Here's a little statistic on the balance women/men artists on 4ad.
Important Notes :
Here were taking into account only the "Official 4ad UK releases".
There is only one entry per catalog number.
In Brackets is the number of releases made by the artist/band.
"Hits" and "Out Of The Trees" and all TAD were not counted as albums. Neither were MAD except the first Pixies and Presage. Arguably, "WP and other tall...", "Gala" and "Towards The Within" were considered as new albums when they came out (not just compils). Finally, "A Passage In Time" had 2 new songs. So these were counted. Hmm... I think I counted "Pink Opaque" too....
I always thought that since the signing of the Cocteau Twins, 4ad started to be scrupulous on the choice of new acts (2-3 per year in general). So I wanted to make the difference with the early days whence many one-off eps were released, regardless of their quality for many 4ad critics (though I admit some of my secret pleasures lay on theses). In a sentence, one could separate 4ad in 3 : Pre-Cocteau, Cocteau era, Post-Cocteau. This is my personel hommage to them, since they were the ones who made me discover the label .
This is calculated from Axis 1 to BAD 7006
Women Projects on 4ad : The Amps (2) Belly (7) Heidy Berry (4) Breeders (5) Tanya Donelly (1) Lisa Germano (5) Lisa Gerrard (1) Kristen Hersh (4) Liquorice (mostly) (1) Lush (14) Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares (2) Kendra Smith (1) Tarnation (4) Throwing Muses (17) X-Mal Deutschland (4) total: 72 releases (31 albums) (all post-cocteau) Men Projects on 4ad : AR Kane (1) Ash/Campling (1) Bauhaus (5) Bearz (1) Birthday Party (9) (eps to cds reissues counted as same but as albums) Frank Black (4) Michael Brook/MB + Pieter Nooten (mostly) (4) Cupol (1) Dance Chapter (2) Dif Juz (mostly) (4) Fast Set (1) Halkett/Jay (1) Happy Family (2) In Camera (3) Lewis/Gilbert (2) M/A/R/R/S (1) Mass (2) Modern English (11) My Captains (1) Colin Newman (3) Paladins (1) Past Seven Days (1) Pixies (mostly) (11) Red House Painters (5) Rema Rema (1) Richenel (1) Sort Sol (1) Spirea x (mostly : back vocals by a woman) (3) TheThe/Matt Johnson (2) Wolfgang Press (17) Unrest (mostly) (3) Ultra Vivid Scene (9) total : 114 releases (41 albums) -42 pre cocteau (10 albums) = 72 (31) Mixed Projects (collaborative bands) on 4ad : Air Miami (2) (more collaborative than was Unrest) Cocteau Twins (17) (+ a box set reissue) Dead Can Dance (10) Frazier Chorus (1) gusGus (?) (3) Mojave 3 (1) Pale Saints (8) Présage(s) (mostly men projects on that compil) (1) Scheer (5) Shox (1) Swallow (2) Roland S. Howarth/Lydia Lunch (1) V23 (yep....those calendars....) (2) (3rd one don’t bear a 4ad number) Xymox (clan of) (mostly a guy, but “participation” from a woman) (4) total : 58 releases (28 albums) - 3 pre cocteau (1 album) = 55 (27) Men Projects involving Women Singers on 4ad : Colourbox (10) (MAD 509 calculated here as one release) His Name Is Alive (6) This Mortal Coil (6) total : 22 releases (8 albums) (all post cocteau) Women Projects involving Men Singers on 4ad : none Queers and other Third Sex related Projects on 4ad : O.k. O.k., Allright, I'm gone ...... (add 2 compilations : «Lonely Is An Eyesore» and «Natures Mortes») = 268 releases so far 19 17 15 15 12 14 13 11 10 11 17 17 20 17 18 17 19 6(so far)
So if we forget pre-cocteaux releases, Mixed bands and men projects involving women singers (which are pretty collaborative anyway), we get 72 (31 albums) against 72 (31 albums) releases. I found this interesting.... I mean : It's certainly not like that everywhere...
This was NOT a waste of time, dude.
And it took me only 15 minutes to do.
Have a nice day,
Cedric
P.S. Soon, Throwing Muses will become the band with the most releases on 4ad (already is if you count Hersh's solo items)