POP MUSIC : Women: Enjoying the Spin They’re In?

Shelly Heber reached a career crossroads 11 years ago.

From a look at the resume of the then eight-year veteran of the record business, you’d have thought she was making nice progress: a brief stint as charts editor at Billboard magazine before handling the pop promotion department at 20th Century Fox Records and then serving as the label’s director of marketing.

But in mid-1976, Heber was so disenchanted by unequal pay and what she felt was a lack of respect accorded her as a woman that she quit 20th Century. She thought she could move ahead faster on her own--and she did.

Well-placed friends helped her land independent marketing projects on albums by Elton John and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Then Heber approached Leanne Meyers, another 20th Century and Billboard alumna, about starting their own company.

Today, Image Consultants is a thriving organization with 21 full-time employees and three offshoots: Vision Management (which handles Dave Alvin & the Allnighters and vocalist Marilyn Scott), the Vis-Ability video marketing company and the On-Site tour hospitality company.

Such high-powered clients as Peter Gabriel, U2, John Cougar Mellencamp, Michael Jackson, Whitesnake, George Harrison and Bryan Ferry dot the Image Consultants roster. But Heber remembers the touch-and-go early days when she and Meyers “had nothing other than a basic belief in each other’s ability. . . . And frustration.

“Neither one of us were arch-feminists, but it became real apparent from the structure of the business in 1977. . . . I had had two positions ostensibly of power and they should have been rewarded commensurately and they weren’t. My power was always thwarted and it was maddening.

“I got very sick of being told, ‘You’re so cute when you’re angry.’ After I left 20th (which is no longer in business), a man took my place making twice as much as I did and the excuse was, ‘Well, he’s got four children.’ ”

Are the frustrations that led to Heber’s and Meyers’ bailing out of the corporate system still there? Or is the music industry finally on its way to becoming gender-blind?

Heber thinks the problems still persist. “It’s difficult to assess, but the feedback I get from women still within traditional corporate structures is that not much has changed,” she said recently. “There are more women’s faces in the business but that isn’t commensurate with power. There has been some growth but it’s not dramatically different in a real sense.”

In a Times survey of more than 35 women who work at various levels of the record industry, there were some women who agreed with Heber. But most seemed torn. Problems were almost always laid at the doorstep of general corporate policy in America rather than the music business in particular.

But the complaints were usually expressed in whispers--this is a highly individualistic industry where a “bad attitude” can be costly at promotion time.

A number of women were outspoken about sexism--as long as they were off the record. Most stressed that the only way to deal with the problem was to ignore it and find ways to work around it.

The real story of women in the industry is one of individual successes and differing viewpoints rather than group movements and broad consensus--unlike the highly publicized 1987 campaign to increase black participation in the music business.

The test of the industry’s willingness to change will come in the next 5 to 10 years, when women who have made it into middle-management positions look to take the next step--advancement to the virtually all-male vice-presidential level where company policy is formulated.

At this point, however, women are still underrepresented in record industry executive suites.

One area of agreement: Any “token” promotion in areas where women have not previously exerted a strong presence could lead to resentment among their co-workers.

“What we have is a Jackie Robinson situation,” said Joe Smith, president of Capitol Industries-EMI Inc. “You’ve got to find a woman who is so clearly qualified in those areas . . . and that’s difficult because there have been so few women allowed to work in those areas.

“If I just brought a woman in from the outside as the new head of promotion, say, she would fail because everyone would want her to fail. She wouldn’t have the experience. . . . This is still very much a white, male-dominated industry.”

The chief exception is publicity--but working in the area sometimes sarcastically referred to as “the ladies department” usually translates to lower pay and diminished influence on company policy.

“Publicity is an area dominated by women and that means it doesn’t pay as well,” said Diana Baron, national director of publicity for A&M; Records. “Even men in the field are paid less because it’s generally perceived as a women’s department. I don’t think it’s intentional--it’s acculturated. . . .

“It’s not an invisible problem, but (record company executives) are choosing not to see it. I know of several instances in the industry where men with less tenure and less responsibility are paid 30% more (than a woman holding the same position).”

One method of escaping those problems is to follow the lead of Heber and Meyers.

Stepping outside the regular industry structure enabled Monica Lynch, president of New York’s R&B;/dance label Tommy Boy, and Lisa Fancher, president of local independent label Frontier Records, to call their own shots.

A measure of the dissatisfaction within the industry is the way women flock to new, wide-open areas that may develop. Take video, the key new field of the ‘80s.

“At least 50% of the people I deal with in the video industry are women,” said Jo Bergman, vice president of video for Warner Bros. Records. “In the related industries you’ll find more women with their own companies (than in other parts of the industry).”

Jessica Falcon, director of talent relations for VH-1, came to the cable TV music channel after working in-- yes --publicity at Epic Records.

“I wanted to move out of publicity and I just saw very limited opportunities,” she said. “It’s still an old-boy network. Here, there are women vice presidents and directors in every department. I found it more desirable to work in an industry where women can be--and are being--promoted.”

Everybody’s goal may not be vice president, but for many that position is a tangible symbol of recognition and the logical payoff for success in their field. “Being a vice president,” said Karin Berg, East Coast director of A&R; for Warner Bros., “is a bit like (a professor) getting tenure at a university.”

The appointment of several women vice presidents within the past year--the latest is Sylvia Rhone, elevated to senior vice president at Atlantic Records--indicates the barrier is crumbling to some extent. But tales of promised promotions that never materialize are still prevalent. Even those who have reached the vice-presidential plateau followed widely divergent paths.

Audrey Strahl, vice president of publicity for Virgin Records, began her career in publishing before moving into the music industry at Sire Records eight years ago. She zigzagged through several publicity jobs in New York before leaving A&M; when Virgin began operations two years ago.

The last move enabled Strahl to reach her prime objective: becoming part of a label’s policy-making team. She cited the comparative youth of the record industry as another element in blocking promotions.

“Most record companies are celebrating their 25th or 30th anniversary,” she observed. “You have a lot of executives just turning 45, 50--they’re young, vital and have a lot of years ahead of them.

“If you have these people who are nowhere near retirement age and still doing their jobs, that creates a ceiling. How can a woman come in and displace them when they aren’t ready to go?”

Conversely, Judy Libow stayed put at Atlantic and moved up through the ranks to become vice president of promotion--the department virtually everyone points to as a male bastion.

“When I first got into the business, people said it’s a man’s business, so don’t get your hopes up,” said Libow. “I just went about my business and it seemed like every two years I was given another title and changes in my responsibilities.

“I do believe that, to a degree, you can create the opportunities and the rest will fall into line. I don’t think the barriers are so steadfast and solid that you can’t go beyond them.”

The New York native worked in college radio before getting a secretarial job in the promotion department at Atlantic. She became the label’s college promotion head in time to work the first Foreigner album and later moved into AOR (album-oriented rock) promotion. Libow’s success has made her a role model by default.

“I had to break the ground myself, to a degree,” she said. “I’ve gotten calls and run into other women who look to you for answers and you don’t have the answers. You just tell them to work hard, be yourself, do the best you can and hopefully someone will notice.”

Attracting attention is easier said than done. For women in the music industry, the road to the vice president’s office almost always starts behind the secretary’s desk.

“Most of the people in the industry are women but they’re all secretaries,” said Warner Bros.’ Berg. “The crux of sexism really exists in giving orders and I don’t think anybody’s mind is really going to change until women are not seen as the servants.”

A related problem is fighting through the “once a secretary, always a secretary,” perception that may keep women from using that desk as a springboard.

“It was a real hard time for me to get out of the secretary mode,” acknowledged Sue DeBenedette, A&M;’s Southwest promotion manager. “When I was at PolyGram, a local promotion job opened up in New York and I literally had to promote everybody in that company to get the job.

“I sent Mailgrams to the senior VP of promotion, the president, the branch manager. I sent telegrams from Queen Elizabeth and Ed Koch. I had to do the biggest tap dance of my life and it worked.”

Sheila Eldridge, who founded Orchid Public Relations in Los Angeles and now runs it from the company’s New York office, cited the “boys’ club” as the reason those “tap dances” are necessary.

“There are maybe seven to 10 guys who stay in the top positions in the record industry,” said Eldridge. “If they’re making the decisions and you’re not in the club, how do you get in and maneuver?”

After working for Casablanca and Elektra, Eldridge founded Orchid in 1979 to do publicity for fusion and R&B; artists. She recently branched out to land corporate accounts with Coca-Cola and Coors.

“In corporate America there are criteria on how you can get where you want to go, but there’s none of that in the music industry,” she said. “It’s very much like being an intra-entrepreneur there because you are only as successful as you sell and make yourself.”

Eldridge’s decision to start a family two years ago caused some consternation among her music business friends.

“When I had my son, everybody went, ‘Sheila, you’re a career woman, the business, how you gonna do this?’ ” she recalled. “I had Larry Blackmon of Cameo come up to me, ‘I think you’re crazy. Why are you doing this, Sheila?’ ”

“I was (thinking), ‘I have a personal life, too. Your wife just had a child six months ago, didn’t she?’ ”

The raised eyebrows Eldridge encountered during her pregnancy aren’t an uncommon reaction.

Said Debi Lipetz-Holman, Seattle regional promotion manager for Epic and former head of disco promotion for Columbia: “I was the first woman in the department to have a kid. I felt a little odd about it, and so did other people.

“When I was cranky, I assumed people would think it was my hormones--and a few people did pull that on me. When I was home on maternity leave, my old boss thought that I could work on the phones, as long as I was home with the kid anyway.”

Did Lipetz-Holman find the smaller Northwest market less receptive to women than a music-industry center like Los Angeles?

“Absolutely not,” she replied. “There was one woman who was up here before me who set the tone of what a woman in promotion does. To this day, the best people who do promotion up here are the women, so we’re really treated with a lot of respect.”

What about the future?

Most of those interviewed felt--or at least hoped--that the signs pointed to a gradual withering away of barriers to women. One factor is simply a change in the music industry itself from the party-hearty days of yore to a more rigorous, bottom-line orientation.

“Smart companies are going to have to make their decisions on the best qualified person because business is business,” said Susan Clary, West Coast director of publicity for EMI. “If a woman is the best person, you’re just going to have to give her the job or it’s a bad business decision.”

But the single most important factor is generational. Men entering the industry now are accustomed to working with women in decision-making positions. And the women who have recently entered the work force are confident they can overcome any obstacle they encounter in the long run.

“Sure, there’s still a good-old-boys network but, for me, it’s always been more ‘the kid’ than ‘the girl kid,’ ” said Nan Fisher, 26, MCA’s director of alternative promotion. “You stick with your own and try to infiltrate slowly.

“There’s a whole generation of promotion people around my age coming up and doing alternative, AOR or moving into other facets. In another 5 or 10 years, we’re going to be calling the shots.”