Jimmy Iovine: ‘Women Find It Difficult To Find Music,’ Apple Executive Faces Backlash
Apple Executive and music producer Jimmy Iovine has caught the ire of women everywhere during his appearance on CBS’ This Morning alongside Mary J Blige to promote a brand new Apple Music ad when he stated that “women find it difficult to find music.”
After being asked by CBS This Morning host Gayle Kind, “What was your thinking behind the story? What were you trying to tell?,” Iovine answered, but in amidst his response was some controversial remarks.
“Streaming is technology,” Iovine began. “What this is, is a music streaming service. What it does is sort of gives you 30 million songs, and it serves them up to you and makes it easy to find music.”
This is where Iovine, who is currently the head of Apple Music, nose-dived into his rather ridiculous remarks, as he continued, “So I always knew that women find it very difficult at times — some women — to find music. And this helps make it easier with playlist, but curated by real people. They’re not made by algorithms alone — they’re made by alogorithms but with a human touch.”
Rather incredibly, Jimmy Iovine managed to stick his foot in his mouth even further when he went on to describe the ad in even more detail.
After Mary J Blige talked about her real life friendships with both Henson and Washington, Iovine then added, “Girls are sitting around, you know, talking about boys. Or complaining about boys when they’re heartbroken or whatever. They need music for that, right? So it’s hard to find the right music. Not everyone has the right list or… knows a DJ.”
Unfortunately for Iovine most people didn’t pay attention to the numerous positives for the latest Apple ad. Instead, they focused on the fact that he’d made several rather sexists comment that implied that women found it difficult to find music on the internet.
Soon, the internet was full of people voicing their disgust at Iovine’s remarks, as well as the ad itself, and his name even began to trend on Twitter.
Nope. Jimmy Iovine explains Apple Music ads in worst way possible https://t.co/N9TsL0N8Lc
— Jim Dalrymple (@jdaIrymple) November 20, 2015
Apple Music exec Jimmy Iovine thinks women need help finding music. For real. C’mon, Jimmy. https://t.co/qGhiciYBmL via @engadget — Edgar Alvarez (@abcdedgar) November 20, 2015
Women according to Jimmy Iovine: “HELLO SIR HAVE U HEARD OF MUSIC WHERE CAN I FIND SOME” BARISTA: Ma’am this is Starbucks
— Jillian Gutowitz (@jillboard) November 20, 2015
According to Jimmy Iovine, this is what it looks like when us ladies try to find music https://t.co/Mnqhw8Hzk7 pic.twitter.com/UMFWnT8HMu — Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) November 20, 2015
Jimmy Iovine is right. Women have a hard time finding music — we assume all loud noise is either a baby or an invitation to brunch.
— Sady Doyle (@sadydoyle) November 19, 2015
Y’all, Jimmy Iovine is old and getting older. Not excusing him, just…don’t be surprised.
— Lisa Rowe (@txvoodoo) November 20, 2015
As someone who is pretty good at finding my own music, barf. https://t.co/HzZxorAjo6
— Jessica (@jessicamjensen) November 20, 2015
You can check out Jimmy Iovine and Mary J Blige’s full interview on CBS This Morning, which also features the new ad that Iovine so disastrously described and stars Mary J. Blige, Kerry Washington, and Taraji P. Henson, below.
[Image via CBS]