Bis' Manda Rin on the Underrepresentation of Women in Music

By Lucy Gilbert

In the early nineties 14-year-old Steven Clark started making demos with his 11-year-old brother, John.  

Under the name “Black Iron Skyline,” they flogged tapes at school and opened for cover bands in the hall. Amanda MacKinnon, in the year below Steven, had bought a Black Iron Skyline tape for £2 and noticed his Blur t-shirt.  

Black Iron Skyline became bis (stylised in lower case) when Amanda joined. She could play keyboard from memory as taught by her dad and had a passion for art, inspired by zine culture, she would create all the artwork for the band.  

Their sound came together with guitars, drum machines and riot grrrl inspired vocals.  

While the band were playing around Glasgow in places like The 13th Note, Steven worked at Merchant City Music.  

Amanda MacKinnon, Steven Clark and John Clark in bis. Credit: GettyImages/ Martyn Goodacre

Amanda bought herself a bass guitar to start contributing more musically to the band. She said: “I was just like going up and down the frets and that’s what made the bassline for Kill Yr Boyfriend, even though I can’t write songs or play any instruments.” In the same way, messing with the octaves on her keyboard helped create School Disco: “Me playing that and Steven being like that’s really good, it’s a thing that spurred two really important songs.”   

Later, in 1996, they had a support slot for the Super Furry Animals playing around the UK.  

Sat in a van, somewhere on an English motorway, Ric Blaxill invited them to play Top Of The Pops. Now they were in front of more than just Glaswegian zine kids.  

In an interview with James McMahon, Steven himself said that you shouldn’t expect an easy ride from the press, but bis were completely knocked down before they were even built up. They were still only teenagers. Not only were bis as a group insulted by British press, even having a death threat published, but Manda, a 17-year-old girl, was often targeted. 

The experiences of bis are just a small snapshot of underrepresentation and misogyny within the music industry. 

The 2001 Report All Rock and Roll Is Homosocial: The Representation of Women in the British Rock Music Press touches on these issues. 

At Melody Maker, who often write about bis in the mid-90s, men outnumbered women two to one.  

Often these men would criticise women based on appearance and other personal attributes as opposed to their music. An example given within the report is “in one singles review page of MM, the only women referred to or reviewed were described as, respectively, 'slappers', a 'hippy cow' and an 'old sow', whilst criticism of male artists was confined to their music (MM, 20 February 1999).” 

In a review of Bikini Kill and bis at The Garage in London from Melody Maker (April 1996), Mark Luffman wrote, “she [Kathleen Hanna] makes the little dumpling from bis look like Jodie Kidd.” This is disgusting in itself, but worse is the fact that these are words are written about a 19-year-old girl. This goes to show how a woman’s perceived sexual appeal is valued over her talent, even at such a young age.   

Manda Rin performing with bis in 2000. Credit: GettyImages/ Martyn Goodacre

More recently, in the 2022 UK Government report on misogyny in music, the same point is raised, “women are routinely judged on what they look like before their ability, and lose out on work due to being deemed by people in gatekeeper roles as ‘not attractive enough’ or not having ‘the right body type’.”

Maybe Melody Maker folded, maybe the music mags aren’t the dictators, but women are still judged in the same way. 

Otherwise, women are still underrepresented. At major UK festivals in 2022, women were outnumbered to men, 3-to-1. Only 187 women were credited as producers or engineers on the top 50 streamed tracks compared to 3,781 men.   

Women are often discredited or compared to their male peers. From All Rock and Roll is Homosocial: “In order to be viewed as credible, a performer's music must also be viewed as intelligent and serious. The association of masculinity with the cerebral and femininity with the physical perhaps explains women's exclusion from credibility on these grounds.”

With the lack of representation in all areas of music, women find it harder to be accepted. Potentially having to change themselves or play as “one of the lads” to find success in an industry still referred to as a “boys club”. 

This view of seriousness and masculinity being inherently better contributed to the negative view of bis’ twee pop in the media. 

Manda Rin performing at The Forum in London in 2017. Credit: GettyImages/ Lorne Thomson

A quote that stayed in mind from speaking to Amanda, who goes by the stage name Manda Rin was: “I wish I could say things have changed”, giving a personal angle to the statistics that show underrepresentation and misogyny are still as prevalent in 2025 as they were in 1995. 

Bis formed in the middle of 90s “lad culture” when the coolest things in pop culture aligned with sportswear, drinking and Loaded Magazine.  

This era produced bands like Oasis and is often associated with Britpop as a whole. Amanda said: “That’s what everything was and that made it even harder because I was the only female in the band.” Manda explained: “It's a rarity to be that female in a band and still is.” 

When playing festivals with bis, Manda was almost always only girl on the lineup, something that is still a massive issue at festivals. 73% of acts playing Reading and Leeds in 2022 were male. 26 years after bis first played Reading. 

This underrepresentation is also prevalent in the people surrounding the bands. Manda said: “Again, it was rarer to get female interviewers for magazines.” In 2011, 11 of NME’s 22 editors, directors, designers, researchers and PAs were female. 

Despite bis’ formation happening 30 years ago and underrepresentation carrying on to the 21st century, there are solutions. 

Riot grrrl was a massive part of bis’ formation. Manda said: “It’s not too professional, which scares people like me off because I’m not one of those sorts of people. I can’t play any instrument well.”  

LA Riot Grrrl convention 1995. Credit: GettyImages/ Lindsay Brice

Bands like Huggy Bear and Bikini Kill dismantled the mainstream credibility concept, that success is tied to appearance, they didn’t look like your typical band. Amanda said: “to see them on stage is kind of jaw dropping.” 

These bands showed what success can look like, and that it can fall outside of perceived seriousness or masculinity, pushing girls to form bands of their own, other bands used their platforms to better representation. 

Bis signed to Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal. Giving them connections to Capitol and a larger audience. People like Mike D who give this chance to smaller and unconventional bands work as a force against underrepresentation.  

The more support bands like bis receive from bands as respected and large as Beastie Boys, the more people see these bands and the more girls who see themselves in Manda and pick up a keyboard or a microphone, the more they start their own force against underrepresentation.