Ellie Goulding Says Music Industry Has ‘Really Changed’ Since #MeToo

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Ellie Goulding has been reflecting on changes in the music industry since her debut in 2010.

In a new interview with BBC Radio 4, the British pop star reflects on how the #MeToo movement ultimately helped the music industry and changed the way some male producers treat female singers.

“I do think things have changed a bit, especially since the #MeToo movement,” Goulding said. people. “I think it’s really, really important for people to keep telling their personal stories because I know there’s a lot going on that just doesn’t get talked about.”

She later added, “Hearing so many other stories, similar stories from other female musicians and singers, I realized I wasn’t alone. It wasn’t just me who was particularly ‘friendly.'”

Goulding said she had an experience when she was younger where she “kind of normalized male behavior” and shrugged off advances because “maybe it was just a thing” but later realized the behavior was not okay .

“You know, when you walk into the studio, the producer will ask you if you want to go get a drink. I’m a very polite person and I don’t like to let people down,” she said. “I don’t like letting people down. So I said, ‘Yeah, sure, absolutely, go get a drink.'”

“Then, somehow, it suddenly became like a romantic thing that shouldn’t be,” she continued. “You don’t want it to be a romantic thing, but there’s always a slight feeling of discomfort when you walk into a studio and there’s just one or two people writing or producing.”

Goulding explains that there’s an “unspoken thing” about male producers that’s “almost like an expectation” to somehow get around them. “It’s definitely not going to happen now,” she said. “I mean, very little, because things have really changed.”

Goulding interviewed rolling stones about her album earlier this year higher than heaven and how one of her songs, “Better Man,” was inspired by the #MeToo movement, and how the industry was “really turned around” as a result.

“I think when I wrote that song, I just needed to get back a strength that maybe I had lost when I first started going into the studio and not feeling safe,” she said. “You go into some kind of survival mode. This is probably the deepest song on the album. Everything else is an escape, it’s about dancing, feeling free, feeling like anything is possible.”