The Triumphant Return of the Question of the Day!

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've posted a new question - I've been hard at work looking through the responses to the intro survey! 42 people responded, which is awesome. Thank you all so much!

But now that I've looked at the numbers I have even more burning questions for you all, so chime in and let me know if what the numbers are telling me match your experiences!

80% of both men and women see the stage as a typically male space, the remaining 20% felt they were equally likely to see men or women on a stage, and absolutely nobody who responded felt it was more typical to see a woman on stage.

The majority of instruments were reported to be typically played by men, though some were considered to be more typically male than others.

We did find one area that was reported to be a typically female space. 60% of women and 40% of men reported that they typically see women working behind the bar, the remaining 40% of women and 60% of men reported seeing men and women equally behind the bar. Nobody reported typically seeing men behind the bar. Reports of who sold merch showed a similar rise in female presence.


In addition to letting me know if the numbers I found in the intro survey match your experiences, I would also love to know about your buying habits!

• If you are in a band, do you notice a difference in your merch sales when a male friend sells merch for you versus a female friend? Is there a difference in your merch sales on nights you sell your own merch versus nights you ask a friend to help?

• Are you ever influenced by the sales person when considering whether or not to buy merch? (eg. you want a chance to chat to the cute guy/girl selling merch, you want to tell a band member who's behind the merch table that you enjoyed their set, you liked the band but the person selling merch is creeping you out, or any other reason!)

Question of the Day:

Hey everyone! Thanks for the great turnout on my Intro Survey! If you haven't taken it yet, please do. I've been getting some wonderful responses.

There was a really interesting response on the survey today. It really made me stop in my tracks a bit and think about it. In response to the final question, one woman shared: I think less men go to school therefore they are band members.

What do you think of that? Do you feel this is a common perception? Do you feel it's accurate? What do you think are some reasons that men appear on stage and are in bands so often? What are some reasons that women appear on stage and are in bands less often?

Question of the Day:

Hey Everyone! I've been getting some great responses to the Intro Survey, but I'd still love to hear from more of you.

The responses so far have been really interesting! A few of the responses have gotten me really interested in *why* some instruments are more or less frequently played by either men or women.

So my question today is, are there stigmas attached to any instruments or stereotypes about either men or women who play a particular instrument or act in particular ways at shows that are well know in the music scene?

What kinds of stereotypes exist that would *encourage* either a man or a woman to play a particular instrument or act in a particular way?

What kinds of stereotypes exist that would *discourage* either a man or a woman from playing a certain instrument or acting in a particular way?

Question of the Day:

Why do you play the type of music that you play? What is it about the genre that attracts you? Have you played in bands across multiple genres? Would you like to?

If you haven't already, please take the INTRO SURVEY. I'm trying to collect at least 40 responses in the next 2 weeks, and I'm about a quarter of the way there! I'm looking for people involved in the music scene at every level. Musicians, bartenders, audience members, door guys - I want to hear from everyone.

Today's Question: What kind of music do you LISTEN to? Do you only listen to the kind of music that you play, or do you enjoy a broad range? Does the music you listen to affect or influence the music that you make? Always? Only sometimes? Never?

Question of the Day:

New term! Sorry to go absentee for a few days!

I have a brand new Intro Survey, hosted by surveymonkey, up in the links section. It's super-short - only 10 questions, you can probably complete it in under a minute. Fill it out, share it with your friends who don't have the time to come here to spend time answering questions. Spread it around like the clap.

Today's question:
What kinds of relationships do you form through music?
Do you gain a lot of friendships? Do you tend to talk more to people who play the same instrument(s) you do? Or people who are the same gender as you are? Do you have the same kinds of relationships with audience members as you do with other bands you have performed with?

Question of the Day:

Hi Everyone!

I hope that everyone had a great New Years Eve and first few days of the New Year.

Since this is my first question of the new year, I thought a question about beginnings might be appropriate. So tell me - when you and/or your band was first getting started, how did you first start performing live?

Question of the Day:

Hi Everyone! I hope everyone who celebrates had a great Christmas yesterday, and everyone who doesn't had a great Friday!

Today I just want to take the time to urge everyone to go back and answer some questions from days past. There are a whole bunch that nobody's talked about yet, and it would be great to get the conversation going. Jump in! Be the first to talk about something! If you do, I'll give you a cookie.

As for a new question for today - what is your band's relationship with the audience like? Do you have fans beyond you family and friends? How do you interact with the people who come to your shows?

Question of the Day:

How do you write music? Do you do it collaboratively, as an entire band? Do just one or two people write? Do you think of writing as a group process or an individual one?

Question of the Day:

Hey everyone! I'd love to hear your feedback on the questions - if what I'm not asking a question you feel needs answering, please bring it up in the comments! Even if it's completely off-topic, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Today's question, how do you present yourself as a band? Or as a member of the music scene? What are the things you want people to know about you?

Question of the Day:

Since I missed posting a question yesterday, you get two today!

How did your band form? Share how you decided to form a band, how you found each of your members, and what other things you had to do to get your band started.

Question of the Day:

Today's question is about audiences. When you play shows, who is in the audience? Are there more men or women? Are most of the people in the audience in bands or people who want to be in bands?

Question of the Day:

I set up a twitter yesterday! Follow me at twitter.com/chirocksurvey. I plan to keep it low-volume. I'll be tweeting a link to the question of the day, once a day, but won't clog up your feeds beyond that. I'm more than happy to help any of you trend a topic there to plug a show or album or other event.

As for today's questions: What are your goals? Tell me about short-term, long-term, personal goals or goals about the kind of impact you want to have. What do you want to accomplish with your band? Or in music in general?

Question of the Day:

This isn't really a question. I'm just asking for thoughts, reactions, positives or negatives.

Question of the Day:

I'm so glad that we've got two more voices joining it! Quick note: Anonymous posting will always be available, but it would be great if everyone could sign their posts somehow. Either select the Name/URL posting option and enter whatever name you would like to use here, or simply sign your name somewhere in the comment. I just want to make sure we don't get a lot of anonymous voices that are difficult to distinguish from one another. Thanks!

So today's question sort of piggybacks off of yesterday's. I want to know about personal experiences you had getting into the music scene. Were older, more established bands helpful towards you? Did you get encouragement and/or guidance from school, parents, peers, or other sources when you were learning to play? Did you do it all on your own?

Question of the Day:

Adrian said the following in Tuesday's post

I think it's a matter of support, we need to support arts/music education in schools and promote music as a non-gender specific outlet for expression

So today's question is about support. Do you make an effort to support music education, to encourage young people or people who are just starting out? What are some of the ways you offer support within the music community and/or reach out beyond the music community to support and encourage musical outlets?

Question of the Day:

Hey guys! So glad that Adrian has joined the discussion - just jump in anywhere if you're just joining in!

Anyway, Adrian brought up the social aspect of going to shows and being in the music scene. How would you describe the social and/or community aspect of being in a band or being part of the music scene? Do you see the scene as a community that you're a part of?

Question of the Day:

Ok, guys! New question today. I'm going to keep posting questions every day, but if you have something to say about an older question please speak up!

What is your main motivation for playing music? What is your favorite thing about being in a band?

Question of the Day:

Couple of notes before the question:
The conversation is just getting started, so feel free to jump in anywhere and talk about anything. This is meant to be open to anyone, so anyone you know that might want to share an opinion about the Chicago music scene is invited to jump in. If you have an opinion about even one of the questions, I want to hear your voice!

As for today's question:

When did you first start playing instruments, and how long after you started playing did you join your first band?

Question of the Day:

We're still trying to build up the conversation, so please jump in, but Joliet Dave brought up an interesting point in yesterday's post, suggesting that there are men who prefer to keep performing a "boy's club", especially around playing instruments.

Have you had experiences that suggest a "boys club" in the music scene? Do bands looking for a new member often have a gender in mind for the position? Do you find that there is a difference in attendance for all male versus all female bands or bands with men and women?

For women - have you ever felt as if you've been passed over or not included because of a boy's club mentality among other performers? When you're in a band, do you prefer to be the only woman or do you prefer performing with other women?

For men - Do you find yourselves engaging in a boy's club, preferring to be in bands with no women members? Are there reasons you might prefer a male band member to a female band member?