Amazon Music’s Twitch Channel to Host Live Release-Day Roundtable at 6 pm PST / 9 pm EST on Women in Electronic Music; Featuring Some of the Biggest Names in EDM and Underplayed Director Stacey Lee
Underplayed is a rousing film that focuses on the gender, ethnic, and sexual inequality issues within the electronic music industry and the female DJ’s who have risen to the top in spite of it all
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World Premiere – 2020 Toronto International Film Festival
Official Selection – 2020 Tribeca Film Festival
Electronic music was born from the ideals of diversity, community, and inclusivity; yet in 2019 only 7% of Billboard’s Top 100 DJs were women. They make up less than 3% of production and technical roles in the music industry. For women of colour, it’s less than 0.3%.
Filmed over the summer festival season, Underplayed (underplayedthefilm.com) presents a portrait of the current status of the gender, ethnic, and sexual equality issues through the lens of the female pioneers, next-generation artists, and industry leaders who are championing the change, and inspiring a more diverse pool of role models for future generations.
An official selection of both the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, Underplayed features NERVO, Rezz, TOKiMONSTA, Alison Wonderland, and Tygapaw.
Underplayed will have its global on demand release on Monday, March 8. In the U.S. and abroad, the film will be released on Amazon Prime Video. The film will also be released in Canada on the same day via Crave. Amazon Music’s Twitch Channel will host a live release-day roundtable at 6 pm PST / 9 pm EST on women in electronic music featuring Underplayed director Stacey Lee, some of the biggest DJs in electronic music, all moderated by Twitch’s premium content manager Valerie Lee.
The impetus for the documentary came to light during the 2018 Bud Light House Party Tour, when Bud Light Canada sat down with artists from diverse backgrounds and genres to learn about the evolution of their careers, and their unique experiences in recording, touring, and performing. Key conversations with female DJs exposed a striking gender inequality in the space, and further research substantiated their experiences.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“When the pioneering godmothers of electronic music first began tinkering away in their scientific labs back in the 50s and 60s, they could never have imagined their little back room experiments would make way for a blossoming 8 billion dollar global industry today. Nor could they have foreseen how drastically its very creative, egalitarian roots would transmute from an open experimental playing field, to an industry dominated by a one-dimensional male point of view. This is a universal theme, and sadly one that I can personally relate to as a “female” filmmaker in a heavily male field. I empathize and understand the frustration of having to fight harder to be considered for jobs “because there aren’t as many good female directors,” to turn a deaf ear to the belief that women “can’t be technical”, that we don’t deserve equal pay, or in my instance, hiding my pregnancy beneath an oversized blazer so I wouldn’t jeopardize my chances of securing jobs.”
“When I learned about the shared plight of the women in electronic music, I saw a necessity to tell a story that speaks to the deeply personal and very human impact of this global issue. That transcends the music space, and speaks to the collective experience of so many working women today from film to politics and beyond.”
“Ultimately Underplayed raises the question; do we want our ears to be controlled by logarithms, safe bets and preconceived formulas…or become a space that is radically free to sound as rich, diverse and ever- changing as the world around us? The hope is for Underplayed to stimulate the conversation needed to break down the systematic bias’ and bring electronic music back to its open, diverse and fiercely experimental roots. To remind us that equality isn’t about one side defeating the other, but by all sides coming together for the greater good. Because the more we can lift each other up, the more we all have to gain.”
– Stacey Lee, Director
