Self-Possession: Female Artists and the Internet

Self-possession is a common theme amongst female musicians, evident in the unremitting stream of female empowerment anthems, and essential for success in today’s self-producing, self-managing, self-promoting industry that is the online music scene. Gone are the days in which female artists wait to be discovered by talent scouts and record labels; here to stay are self-made female producers, self-published lyricists, and visceral online profiles allowing music fans intimate access to independent, unsigned young women producing their own music and orchestrating their own presence, in their creation of a multifaceted identity rooted in self-possession.

Female musicians are even opting to maintain this level of freedom within the machine that is the music industry, even after becoming successful enough to be offered record contracts firsthand. Take Jorja Smith, after releasing her first EP on Soundcloud she became celebrated amongst music fans almost overnight. Maintaining her freedom as both an independent musician and a self-possessed woman within the industry, she rejected any notions of signing with a label, substantiating her image as a progressive, self-assured female artist; self-possession remains at the heart of her decision to remain unsigned, echoed in the dulcet tones of her soulful anti-love ballads.

The internet then, functions as a tool, enabling self-actualised musicians to produce music, control their image, and establish their fan base without the aid of record labels, management agencies, and extensive PR stunts. The rawness of form allowed for by the internet works for young, autonomous musicians, who now have access to billions of people at the touch of a button. With artists such as Banks, Biig Piig, and Poppy Ajudha all beginning their careers on Soundcloud, the internet is not only changing the way that people listen to music, but also the environment in which female artists are able to function, creating and releasing music when they want, how they want, entirely on their own terms, entirely self-possessed.