Justin Bieber’s headlining performance at Coachella has been met with mixed reviews and a lot of online discourse. Many feel his low effort showing is a poignant reminder of the fact that men and women in music, especially pop music, have wildly different standards to follow. Pointedly, people have noted the high production and delivery displayed by Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G, the other headliners of the festival.
Headlining Coachella is, for most artists, a watershed moment in their career. As one of the most globally known festivals, the main stage headliner spot is one that some people spend a whole career dreaming about. Apparently, Justin Bieber is not one of them. Sandwiched between stellar headlining sets from Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G, his Saturday slot was heavily anticipated as one of the most exciting in the two weekend long line up. Imagine the bemusement from the audience as Bieber proceeded to show up with no semblance of a set list or a show planned, instead using the headlining spot to search YouTube to find songs to sing alongside. Rightfully, people have pointed out that if a female artist were to show up with so little prepared, they would be crucified.
We know that women in music are held to an insanely high standard in comparison to their male counterparts. You need only look at the Coachella weekend performances as a microcosm of a much wider trend toward allowing male artists to frankly coast by on mediocre performances and music, with little to impede their ability to be showered in adoration by the industry. I’m reminded of a meme that circulated online in the late 2010s. It was an image of Beyoncé sharing the stage with Ed Sheeran. While Beyoncé is wearing an elaborate Ashi Studio gown, Sheeran is in a pair of jeans and a tee. Obviously both artists are talented vocalists but this demonstrates how for women, the expectation is to always give more, for men it is merely to give anything they feel like.
Where does the double standard come from?
Women in music are held to an insanely high standard, but where does this come from? Naturally, it spawns from a myriad of factors, all of which are deeply woven into the framework of patriarchy that shapes how women navigate all career fields, not just music. Like all other industries, the music industry has been built for and by men. In these origins, women only existed as vocalists, with few women in past decades able to assert themselves as creative forces. We remember the exceptions like Dolly Parton or Cher, but that is purely because they defied the odds and endured. For every success story there are countless women who were denied agency in the music they made.
When the 1980s got into full swing, some things did start to change, largely through the influence of Madonna. As one of, if not the, most identifiable artist of the decade, she created a new lane for women in pop music to maintain longevity in their careers. She did this through constantly reinventing her image and her sound with each subsequent album. This worked exceptionally well for Madonna and she would go on to be one of the most influential artists in music history. Her fingerprints are on the careers of countless pop artists who followed her example. Reinvention is an innovation that propelled Madonna to heights not before seen in her peers, forging one of the most remarkable legacies in music history. The unfortunate, unintentional side effect of her approach is that it became seen as the only way for women in music to advance their careers.
Essentially, her success told the music industry that the only way to be a successful woman in pop music is to consistently overhaul your style. For many artists who followed Madonna, this approach has absolutely led to astronomical success. Names like Lady Gaga, Shakira, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift come to mind. For many other artists, this expectation forced them to artificially exploit facets of themselves that they either were not ready to explore creatively, or frankly, did not want to.
There are many artists that I can think of that probably had careers artificially cut short because they were not able to adapt effectively to a sound that their audience and the industry deemed to be acceptable for them. This feeds into the idea that women in music have to perform at an insanely high level in comparison to their male counterparts. Partially, this is inevitable; not every musician is supposed to have a multi-decade-long run at the top of their game. I still have to wonder who may have persisted in a different context where women were allotted greater freedom to grow at their own speed, instead of with every single new album.
Beyond quality, the moral standards are different
The double standard goes far beyond performance and creative outputs. We can see very clearly that the standard of morality that female and male pop artists are held to are insanely different. Last month, Chappell Roan was ‘cancelled’ for allegedly sending a security guard to berate a child – something it was later confirmed by all involved she did not do. Despite all parties involved now maintaining that Roan was not at fault, the reputational damage she suffered from the accusation will stay with her. People are still talking about it, many will not be willing to follow up on a headline once they’ve internalised what they have already been told. Therefore, her reputation, through no fault of her own, has suffered significant damage.
Meanwhile, Kanye West, a man who has publicly several times endorsed MAGA, endorsed Nazi sentiment, white supremacy, claimed that slavery was a choice, and is known for having a very bad relationship with women, was able to sell out an 80,000 capacity venue early this year. He was supposed to headline Wireless festival here in the UK before the government blocked his arrival.
Not only that, but Chris Brown, a man who has, for nearly two decades, been a known abuser of women, is still able to chart his songs and sell out tours. His latest, a tour with Usher, who has had his own recent controversies in the form of publicly defending known rapist Sean Combs, is estimated to sell extremely well. Brown is notorious not only for the incident in 2008 where he brutally beat Rihanna, who was his partner at the time, but for several other cases of abuse. In the subsequent years he has accumulated several accounts of violent behaviour including subsequent domestic abuse charges and an allegation of rape in 2022. Chris Brown is still making music comfortably, he is still successful, he still has loyal fans.
In comparison, the singer Lizzo was accused of sexual harassment and running a hostile work environment by former dancers in 2023. In the years since, her music has not made any impact on charts and her mainstream career is basically finished. Her male contemporaries can, with far more severe allegations, walk through the world of the music industry entirely unscathed. The standards could not be more different.
Women are punished when they don’t even do anything wrong
Lizzo is one of the more extreme examples, but women are also punished by our culture when they don’t do anything wrong. Recently Swedish singer Zara Larsson discussed how she lost a $3M brand deal for making a good-natured joke about abortion with a fan online. I don’t see Chris Brown losing brand deals for abusing women however, somehow that doesn’t quite make sense. Perhaps the most notable example is Janet Jackson. The way that the music industry and the media treated Jackson after her 2004 Super Bowl halftime show is still one of the most atrocious and blatant examples of misogynoir in pop culture. During the performance part of Jackson’s bodice was pulled off by Justin Timberlake, exposing one of her breasts. Speculation persists whether this was intentional, an accident, or a malfunction in a costume reveal. In the aftermath Janet Jackson was blackballed from the music industry, and her career never fully recovered.
In recent years there has been plenty of discourse about how Janet deserved better, recognising her for the icon she is. As necessary as this is, it doesn’t negate the fact that for something that happened to her, her career stalled. She didn’t choose to expose herself. She didn’t rip her costume herself; someone else did that, yet she was punished. Whacked with the lightning rod of misogynoir, which persists so deeply in the music industry, Jackson was branded with the racialised Jezebel archetype that persistently is attached to black women in the world of entertainment. Meanwhile, Timberlake was unscathed. Unburdened by the moral perfection expected of women, he was able to continue to make mediocre music and went on to perform at the Super Bowl again in 2018.
Timberlake would eventually go on to apologise to both Janet Jackson and Britney Spears for his behaviour in the early 2000s towards them. He acknowledged his inaction to support Jackson after the 2004 incident and the fact that he did not do enough. Naturally, it’s too little, too late. The double standard here is that while Jackson was a passive participant in what happened, she was the target of all of the scrutiny. Men in the music industry are not held to the same moral standards as women. When they are finally called out for their behaviour, often years later, they are usually allowed to put together a half baked Instagram apology written in their notes app. That does little more than check off a moral tick box. Peppered with ideas like ‘taking accountability’ and ‘reflecting on their behaviours’, these apologies rarely amount to more than the bare minimum in an attempt to pacify detractors. The reality is no reflection happens, no accountability is taken. Men are simply allowed to continue to do bad things and be rewarded for it.
Men can literally be Nazis and get away with it
One of the most poignant examples is that of Kanye West. West has displayed numerous times throughout his career, behaviour that would render a female artist entirely cancelled. Yet he persists. Notoriously in 2009, he interrupted Taylor Swift while she was accepting a VMA award. While the incident with Swift did initially see West receive backlash, he was able to largely persist in the music industry. Later, he further villainised Swift, a woman who has made no intentional choice to associate with West. Kanye, on his song Famous, called Swift a bitch and claimed that he was responsible for her fame. When Swift rightfully called him out for this, it was not West, but Swift, who received the internet’s ire. So severe was the fury from the general public, she chose to exclude herself from public life for over a year. Kanye continued to be praised as a maverick and a genius during this time, even after it was proven that Swfit did not give him consent to refer to her as a bitch despite claims West made.
Since then, West has gone on to publicly berate the mother of his children and ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, online. Most egregiously, he aligned himself with MAGA, before proudly expressing Nazi sentiments, uphold White supremacy, and claimed that slavery was a choice. If any women in the music world did just one of these things, they would rightfully be completely excluded from the public sphere. Nicki Minaj’s recent MAGA pivot has seen her basically murder her career as a majority of her once extremely loyal fans have abandoned her. Kanye however, is selling out venues and has a legion of devoted fans who excuse or explain way his fascist leanings. West has recently claimed to have moved on from his recent antisemitic and fascist views, expressing a desire to apologise to the communities harmed by his actions. If that were true, he would understand that so boldly support for Nazi ideology is not something you can really come back from. A true apology at this point would be self removal from public life, understanding that using your platform to be so hateful probably means you don’t deserve to have a platform at all.
Justin Bieber, Coachella, and Money Money Money
At the core of frustration with Bieber and his lacklustre performance is the fact that he was paid $10M for it. That’s more than both Sabrina Carpenter and Karol G, his fellow headliners, earned, who were paid between five and eight million dollars. It’s also more than past women headliners like Lady Gaga and Beyoncé. Artists who are, unarguably, legends with careers that have spanned far longer than Bieber’s, with far more cultural impact. With this exorbitant amount of money, he still did not see any need to actually show up and deliver a planned-out concept or even have a prepared set list. It shows a flagrant disregard for the brevity of the opportunity he was afforded. He made a conscious decision to show up unprepared, protected by male privilegee. There are some people saying that the performance was vulnerable and emotional. The reality is it was lazy and ill-planned.
Particularly when I think about Karol G’s performance, I feel frustration. Karol made history as the first Latina to headline at Coachella, and delivered a performance that did justice to the accomplishment. As the first Latina headliner, I imagine she felt immense pressure to deliver something that was emblematic of her culture and marked her impact on music. Particularly as someone with a majority Spanish repertoire, she asserted that she earned her position as a headliner. When you watch the performance, it absolutely cements why she was offered the opportunity. Her set was meticulously planned, complete with an array of costumes, choreography, dancers, excellent vocals, thoughtful messaging, and a deeply held goal to celebrate Latin culture.
Equally, Sabrina Carpenter, with her headlining set, delivered equitable production. They understood the assignment. Why then, I ask, is it that these talented women who clearly acknowledge the honour it is to headline and have the opportunity to leave your mark on the Coachella stage, are paid less than a man who shows up and scrolls YouTube? If either of them did anything remotely close to what Justin Bieber did, their careers would be over today. Yet he will go on, fine as ever, and just continue. He will persist because men are allowed to be mediocre. Perhaps Florence Welch said it best in her song One of the Greats, as she sings “It must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can”.
As I’ve been writing this article I have thought back on the concerts I’ve been lucky to attend. From Shakira to Taylor Swift to Lady Gaga, I have witnessed the product of all of the insane standards that women in music are held to. To be honest, you can’t argue with the results. The male pop star is becoming an endangered species, people know that if you want good pop music, go to a woman. Women in music take all of the bullshit double standards imposed on them and exceed them consistently. For men in the pop world that standard, that pressure doesn’t exist. As a result, the music they produce is boring. Music is supposed to connect to people, but to impactfully do that some effort needs to be made.
Ultimately, I don’t take issue with the effort that women are expected to put into doing just this; what I take issue with is the fact that men are not expected to do the same. There isn’t really a revelation amidst this conversation; it is just a confirmation of everything that society tells us every day in every way it can: men can do the bare minimum and get showered in praise and money for it. Bieber is not an exception; he is the rule.
