How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music

by NPR Music, Alison Fensterstock (Editor)

Drawn from NPR Music’s acclaimed, groundbreaking series Turning the Tables, the definitive book on the vital role of Women in Music—from Beyoncé to Odetta, Taylor Swift to Joan Baez, Joan Jett to Dolly Parton—featuring archival interviews, essays, photographs, and illustrations.

Turning the Tables, launched in 2017, has revolutionized recognition of female artists, whether it be in best album lists or in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

How Women Made A Revolutionary History from NPR Music brings this impressive history and fascinating reshaping to the page and includes material draws from more than fifty years of NPR’s coverage of great musical heroes and intriguing creators.

This book is a must-have for music fans, songwriters, feminist historians, and those interested in how artists think and work,  

• Joan Baez talking about nonviolence as a musical principle in 1971

•  Dolly Parton’s favorite song and the story behind it 

•  Patti Smith describing art as her “jealous mistress” in 1974

• Nina Simone, in 2001, explaining how she developed the edge in her voice as a tool against racism.

• Taylor Swift talking about when she had no idea if her musical career might work

• Odetta on how shifting from classical music to folk allowed her to express her fury over Jim Crow

This incomparable hardcover volume is a vital record of history destined to become a classic and a great gift for any music fan or creative thinker.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Essays, Audiobook, Biography

1 pages, Audio CD

Published October 1, 2024

Reviews

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘You gotta fight and fight and fight for your legacy’
—MC Sha-Rock

‘They usually shoot the innovator,’ musician and artist Joni Mitchell quips in an interview with NPR. While reading a book on Van Gogh, she found herself relating to his frustration, noting that in the world of painters ‘innovation and originality has always been a criteria,’ but in the commercial music industry ‘copycat-ism is rewarded.’ Heralding generations of women who dared to be innovators of sound is How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR. This well designed coffee-table-esque hardcover full of interviews, photos, essays and more arrives in print as an extension to NPR’s Turning the Tables series which has been working towards greater recognition of women artists since it was created in 2017. Spanning 5 decades of NPR’s coverage on women, trans women, and nonbinary influential artists, this is a treasure trove of insights, first-hand accounts, and heartfelt examination of the music that dared to be itself in a world of copycats and patriarchal barriers. It covers such an eclectic variety of musicians, from the ones you’d expect to find here to many I was previously unfamiliar with and have been building an massive playlist of songs to hear and artists to investigate. It’s like the coolest compilation album but in essay and interview format while still pushing you off to spin the records. ‘This book inaugurates a new phase in our ongoing mission of infusing canon-making with life,’ writes NPR’s Ann Powers in the introduction, ‘and…imagining music history as a huge continuing conversation rather than as something solid, like a monument.’ Edited by Alison Fensterstock, How Women Made Music is a wonderful read just overflowing with great songs and information. You’ll want to spend plenty of time with it.

‘I see a connection between all the arts, a song, a poem, a sculpture…it just uplights your spirit. I think that’s the best of art, it does that—its an affirmation of your life in your spirit. It’s just real.’
—Laura Nyro

Structured like a mix-tape, this book aims for ‘more space, more voices, more stories,’ and certainly achieves that. We have Nina Simone discussing how she ‘has an edge,’, Tori Amos describing her love for pianos stemming from a belief ‘its very much a warm, living breathing woman to me, it’s very female. She’s my best friend,’ Lucinda Williams on her influences in the writings of Flannery O’Connor and Eudora Welty, Mavis Staples on music as activism where ‘if it’s something bad, we want to sing a song to try to fix it,’ Kate Bush on music and voice as ‘a continual experiment,’ Rickie Lee Jones talking about song interpretation, Sheryl Crow on sharing your story, Etta James on wanting to sing ‘real stuff,’ and so much more. It’s a really wonderful book. It is, perhaps almost too much and even with its loose structure sometimes feels like jumping from place to place, but all in all it is a great read.

‘I was playing with convention and sexuality and trying to see what the boundaries were. I was kind of trying to work it our in my own head, but trying to understand why men and women were perceived differently and treated differently.’
—Madonna

The book also takes a look at the barriers faced by women and trans artists in the industry. Gender discrimination, misogyny and racism comes up often and many artists discuss how it is a very hostile industry to women that takes a huge toll on mental health. There is also a lot or ageism and underrepresentation that makes many feel alone, particularly when the actions of women artists tend to be judge far more harshly than men. And while ‘disability visibility within the music world continues to increase,’ there are still a lot of set-backs and women tend to be judged far more for their appearance and health than the men in music. Lady Gaga, for instance, discusses how people refused to believe her that fibromyalgia was real,’ and Lizzo has a short piece on body shaming that happens to women in the industry.

‘We’re trying our best so the pipeline needs to be developed. This starts way back with the record companies, radio. I can shout as loud as I like but we need to get everyone on board.’
—Emily Eavis

Objectification and sexual harassment makes for a large barrier as well with a 2021 study showing 64% of women in creative fields report sexual harassment as a major problem for their work. How Women Made Music does a great job of highlighting these issues to help push for better efforts in accessibility and equity in the music industry.

A cool book with a lot of information How Women Made Music is a music lovers dream of a coffee table book. I’ve found this to be quite fascinating and is certainly a book I’ll turn to again and again.

4/5

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

As read on audio: A whirlwind world tour of women in music across decades and genres, in the form of compiled excerpts from published articles, reviews, and artist interviews organized not at all chronologically, but rather in loose themes. Most of these bits are read by narrators, occasionally you will get to hear the actual audio clip of the artist speaking, and very rarely you get to hear a bit of the music as well, but not often, so have your Spotify or whatnot handy. A book like this cannot help but be somewhat great if you already have an interest in the topic. However, the rock, paper, scissors of the tradeoff here is, of necessity, that scope and breadth will beat depth. If there are artists you already love or want to know more about, chances are they are featured here, but (on audio) many of the included excerpts run only around a minute long, or even shorter, or not much longer. It is a parsimonious sampler and an Aladdin’s cave of riches simultaneously, which left me with a bit of whiplash. At a certain point, I felt like the overwhelmed poorer product in a paper towel commercial that simply could absorb no more. This is pretty much all my fault for reading it on a deadline and on audio. Perhaps counterintuitively for a book about music and by NPR, my suggestion would be NOT to listen to it, as clearly this is meant to be one of those books kept concretely at hand so that you and others may dip into it for edifying boosts of inspiration over time. I imagine this would make a fantastic gift.

[Craig Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of an ongoing communal project (Turning the Tables) carried out by women who have been involved in making, writing about, and living with music, How Women Made Music is a joyous celebration of performers, songs, and albums that remain undervalued in salient ways. (See for example the still-starkly inadequate presence of women in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.) Formally, How Women Made Music strikes me as much as a "mix tape" as a traditional anthology. It includes short reviews originally published as part of NPR's 2017 celebration of the "150 Greatest Albums by Women"; appreciations of a scattering of the songs on the 2018 list of "200 Greatest Songs by 21st-Century Women"; excerpts from interviews and statements by musicians; and, most importantly, a dozen or so long essays in which writers explore their responses to and relationships with the tradition's ancestors (Bessie Smith, Mahalia Jackson, Rosetta Tharpe, Big Mama Thornton, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Maybelle Carter, Celia Cruz, Janis Joplin), elders (Roberta Flack, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Debbie Harry, the Pretenders) kind of elders (Ani DiFranco, the Indigo Girls, Kate Bush, Gillian Welch, Tracy Chapman) and a sampling of the women moving the music down paths we can only start to imagine (Rhiannon Giddins, Beyonce, Lorde, Beyonce, Gaga, St. Vincent, Meg White, Janelle Monae, Rihanna, Mia X, Robyn).

Clearly, this is a mix that can and should and I hope will evolve along with the music. (I'm not digital savvy, but I'm guessing some of that's out there in some form now; the point being that the book knows it's not definitive. What it is is a energetic, engaged sets of calls and responses that model what that's all about: artists responding to their changing worlds with calls that elicit responses that become calls, as in the personal essays. There'll be places where every reader will have different understandings and responses and that's just fine. I've found myself sending friends links to albums and artists I hadn't known about--the Detroit Cobras, the marvelous Brazilian singer Gal Costa, and Rickie Lee Jones' fantastic 2012 album The Devil You Know which I somehow missed but has basically established itself as the frontrunner for my "Album of 2024).

And that's the center of it. Like Dave Marsh's The Heart of Rock and Soul and Ann Powers' recent response to Joni Mitchell--Powers contributes a incisive introduction and a couple of evocative essays to How Women Made Music--this book is pretty much guaranteed to take you deeper into music you already love and outward into regions you likely haven't discovered, among them the sonic explorations of Diamanda Galas (Wild Women with Steak Knives), Suzanne Ciani, and jazz visionary Terri Lynn Carrington.

[Stephanie ✨]

Mini Audiobook Review: **I do not rate Non Fiction books**

I first saw this book one night while working at the library and thought it would be a fun one to dive into. Anyone who knows me on a personal level, knows my love for pop culture and music runs deep. So I knew I would enjoy this.

I did read this book primarily via audio but I did check the book out from the library just to see how it was formatted compared to the audio. The audiobook was narrated by a handful of narrators: Alison Fensterstock, Ann Powers, Janina Edwards, Hillary Huber, Maggi-Meg Reed, Chanté McCormick, Inés del Castillo. What made this really neat was that the audiobook has the actual sound recordings of the artist which matches the interviews in the book.

What made this really neat is that it focused on women musicians of ALL genres. And if you are dreading to learn or read about X artist, don't worry, each tidbit on the musicians are in small dosage and then they move on to the next. I think they did a wonderful job covering all the different female musicians from the early 1900s to current artists.

If you love music, this is one to have on your shelf and its just full of knowledge on these female artists.

[Mallory Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars 🎧 this anthology of essays was enjoyable but lost me at parts - I think I would’ve enjoyed depth over breadth but I see why they did it this way. Loved hearing audio of some interviews and songs in here and definitely picked up some new artists to check out along the way.

[Alinafe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this! All of the different excerpts from these women in music history speak to the ever lasting legacies. I want even more.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars if you use the accompanying online playlist.

[Lauren Glowacky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book, mainly because of the perspective it was written. I wanted to learn about the women, did not need to know their sexual proclivities. Who cares. It seemed liked all the writers were angry, gay women. Not relatable at all.

[Keely · Rating 5 out of 5]

How Women Made Music offers a wide-reaching examination of the women who've shaped the rock and pop music era, starting with early pioneers like Bessie Smith and Willie Mae Thornton, and continuing through the twentieth century and into the 21st to consider the women performers currently making music, from Beyonce to boygenius. The exploration doesn't proceed chronologically. Instead, the essays on watershed albums and interviews with artists are organized by theme, so you get different eras and styles all woven together.

Great read! I absolutely love reading about pop music, because it seems to be one of the few topics writers still have permission to wax poetic about. You get a lot of that evocative mode of writing in How Women Made Music as contributors vividly describe favorite songs and albums and pay tribute to the artists they love. A few particular highlights for me were novelist Kelly Link's essay about discovering the Silly Sisters while studying abroad in Scotland in the 1980s, and Joni Tevis's reflection on listening to Gillian Welch while working as a park ranger in Oregon in the early 2000s. I also appreciate how thoughtful this collection and its contributors are about the project of canon-making. Sure, they are pushing back against a patriarchal pop-music canon which has traditionally considered women and their music less important than that of men. But even as they suggest a new women-centered canon, they recognize the inherently exclusionary nature of the project, and therefore, explicitly call for constant revision, evolution, and reconsideration of what we consider to be "great." That kind of awareness is appealing.

One other note: If you're at all interested in How Women Made Music, you should absolutely listen to it on audiobook. I started to read it in print but ended up switching to audio, and that turned out to be a very happy accident, because the audiobook is immersive. You get a cast of narrators, music snippets, and best of all, actual NPR interview clips of the artists talking about their work. These interview clips date from the 1970s to the 2020s, and it adds so much to hear the musicians in their own words.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely need to get my hands on a physical copy of this; I imagine it’s a pretty cool coffee table book with photos and such. As it was, I really enjoyed the audiobook. Because it’s a companion to NPR’s Turning the Tables project, a lot of the archival interviews aren’t just read by the various narrators but have the actual audio footage from the original interviews.

While no single volume on women in music could possibly be all-encompassing, How Women Made Music features a huge array of musicians across decades and genres. Nina Simone, Madonna, Indigo Girls, Maybelle Carter, Taylor Swift, Tracy Chapman, Gillian Welch, Celia Cruz, Meg White, SOPHIE, Diana Ross, Fiona Apple, Beyonce… the list feels nearly endless and the book features personal essays, album reviews, cultural criticism, and more. Some of the pieces are short, only a minute or two in audiobook format, while others are longer and more in-depth.

It’s a good introduction to the artists I didn’t already know (and NPR’s companion playlist served as a good addition), and a great love letter to the ones I already listen to. Overall a solid and well-created collection.

[Bill Sleeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent history and celebration of women artists in popular music. It would be easy to quibble about why this artist or that artist wasn't included (Pat Benatar, Karla DeVito) but that is more of personal taste than anything else as the artist that are included are extraordinary and the editor - Alison Fensterstock - has lined up enough writers/fans to make the case for each performer in this nearly comprehensive list. I say "nearly" because I have to raise more than just a quibble and note that the wholesale absence of Wanda Jackson is a gaping hole in the narrative, particularly in the section devoted to "shredders." Jackson was more than just the female Elvis, by being the first - and for a long time - the only woman playing Rockabilly she created the opening for female guitar heroines like Joan Jett, Susan Tedeschi and Samantha Fish to take centerstage WITH a guitar. Give a listen to the amped up genius of Jackson's "Fujiyama Mama" (yes, the lyrics are dated...beside the point) and you will be asking the same question I am....How could she not have been included in any history that ostensibly focuses on how women made and make popular music.

Overall, an excellent work. Read it for the history that is presented and for the way that individual authors and artists cut through the crap that surrounds women in rock (Jann Wenner anyone???) and instead focuses your attention on where it should be - their work.

[Nancy]

I thought the book would be interesting to read. I have mixed feelings about it, mostly because of my great ignorance--I haven't listened to what going on in the last forty or so years!
The long chapters on classic singers like Bessie Smith and Willie Mae Thornton were interesting, and I searched online to hear the songs mentioned in the text.I enjoyed the chapter on The Legacy of Marian Anderson's Fur Coat. I knew the singer songwriters of my younger years, like Joan Baez and Judy Collins.
But then I just turned pages because I had never heard the music or knew the musicians, and it was way too much to go online and listen to them all.
So, not really my thing.

For the rest of you more with it readers, the book is a montage of essays and interviews and quotations centered around themes:
Tradition Bearers and Breakers
Warriors
Teenage Kicks
Listen to Your Body
Live
Scream Queens
Shredders
Shape-Shifters
Storytellers
Empaths
Sweet Inspiration

In the back material they share The 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women and The 200 Greatest Songs by 21st c Women.

[Ruth Werwai · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a unique, interesting and educational reading (listening) experience!

I decided to read this after several things happened:

- I watched the Bob Dylan movie and did not know who Joan Baez was
- I googled a list of the 100 best guitar players of all time (at the request of my 8 year old) and found exactly one woman there
- This then (naturally) prompted him to ask why more women don’t play guitar 😒

This took me three months to read but only because I had to pause and listen to all the albums & songs mentioned. It would have been even better if there were more international artists included but then again it’s NPR so that’s to be expected. All in all I learned so much and 10/10 would recommend 🎧✨

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommend listening on audio as you can hear some of the artists speak about their own work!

This is a wonderful overview/tasting menu of women’s impact on music. I loved how many different genres of music, nationalities and time periods were represented. Some essays allowed me to find new music while others perfectly articulated why I love an artist I love. Highly recommend for anyone interested in music, or music journalism.

[Jessica G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick history of women in music across decades, cultures, and genres. Consisting of excerpts from articles, reviews, and artist interviews this collection of NPR’s Turning the Tables offers a lot of new knowledge. I have been introduced to new (to me) music and re-acquainted with some past favorites. If you love music or history then this is the book for you.

[Shayna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the variety of artists and information that was of varying lengths which made it easy to get through. I read most on audio which was great to hear many of the artists speak but the hardcover book is beautiful and also a great reading experience

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 A fantastic collection of essays and information on female musicians from every genre and era. It took me over a month to work my way through the book because I wanted to listen to all the music it was talking about. I learned so much and found some new favorite artists. My only caveat was I didn't love the way the book was organized.

[sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

So fun and informative. Been revisiting Bessie Smith and Chaka Khan since my reading and can’t get enough.

[Jane Giardino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting short readings and audio clips of women artists ( I listened to the audiobook) The readers were… OK. It varied. Whenever there was an audio clip….. I longed for more.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed this today. I've filled my day with as many talented and wonderful women in entertainment as I can.

[Stu · Rating 5 out of 5]

have your phone at the ready as you listen to the tunes you are reading about…

[George Bradford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sister Rosetta Tharpe did not merely invent Rock and Roll. She gave birth to it. And then raised it. All with a snarling attitude and relentless determination most boys can barely imitate (and none can match).

This is true of all of the women in this book. As songwriters, singers, musicians, composers, engineers, producers and performers these women have made, created, birthed, nurtured and raised the greatest Music in human history.

I was disappointed some of my personal favorites were overlooked. Perhaps Angela Strehli, Lou Ann Barton, Marcia Ball, L7, Neko Case, Linh Le, The Donnas, Thao Nguyen, Aimee Mann, Kelly Hogan, BettySoo and The Linda Lindas will be featured in Volume 2.

But, disappointments aside, this is a very good and very important book.

[hannahs quirky moments · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I appreciated discovering new artists and songs that were unfamiliar to me, I must admit that this book did not meet my expectations. I value the insights into how women have influenced and transformed our society, but I found the narrative to be somewhat one-dimensional. It seems to suggest that everyone in the music industry shared the same viewpoints, which I don't believe is accurate. I am open to understanding diverse perspectives and how they have shaped musical expression. However, my concern lies in the lack of representation of artists with differing beliefs, particularly those who might lean more conservative, which this book appears to overlook.

[Monica Mullins · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I learned a lot and really enjoyed the content, I think the producers of the audiobook really missed an opportunity by not including music embedded within the essays. I wanted to hear what the writers were talking about in real time with their narrative.

[Alexander Thee Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting moments but I wish it had any narrative whatsoever. Its basically just a bunch of articles printed one after the other with no connecting passages or themes.

[Kristin]

DNF

Not enough info about each artist and seemed very randomly organized. Not chronological.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

wish it had been more chronological tbh

[Susan Scribner · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Although this book includes lists of the 150 greatest albums made by women and the 200 greatest songs by 21st century women, it is definitely not one of those rigid Billboard-style countdowns that inevitably invites arguments about why your favorite song is #36 when it obviously should be in the top twenty. Instead, its chapters are arranged thematically, each one touching on issues of race, sexual orientation, and class. Dozens of women who contributed to NPR's Turning the Tables series offer a mix of brief essays about the songs and longer think pieces on the impact of the music on their lives. Excerpts from archival NPR interviews with the artists are scattered throughout. The women who are profiled include superstars (Whitney Houston, Taylor Smith) and lesser known performers (Germfree Adolescents, Suzanne Ciani, Gal Costa). While nearly all of the women were challenged by the white male-dominated music industry, the focus is not on barriers but on the remarkable, enduring music they produced.

The book may be a little overwhelming to digest in one sitting; its richness is best savored slowly. I have a list of new-to-me women performers to explore, so I'm not even going to complain that The Bangles' masterpiece album All Over the Place should have been ranked much higher than #139.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

<5Can we genuinely imagine a world in which a phrase like “women in music” would earn only blank stares? If that day comes, humanity will move in different ways; melodies and rhythms and vocal tones and fuzzed-out electronics may hit our ears differently, adding up to stories we can only half-imagine now. I actually think this is happening, right now. I still believe in the value of history, though—in the voices that echo forward from the past, and in those current and future artists who call back to those forebears; and in the one long song that is human experience, full of dissonance and breaks, bursts of cacophony and rhapsodic harmonies, crescendos that threaten to break the eardrum, and hushed passages that require the utmost attention to comprehend. I believe in trying to hear every note that matters. And that means every note.

An interesting compilation of various female artists, and I loved revisiting their best of lists, and happy to see it wasn't all mainstream artists only. There is such great indie music out there, and I have noticed my tastes the past few years are more of male artists, which surprises me, and I try to interrogate that and seek out both, hoping for more deeper dives coming down the pike.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history wasn't for me, but it might be for you. Here's why.

At first there's the history of women now attempting to help America to popularize and recognize the value of women in music.

The first real chapter, about Bessie Smith, was a mixture of music criticism and sociology.

As an English major in college, and still a "recovering English major" and writer half a century later, I can appreciate criticism of this kind.

But where are the stories? In contrast to a swift little biolological snippet.

RATING THIS BOOK

Unless I absolutely love or loathe a book, my policy is to rate it in terms of my imagined response of the intended readers.

These readers are educated and love to hear generalizations about a musician, an era, etc.

Unlike me, they don't benefit from well-crafted stories. A little wisp of an idea is all they need.

Presumably these intended readers are already familiar with all the music surveyed in this collection from the 1960s onward, and no generalization could possibly strike them as too general.

On their behalf, FIVE STARS.

However, not every listener, this Goodreader included, has the credentials and inclination to find this pretentious hagiography of female artists to be . . . interesting.