I'm trying to imagine a day without women in an industry that relies heavily on female creators and consumers and yet has spent so much of its history shoving them to the side, belittling them or pretending they don't quite exist. It's difficult and not so difficult at the same time. In other breaking news... Why we need female critics... The long history of overlooking women in music... The current state of female troubadours... Women who elevated hip-hop in 2016... A question you need never ask a woman in a band. Ever. For any reason. And not just because the CLAVIN sisters of BLEACHED say so. Because it's a silly and offensive question... How to change male-dominated studio culture. Step one: Listen to the advice of these 13 women, including WONDAGURL, CAROLINE POLACHEK and HOLLY HERNDON... The long tendrils of RIOT GRRL... This is an ad campaign (hi, SMIRNOFF), but if the goal is to double the number of women headliners in electronic music, I'm down with linking to some paid partner content from VICE... Cool new video series: The promising REHEARSAL SPACE debuts with a live performance by SONIC YOUTH's LEE RANALDO and a great interview about his process... The third episode of DUST's animated AFROFUTURISM series goes to outer space with GEORGE CLINTON... The NY TIMES continues its impressive leap into live music video with a NONAME performance and interview session... Good deeds: SXSW apologizes for the controversial language about non-US bands in its artist contract, vows to change the language next year and makes clear that "It is not SXSW’s duty or authority to escalate a matter beyond local authorities"... COMPLEX rises to CHANCE THE RAPPER's challenge to not only report on his $1 million pledge to CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS but to explain why it was needed... THUMP is tracking club closures across the US for the next year, and asking readers for help.