Last week, Apple Music’s Jimmy Iovine made some not-so-well thought out comments about women and music. Appearing on CBS This Morning, he went on the show to plug Apple’s new streaming service, but whatever message he wanted to get across about the product was well and truly lost in amongst his blanket statements and sweeping generalisations and, well, plain sexist remarks.
Saying he “always knew that women find it very difficult at times – some women – to find music,” Iovine went onto describe the ~inspiration~ for his fantastic new program by describing a typical day in the life of a woman and the need for music. “I just thought of a problem: Girls are sitting around talking about boys. Or complaining about boys, when they have their heart broken, or whatever… And they need music for that, right? It’s hard to find the right music. Not everybody knows a DJ.” Naturally, the internet responded accordingly:
However, this is Apple Music we’re dealing with guys. They know how to “handle this shit”. Waiting until Monday, Australian time to issue an official statement, Iovine has now apparently apologised. The official apology is below, verbatim:
“We created Apple Music to make finding the right music easier for everyone — men and women, young and old. Our new ad focuses on women, which is why I answered the way I did, but of course the same applies equally for men. I could have chosen my words better, and I apologise.”
Wow, thanks Jimmy. Really glad we didn’t hold our breath for that one.
As a music fan who just so HAPPENS to be a female, I am still actually not sure why this service or ad is being targeted at women? Or why one of the ads, featuring Mary J. Blige, Kerry Washington and Taraji P. Henderson has them situated in a fucking kitchen no less, talking about what makes them feel “good” or “sexy”. Why are these extremely accomplished women talking about physical appearances? Don’t they need soundtracks for, you know, winning Grammys or appearing in hit TV shows or anything else in their lives? So yeah, you’re right Jimmy – you could have chosen your words better. But you chose those words, and now the world can see that your default mode of thinking about women is sexist, belittling and just plain wrong.
Thankfully, women are used to having to fight against these measures, and if this does anything it will probably just add fuel to the fire that is our burning feminism. Forgive us, mere women of the world, for expecting more than a “soz, not soz” apology that pretty much just says “my bad guys” instead of acknowledging that you blatantly lumped all women (yes, all women) into a neat little bundle for you to pity. Well, Jimmy Iovine, we don’t need your pity and we certainly don’t need your streaming services. And more importantly, we don’t need your pitiful excuse for an apology.