This is the story of women as creators and innovators, aiming to provide a history of women in rock, pop and soul - on stage, on camera and working behind the scenes in a male-dominated industry.
Popular music grew out of ragtime, vaudeville and the blues, to become global mass entertainment. Women like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were the original pop divas, yet 80 years after they blazed a trail, have their successors achieved the recognition and affirmation they deserve? Or has the only way to success been to slot into saleable images of the cute babe or sexy chanteuse?
Above (left to right): The young Supremes on Ready Steady Go! London
1964, Debbie Harry at Isleworth Video Studios, early 1980s and Madonna on her 2001
Drowned World Tour
This text refuses to look at women artists simply as personalities, problems or victims. From dream babes to rock chicks,
this is the uncompromising story of women as
creators and innovators. It provides a
history of women in rock, pop and soul - on
stage, on camera and working behind the scenes
in a male-dominated industry.
This edition contains an extra chapter and
interviews covering trends such as Girlpower.