This combination photo shows music artists Rihanna, from left, Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift. A new survey of pop charts over the past six years finds that men overwhelmingly dominate the ranks of artists and songwriters and that 2017 represented a six-year low for female artists. University of Southern California researchers released a study that shows women comprised just 22.4 percent of artists and 12.3 percent of songwriters on the Billboard's singles charts.