The Regrettes’ Lydia Night Opens up on the Music Industry’s Culture of Sexual Misconduct
Printed in The Mic Magazine, Issue #50.
Content Warning: This article discusses sexual assault, and rape. If you or someone you know are affected by the following article, you are not alone. To speak to someone, you can call Rape Crisis on 0808 802 9999.
As Lydia Night, frontwoman of The Regrettes accuses SWMRS’ Joey Armstrong of “emotional abuse and sexual coercion,” questions surrounding contemporary indie’s culture of manipulation and machismo are raised once more. The Mic’s Editor-in-Chief, Olivia Stock shines a light on the music industry’s murkiest corners to dissect the intricacies of power abuse and unmask the shrouded culture of sexual assault.
"For so long I viewed it just as being toxic and not something valid enough to share but now I know that what I actually experienced was emotional abuse and sexual coercion by someone in a position of power over me." The words of Lydia Night struck the music industry to its very core in late July. As the lead singer of Californian rock band The Regrettes, whose propulsive, playful garage-rock has earned recent accolades in the music industry, she is amongst the most high-profile artists to speak out about allegations of sexual abuse in recent years. Though every survivor’s story is, of course, equally significant, Night herself notes how “[her] privilege as a white woman with a platform amplifies [her] statement,” and thus its propensity to stimulate cultural change.
In the account, Night revealed that she felt compelled to share her story after SWMRS “released an unbelievably hypocritical statement on social media.” “The band’s delusional positioning of themselves as woke feminists is not only triggering for me as a victim”, she attests, “but is complete b******t and needs to be called out.” When Joey Armstrong, the son of Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong, sent her a direct message on Instagram in 2017, inviting The Regrettes to tour with his band, Night viewed SWMRS as being “vocal feminists and having a message that I thought aligned with mine.” But the dialogue kicked off a troubled relationship between the two that began when she was 16 and he was 22, and ended shortly before her 18th birthday. A relationship in which, she wrote, "every time we saw each other, he made sure to put us in a situation where he could get sexual satisfaction.”
The prevalence of assaults and attacks in the industry are known to many, but they’re only whispered about in corners of dimly lit Christmas parties or here and there amongst backstage gossip. Non-disclosure agreements and payouts protect the most powerful from mainstream dissolution, and female artists, as Night notes, desperately fear the repercussions of coming forward. However, recent swathes of testimonies from women, who now feel powerful enough to move from those dimly lit corners to the bright and capacious landscape of social media, have beamed new light on a culture that’s been willfully shrouded for decades.
A new study by The Musicians’ Union, which represents more than 30,000 musicians working across the industry, revealed that almost half of musicians have been forced to endure this kind of sexual harassment in the workplace. Not only this, but some 85 percent of victims did not report the harassment - a silence researchers put down predominantly to the “culture of the industry”. After one woman, who asked to remain anonymous, “reported sexual harassment by a high-profile individual to a major employer in the industry,” she shares how she “was told this was just 'lad culture' by the person investigating [the] complaint.” “I understand I was one of ten women making reports about the same individual and yet no action was taken,” she continues, and yet the complaint was dissipated by vague alibi’s in order to protect the powerful male accused.
In one of the only seemingly sincere moments of SWMRS’ statement, they mediate on such issues, stating that, “the music industry is a chain of abuse that starts with the adults who profit off of the precariousness of youth. It is then egregiously reinforced by us young men who are made to believe that we are rockstars.” The industry seems to nurture, and almost affectionately, a notion of untouchable, domineering masculinity. For Night, this is what she believes she became so ruthlessly caught up in. Following her split from Armstrong in 2017, she stated how “it felt like SWMRS and their team were doing anything they could to exert power and punish me.” “The same power that Joey had over me since that first DM informing me of the tours (jobs) he was offering me,” she adds solemnly.
In an antithetical act of defiance against her alleged abuser, however, Night has chosen to use her own power and platform to “further the conversation of the intricacies of power abuse, grooming and manipulation that not only exists in the music industry but in so many other industries.” Paramore’s Hayley Williams also took to social media to pen a lengthy open letter addressing sexual abuse and harassment in the music industry: “It makes my stomach hurt and my eyes red.” “It is inexcusable and there isn’t any way to change it except for to call it out and cut it out”, she continues, counting herself “lucky” that she got through her career “mostly unscathed.”
In a sphere long dominated by men - the making of music, its production and selling, office and studio spaces, live performance, the media - abuses of power are seemingly near unavoidable, but The Musicians’ Union, who polled 725 musicians for its research, is urging the government to “urgently review” how it safeguards in women. “We are aware of far too many cases of talented musicians, particularly young or emerging artists, leaving the industry altogether due to sexism, sexual harassment or abuse,” Naomi Pohl, Deputy General Secretary of the Union, said. “Survivors are often unable to speak out because the consequences for their career or personal life are devastating. In most cases we’re aware of, the survivor ends up leaving the workplace or the industry and there are very few consequences for the perpetrator.”
Thus, as the music industry is traumatised by a pandemic of hulking proportions, we cannot forget another devastating affliction that is threatening to corrupt it from the inside out. “I want to thank all of the wxn who have come forward to share their stories. Your bravery is the thing that has comforted me and given me the strength to release this,” Night finished her statement. A touching ode to others that are beginning to step forward and bare their stories, and imbued with a message of hope that change is on the horizon.
Olivia Stock
Sources:
Lydia’s full statement: https://www.instagram.com/p/CC4EzRqsU7U/
SWMRS’ full statement: https://www.instagram.com/p/CC1PEcrAElM/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/17/raped-music-industry-protect-women
