Daytime Sessions
The electronic music scene might seem like a blur to the average Joe. With the endless sea of DJs, party people and club managers, it seems impossible to keep track who’s hot and who’s not. What is very clear though, is that it is a super male-dominated world, where female DJs and producers alike are grossly underrepresented. Until now. Russian DJ and producer Nina Kraviz gained attention with the video Between The Beats: Nina Kraviz, produced by independent online magazine Resident Advisor. The magazine were accused of portraying the Russian DJ in a sexist way, showing her taking a bubble bath, being lightly dressed and with little-to-no focus on the music she’s producing and playing around the world on a daily basis.
Still, it seems as though Resident Advisor weren’t trying to do anything of the sort. Discussions online have touched on the fact that it felt more like they successfully portrayed the actual life of a world famous DJ; what it actually entails at the end of the day: loneliness and memories. Kraviz herself explains that for the past two weeks, she’s taken over thirty flights, and ends the feature with explaining how all that’s left for a DJ when the job is done are the memories. However, the feature in Resident Advisor sparked a discussion which doesn’t seem to have been on the table until now: sexism and feminism on the electronic music scene.
Nina Kraviz is one of the most interesting DJs around, and since the Resident Advisor feature has surely become this icon in the discussion for how gender equality and sexism is perceived in this dusty male-heavy musical sphere. One should ask the question: how would a similar feature have been portrayed, if the object were a male producer and DJ?
The last two years, Kraviz has released to albums, Nina Kraviz (2012) and Mr Jones (2013). Her minimalistic techno-and-house inspired music is enough to drive any club-sweaty dance freak mad; luckily, for the premiere of the ever so popular Daytime Sessions at Trädgården, they have managed to book the impossibly busy Nina Kraviz for a gig this Friday.
On May 30, Daytime Sessions premieres at Trädgården, where Nina Kraviz is headlining.
