It’s been over a week now since Beyoncé dropped Lemonade, her second visual album. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past 10 days (or, rather, in some dark wifi-less corner of a library) you can read great commentary on it here, here and here, for starters. But if you exist - as I think, honestly, a fair amount of us do - in the limbo-esque space where you’re aware of what happens outside of Cambridge in a somewhat vague and fuzzy capacity, you’ll have heard about the Jay-Z cheating allegations, maybe read the non-news that Rita Ora stepped out in the same Gucci outfit that Beyonce wears in the 'Formation' video. Clearly many - even most - of the narratives generated by the references to infidelity throughout Lemonade have been centred on speculation about and scrutinisation of the rumoured other woman - even women - rather than on Jay Z or, even, on just how powerful and beyond the particular Lemonade’s narrative of betrayal, hurt and renewal is.

To markedly less media attention, Kesha also released new music - her first in three years - this week, after having first performed ‘True Colors’ at Coachella last month. This work comes with the background of the court ruling refusing to release her from her contract with Sony, and so continuing to bind her to Dr Luke, whom she accuses of sexually assaulting her from 2005 when she signed with him. Despite the significance of releasing a song with such marked personal overtones and alternative narratives - such as those that lead with the fact she recently wore a bikini on a bike - still, somehow, have seemed appropriate.

It goes without saying that the above are two completely distinct episodes and my point is not to comment on the power and importance of Lemonade or the specifics of the Kesha/Dr Luke case but, rather, to suggest that the scrutiny and media narratives that are spun around female musicians leave their art secondary to gossip or clickbait photos. This serves as a reminder of just how differently male and female artists are often treated and, ultimately, how deeply entrenched sexism continues to be in the music industry.

Much has changed in the past few years or, rather, has appeared to. Where the ‘feminist’ label was once eschewed it’s turned into a key part of self-presentation for many artists. Take Taylor Swift who has gone from avoiding questions on being a feminist by proclaiming that it’s not a 'guys versus girls' situation to embracing the label and, rightly, being loudly critical about the media slut shaming she’s been subject to. This is all well and good. It’s hardly enough, though. Moreover the appearance of change shouldn’t obscure how much has not changed; as BitchMedia’s Andi Zeisler has highlighted, rebranding as ‘feminist’ is the easy part in an industry shaped by a history of discrimination; actual change and making the industry itself a place of equal opportunity is a whole other ball game.

And if we’re honest, even a supposed appearance of change is patchy: this was the ninth year in a row that there were no female headliners at Coachella and a quick flick through Outlook's lineup for this year hardly suggests a feminist revolution, either. The top executive positions in the music business - the less immediately visible part - is more of the same : the entire top 10 of this years Billboard Power 100 list is made up of white men and women make up just nine per cent of the list as a whole. This is a problem that extends beyond the world of ‘pop’ music, too. Only four per cent of conductors at the Proms last year were women.

The discussions prompted by both Lemonade and Kesha’s court case are indicators of how far the industry has come and how women in the media industry can support each other, from the guest appearances in Lemonade to pledges of support made by female artists to Kesha. But that shouldn’t obscure how far the industry as a whole still has to go.