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Women are at last rising to leadership roles as A&R executives, breaking through what has always been an exclusionary boys’ club
BY JEM ASWAD
Karen Kwak’s track record is nearly as long. Before being named executive VP and head of Warner Records’ A&R department last fall, she spent five years running her own A&R consulting company, working with artists ranging from Spears and Maluma to Tiësto. Prior to that, she was at Universal Music Group for a dozen years, rising to exec VP of A&R for all of the company’s U.S. labels and working with Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lopez, Big Sean, Nas and Frank Ocean.
It all started at Motown, where she was an intern for then-president Jheryl Busby and eventually ascended to VP of A&R administration. “I was writing the CD credits and proof- reading the artwork, so I was learning who the songwriters and publishers and mixers were, and before long I was doing budgets and advances, producer royalties, all of that,” she says. “Then I took an engineering class — a basic one — so that I could understand the recording process.”
The experience began to show. Later, at LaFace Records, “I’d be running mixes over to [label head] L.A. Reid and he’d say, ‘What’s the difference?’ and I’d explain, ‘Oh, the kick [drum] is up on that one,’ or whatever. And before long, they’re asking your opinion.”
All four executives are quick to credit male colleagues with mentorship and
The empowerment goes both ways. “I’m as proud of the executives I’ve helped as the artists,” Kwak says. “I gave [future Wiz Khalifa manager] Benjy Grinberg his first job in the music biz. I hired No I.D. as an executive at Def Jam, and Abou Thiam and Ray Romulus,” all three of whom have worked with Kanye West, among many others. (Those executives are all male.)
Not for nothing, Kwak says, “Managing egos? Women have to do that almost from childhood.”
Looking ahead, she continues, “There are a lot of female executives at Warner who are loud and heard, and that starts with leadership — and I’m also very proud to be in this role as an Asian woman. Music has become a lot more global, and you don’t see a lot of Asian A&Rs, men or women, let alone at the head of the department.”
38 to 1
Ratio of male to female producers across 600 popular songs
Article Credit: JEM ASWAD, Women are at last rising to leadership roles as A&R executives, breaking through what has always been an exclusionary boys’ club, Billboard