak out about sexism within the music industry.
Quoting the journalist Laura Snapes, who Matty referred to as “a friend of ours”, Matty said: “I just want you to listen to me for one sec, just [to] a couple of sentences that a friend of ours, Laura Snapes, said… and I thought we should all think about it.
“In music, male misogynistic acts are examined for nuance and defended as traits of difficult artists whilst women and those who call them are out are treated as hysterics who don’t understand art.”
Institutionalised misogyny is a topic Matty has spoken about in the past while promoting the band’s most recent album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, most notably in an interview with The Fader.
Speaking about drug use in the industry, Matty said: “One of the problems is the youth of hip-hop. At the moment, with SoundCloud rap, it’s become a bit of a drug-taking competition, and that happened in rock’n’roll. Those things get weeded out the longer those things exist. The reason misogyny doesn’t happen in rock’n’roll anymore is because it’s a vocabulary that existed for so long is that it got weeded out. It still exists in hip-hop because [the genre] is so young, but it’ll stop.”
He added: “The scene’s relationship with women hasn’t caught up to its relationship with itself, but that’s something that will happen.”
After facing a backlash for his comments, Matty later tweeted: “I would never deny the RAMPANT misogyny that exists in Rock n Roll.
“It’s everywhere and has been a weirdly accepted part of it since it’s inception… BUT now looking at what I said – I was simplifying a complex issue without the right amount of education on the subject.”
Prior to this year’s Brit Awards, many suspected a TV ad for The 1975’s latest album may have let the cat out of the bag about their win.
In addition to their two nominations, they were also among the performers on the night.