You're History: The Twelve Strangest Women in Music

by Lesley Chow

Raucous, sensual and how twelve pioneering female artists rewrote the rules of pop.From Kate Bush to Nicki Minaj, from Janet Jackson to TLC and Taylor Swift, pop's greatest female pioneers are simply smashing notions of taste and decorum, and replacing them with new ideals of pleasure. Instead of rehashing biographies, Lesley Chow dives deep into the music of these groundbreaking performers, identifying the ecstatic moments in their songs and finding out what makes them unique. You're History is a love letter to pop's most singular achievements, celebrating the innovations of women who are still critically underrated. It's a ride that includes tributes to Chaka Khan, Rihanna, Neneh Cherry, Sade, Shakespears Sister, Azealia Banks, and many more... “The slim, sharp book considers a range of female artists from Janet Jackson and Taylor Swift to TLC and Nicki Minaj, a group that the Australian cultural critic Chow views as ‘outliers, marking moments where the culture might have swerved to incorporate their influence, but somehow contrived not to.’” — New York Times summer reads

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Pop Culture, Cultural

161 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 9, 2021

Reviews

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a strange little book. I really enjoyed bits of it and others not so much. The idea of the book is brilliant. The author takes women musicians that she considers to be seminal yet overlooked by 'serious' music critics and attempts to explain why their oeuvre are so important and how radical they are. This is right up my street. She picks interesting artists from across a wide range of musical genres and ages. She opens with a chapter to explain her methodology and then we're straight in with the iconic, Neneh Cherry, which gets a huge thumbs up from me. We move from here to TLC, Chaka Khan, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj amongst others. I would argue that her inclusion of Kate Bush as someone who tends to be 'overlooked' by music critics is weak here, because she is, rightly celebrated as an iconic musical figure already, although the author's American nationality may account for her reading of Bush.

What I found difficult in the book was the fact that there is little here about the musicians as people within the wider context of pop culture and how that informs how we read and understand their music. In places, the detailed analysis of song lines and the author's assertion that every 'woah' or 'uh' or 'eh' sound can be read as a deep, symbolic gesture of anarchy or subversion was, for me, stretching it a little. Her reading of the entirety of Sade's oeuvre as more about the radically mellifluous sounds she makes within a deeply traditional genre just didn't work for me. I was also interested in the artists she didn't choose within this context. There were also times when the already short chapters were completely sidelined by her notes on Prince, for example, which I thought was a real waste of the clearly limited space she had to discuss women.

Erratic but interesting.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a free copy in return an open and honest review.

This book looks at 12 female singers and their influence and the music found it very interesting and another way of looking at the artists listed.

[Gavin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Air guitar which thinks it’s on stage.

A stupid book - which would be fine, given the topic is pop music - but unfortunately it thinks it is clever. I haven’t seen anything this top-down processed and forced since I last read theology.

I'm trying not to hold the subtitle against her, since it is unlikely she got to choose it. But since it is what it is and at the risk of stating the obvious: Diamanda Galas, Nico, Hope Nicholls, Patti Smith, Neko Case, Lisa Germano, Nina Hagen, Fiona Apple, Liz Phair, Lydia Lunch, Grace Jones, Bjork, Liz Frazer, Sinead O'Connor, Exene, Eleanor Friedberger, Laetitia Sadier, Skin Dyer, Kristen Hersh are far weirder than any of these popstars.

Hard to think of a worse ending to this sentence:

my focus is on performers whose effect on the body is hot, explosive, and immediate, rather than those who adhere to typical standards of refinement and class, such as Grimes and Joanna Newsom

The (tiny, hollow) essays are extremely reminiscent of the lyric annotations on Genius: breathless pretences and projections onto commonplaces.

Society has become allergic to the sound of plaint in a woman’s voice, dismissing it as whiny privilege or a kind of homespun earnestness.

One funny consequence of Chow’s contrarianism (lauding the nasty, the tasteless, the fake, the cynical) is that she repeatedly implies that her beloved subjects suck:

The artists in this book deal in moods that are generally considered undesirable: an insistent fakeness, emotional dishonesty, uncontrolled sexuality, strident superficiality. Their music tends to grate rather than soothe

This book is an argument for the cheap, the shrill, the coarse, the sour, the pungent, the saccharine: for any off-putting effect as long as it is memorable

Reviews will always praise artists who demonstrate coherent intelligence, yet pop’s distinction lies in its ability to shuck off sensible opinions.

she makes them creepy as no other young woman does, foreshadowing the hag behind today’s pop.

She talks as if they were Throbbing Gristle. (Her subjects are mostly great! Not that you’d know from reading this. I am grateful to her for introducing me to Chinawoman.)

20 years ago this book would have been bold and contrarian and useful: poptimism was struggling to be born. Now that that monstrous child is a grown hegemon - these same artists get into the annual top tens in most hipster bastions - Chow seems like an obsequious courtier, haranguing us and telling us the actual queen is still, somehow, underrated.

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lesley Chow's fascinating book is steeped in music, exploring the work of twelve women artists whose output is diverse and wide-ranging. What they have in common, apart from being women, is - she states - that "they are all anomalies: pioneers in the making, whose output has been too strange for the culture to fully digest".

I'm not sure that they're actually the twelve strangest women in music - I can think of a few others who could also lay claim (Laurie Anderson?) - but Chow makes out a good case for them and the attention they deserve, arguing persuasively that there is a shortage of serious writing when it comes to female pop, R&B and hip hop performers in comparison to the massive (and let's face it, overwhelmingly male) body of work about rock.

She wants to discuss the feel and tone of songs above the interpretation of the lyrics or their socio-political importance - she is occupied as much by the sound of the words in the singer's mouth as by their meaning. (Sade, for instance, "seems indifferent to subject, putting all her focus into the delectation of each syllable". Chow does much the same herself, with phrases like that.)

Chow is all about the sound, the lyrics in combination with the melody, the emphasis and phrasing which can strengthen or undercut the words used - she has little time for lyrics which can stand alone as poetry independent of tone and melody (I don't necessarily agree with her on this - but I do see her point.)

Most of the women featured, from Kate Bush to Chaka Khan to Neneh Cherry to Taylor Swift to Nicki Minaj, are well known; Michelle Gurevich is certainly the most obscure and I'd never heard of her before, but I sought out and absolutely loved the two marvellous songs discussed here, Party Girl and Russian Ballerina.

It also sent me back to Neneh Cherry's brilliant debut album, Raw Like Sushi, which I listened to obsessively when it first came out but haven't heard in a while. I really enjoyed rediscovering it and reading the author's comments on the album.

This book immersed me in its music to the extent that I came out feeling slightly dazed. It's a fascinating, insightful read which had me looking at music in different ways. And... ultimately... a rallying cry for the importance of "oooh"!

[LibraryKath · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up on this one - boring! The author writes like so many other verbose music writers trying to prove their encyclopedic knowledge... refreshingly though this one isn't a white man! But I found it putting me to sleep and stripping all interest and enjoyment from otherwise amazing music, so I bailed on it.

[Sarah Oakey · Rating 3 out of 5]

So for this review I'm crashing into 2022 with a highbrow BANG!! I wanted to spead my literature wings and fly into a genre I rarely touch upon....and this cover had me at hello!!

You're history is a fascinating read, a non-fiction book where the author takes an in-depth look at twelve female musical artists.
Part of me felt like an intruder reading this book, a bit of a fake, I felt like I wasn't really cool enough or enough of a music junkie to read it!!
Sometimes the author lost me with her highbrow music knowledge but equally had me gripped with her insight.
I loved that she talked about Shake your head by Was (not was), a song I have always loved but I felt fell under the radar.

Included is an eclectic mix of female artists from Taylor Swift to Neneh Cherry, it was interesting reading about artists I knew little about....
Kate Bush and Shakespeare Sister also featured who I were excited to read about as they are two of my favourite artists.....

...However unless I was mistaken I felt at times that the authors opinions were not objective enough, I felt she was quite derogatory about Shakespeare's Sister, as a fan (especially of Hormonally Yours, an album I rinsed as a teen "Hello, turn your radio on"!!) I felt offended by some of her statements and if people who read this who haven't heard of Shakespeare's Sister could come away from the book with a preconceived opinion formed by the author that they were a bit of a ridiculous joke....yet they were groundbreaking unique artists.

Anyway niggles aside this was an eye-opening read, fascinating and deeply researched.....and that cover!!!

Thanks to @repeaterbooks
And @netgalley for an ARC of this book

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic, compact set of musical-criticism essays from this Australian writer who I'm certainly keeping tabs on now. What a great holiday gift this was from a friend who I've nabbed some Record Store Day finds for when he couldn't get to a local shop for the goods. Leslie Chow makes me think about music in different ways, the layers of production, melody, instrumentation, etc. Color me gladd.

The pieces on these artists changed or enhanced my own takes on them: Janet Jackson, Kate Bush, TLC, Sade, Nicki Minaj and Azealia Banks. The essay on Chaka Khan got me in a vibe, in a mood for her stuff for the better part of two days. "Ain't nobody!"

So yes, the chosen ones lean the R&B/hip-hop route in general. Honestly, least resonant/memorable for me was the Taylor Swift chapter, which I recall now about as well as the installments on those I knew a lot less about (Chinawoman, Neneh Cherry).

No slight against Chow as that goes; I just need and want to become more versed in their stuff. And lo and behold: Fellow Swede Robyn just covered Cherry in a new remix.

Come for the extraordinary write-ups. Stay for the appendix-as-listicle: a rundown of the greatest "ooh"s in modern music. Rock on, y'all.

[Desi Wolff-Myren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book to read from NetGalley.

You’re History is an in-depth look at a handful of pop-artists spanning the 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s and 10’s. If you are interested in analyzing pop lyrics, analyzing how a musician’s style is interwoven with their music, then this collections of essays is for you. I appreciated the variety of musicians selected to be analyzed in this collection. That being said, these women’s songs were chosen because they all fall into the category of “pop” and there is not a lot else that connects them. Perhaps if the book had been divided into subgroups, like pop singer-singer writers, pop rappers (is that even the right category to classify TLC, Nicki Minaji and Rhianna into?), the choices would have made more sense. Because there was such a wide variety of music, I had a hard time imagining the songs that were being described (and frankly hasn’t heard most of them) and had listen to them before I could move on. It felt like the book would have been more accessible if it had narrowed its focus to a smaller subset of female pop singers.

[Kim Pallister · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up expecting a dozen mini-biographies of some of popular music's more edgy or fringe artists. Instead, I got a collection of essays about female pop artists - certainly not the strangest, but interesting nonetheless - that are used in aggregate to argue that pop music doesn't get the critical recognition it deserves. In this vein, it's an interesting read.

I enjoyed delving a little deeper into artists I'd not paid much attention to (e.g. Kate Bush, underappreciated in my youth; Nicki Minaj, overlooked at my age). [Note: This is a great book to read while keeping a another device on standby, to pull up songs as they are mentioned].

More importantly, the book gave an interesting perspective on how some media aren't covered equally or as respectfully by critics in other media, just because of the difficulty due to 'medium differences'. In this case, the author argues that critics WRITING about music will favor lyricists over artists who depend more on texture, feel, and emotion. It's a good point that should give perspective on other such critical writing that is subject to elements getting lost in translation.

[Shelley Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an in-depth look at the impact of 12 female artists & bands.

The author is obviously incredibly knowledgeable on the subject, however the chapters on artists I’m not familiar with went rather over my head. For me, the book did not explore enough of the artists backgrounds and who they are as recording artists but it has some interesting facts and lyric meanings, and it was a treat to read a book on pop, which is often an overlooked genre.

Many thanks to netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Michelle McGrane · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This book is an argument for the cheap, the shrill, the coarse, the sour, the pungent, the saccharine: for any off-putting effect as long as it is memorable. I looked for songs that have been critically discounted but continue to boggle the mind, for emotional tones that are “nasty” (in the Janet Jackson sense of the word) rather than balanced, and for the one-off hit more than the tempered masterpiece.”

Chow’s gallery of pioneering, wayward artists consists of: Neneh Cherry; Janet Jackson; Kate Bush; Shakespeare’s Sister; Michelle Gurevich aka Chinawoman; Tina Weymouth and Tom Tom Club; Lisa Lopes, T-Boz and Chilli from TLC; Taylor Swift; Sade; Chaka Khan, and Azealia Banks featuring Nicki Minaj and Rihanna.

Chow’s passion, wit and knowledge of music made “You’re History” an absolute pleasure to read. My taste in music is eclectic; I love reading music criticism despite the fact that it can carry a pose of knowingness, of placing and summarising work. I don’t think that these artists are the twelve strangest women in music but I do now have some understanding of what makes them peculiar in ways that haven’t been fully discussed or acknowledged.

This is a book that is all about the music rather than the artist’s lives, so if you’re looking for biographical anecdotes this may not be the book for you.

Chow’s in-depth discussions of songs and what makes them unforgettable anomalies made me feel nostalgic as I remembered where I was and what I was doing when I first heard them. Who remembers Neneh Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance”? It still remains one of my favourite songs from the eighties and, yes, you can download it from Spotify. Listen to it.

Refreshingly, Chow celebrates the influential yet under-recognized genres of pop, hip-hop, disco and R&B, and highlights the innovations of women in music, especially women of color, who represent more than half of the book’s subjects.

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @RepeaterBooks for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’re History takes a unique perspective to music criticism. Finally, the lyrics alone are not the point.

“The most captivating music is slippery, telegraphing a secret meaning while asserting its intentions at face value. Music is not always about depth and timber: sometimes the song is best served by a slick, offhand treatment.“

The varied examples prove this theory has merit.

“Sade gets hooked on luxe mouth movement, to the point where the primary aim of the songs appears to be getting variations on texture, rather than lyrical or melodic originality.”

“[Taylor Swift’s] Blank Space forced a re-examination, introducing a new character to the world of pop. It’s narrator is a baby-faced girl who longs to be unmasked as a horror: Estella and Miss Havisham in one, with full sexual power and malevolence intact.”

Unfortunately, many of the artists described here are not as famous as they should be.

“Choosing lyrics for their mellifluous potential is unlikely to start trends or find acclaim, no matter how gorgeous or wine-dark the results.“

Even though this book is advertised as critique of twelve unique female performers, it includes many more. Even Prince, Michael Jackson and David Byrne make an appearance.

The book’s somewhat rambling and sometimes repetitive style feel like a late-night conversation with your most musically astute friend. I’ve always been a hater of music criticism. I just don’t agree with most of it. In my opinion, the almost universally critically acclaimed Bob Dylan cannot sing a note and should have been a poet. However, talking about how a song makes the listener feel is a valid part of criticism.

I truly enjoyed You’re History. I found some new favorites and remembered some forgotten gems. It is much more fun to ask Alexa to play each song as you are reading about them. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 stars!

Thanks to Repeater Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a strange book that revolves around the author’s arbitrary definition of “strangeness” in music. At its best, it’s an earnest paean to overlooked pop nuance and to artists whose commercial success (whether enduring or fleeting) was not matched by serious critical appreciation.

Other times, it’s a strained attempt to apply Serious Critical Writing to a simple personal listening preference: Chow really, really, really likes juxtapositions in her music. A sad lyric with a peppy melody? A persona that’s brash but also vulnerable? An ambiguous “ooh”?! Be still her heart.

Finally, at other times, it seems like she’d rather just be writing a book about Prince.

Riding to pop’s defense may have been a bold move in TLC’s heyday, but now I suspect this book largely preaches to the choir. As such, the general thesis feels like it could have been handled in a tight essay rather than a scattershot book. It would have been fair for the author or publisher to worry that people wouldn’t buy a book about Shakespears Sister and Neneh Cherry, but it’s a stretch to jam Rihanna and Taylor Swift under the “unpalatable and underrated” umbrella… ella… ella. (“The secret of pop is the mystery of ‘ella’ and ‘eh’,” Chow writes, unconvincingly.)

Her frames of reference seem a bit narrow, given the countless women who go unmentioned, the strained comparisons to the same small set of artists (e.g. Stephen Malkmus), and bonkers pronouncements like Azealia Banks is “the most formidable female rapper we have had since Neneh Cherry.”

All that said, it’s always a noble cause to shine light on the music you love, and there’s no question that women in pop were/are often dismissed by industry gatekeepers. I certainly didn’t mind an excuse to revisit my favorite songs (and discover some new-to-me songs) from the 12 artists.

[Akin · Rating 2 out of 5]

1. Taste in pop music is, and will always be subjective.
2. That said, writing a book about the greatest ‘ooo’ in music, and leaving out ‘Straight Up’ by Paula Abdul is a crime against humanity
3. As is rubbishing Kylie’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’
(Yes, I’m making my subjective objective. I should get off my high horse. But…)
4. Pop music defies analysis for all sorts of reasons, one among them being that pop music is zeitgeist music. And the zeitgeist is a collective expression of a shared sentiment. If anyone knew why a cultural ‘artefact’ (pseud’s corner word, but too tired to think right now) succeeds in capturing the mood of the now, (a) they’d be very rich , and (b) they won’t tell us why
5. There is much less to this book than meets the eye. Start with the premise. Sade and Neneh Cherry and Shakespear’s Sister stand out for (on very different levels) creative inspiration. Labelling them ‘strange’ is the pop criticism equivalent of ‘the cat ate my homework, but here’s the answer.’
5. Nothing wrong in sniffing at the cult of Christagau. But pointing at an old white man and saying (in effect) ‘he riding on the coattails of conventionality is either not good enough or (if your target audience thrive on these cliches) not far removed from forgetting to show your workings. Again, the subjective perspective comes in. Argue your point in the idiom of the music you are talking about. Ad hominem potshots at the old guard is so…zeitgeisty?
6. No one in this list is undercelebrated. Not even Chinawoman (we understand that the name is not zeitgeisty. But surely benefit of the doubt? Interrogate this presumption, set it in the context that it emerged and then determine if just unwary or indeed wilfully offensive. (Wilfully lazy does, often, = wilfully offensive, by the way. Sort of like the manslaughter - murder continuum. ‘I didn’t mean it’ isn’t a defence if you were sloshed to the gills when you got behind the wheel etc.)

Ultimately, it’s a fools errand to try to explain why a song means so much to you, and thus why it should to everyone else. It is ok to say why a song or an artiste or a
Movement attaches to one’s internal world. But that’s different from preparing 12 essays that seek to break this down into objective truth.

Oh. Rock music is pop music.

[J Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

You're History: The Twelve Strangest Women in Music, by Lesley Chow, is every bit as incorrectly hyperbolic as the title. Between opinions and falsities she passes off as facts and her inability to make coherent arguments, this book is a pleasure less for her opinions than for the nostalgia of remembering these artists and their music.

Don't get me wrong, Chow makes some good points, but if you condensed her original ideas that are supportable down to an essay it would be a very short essay. The rest is either unsubstantiated overblown opinion or rehashed ideas she passes off as her own. Not to mention she is one of those people who feel the need, when trying to elevate something, to tear down other things. That is an illustration of her own weakness both within music knowledge and as a writer. I would say she should stick to film but I searched out some of her stuff in that field and it is not much better than this.

You may wonder why I rate this as a book I would still recommend. I would recommend it carefully, mostly to those who can read critically and extract the good from the bad. I have no doubt that those who enjoy reading self-indulgent fluff will like this too, I just try to avoid adding more junk to their diets so my friends who fall into that category probably wouldn't get this recommendation from me.

Having been so negative I should also mention that I did enjoy reading this. Once it became evident that Chow really didn't know what she was writing about it was easier to read it strictly for the nostalgia and the few pieces of insight (usually someone else's, not hers). I loved these artists back in the day (though I feel less strong about Swift but I certainly respect her self-marketing skills) and appreciated the opportunity to pull out my old music and listen again.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Veerle · Rating 3 out of 5]

You’re History teaches people like me, who are very focused on lyrics, a new perspective on music. I love Chow’s writing style. She knows what she writes about and has great analysis skills. I love the fact that she tries to give female popstars the place they deserve in history. But sometimes I just couldn’t see why certain artists were included as pioneers.

Maybe I just look for a different kind of artist. Because what surprised me the most, was that Chow picks songs which have been co-written by men. So to what extent are we hearing the ideas or the real voice of these artists? Maybe I am being a little old-fashioned feminist here, but for me a female artist who changes history is an artist who controls every aspect of the creative process herself: music, lyrics, persona… and expresses her ideas.

Also: why include someone you think wrote 2 songs worth mentioning? I was blown away the first time I heard Michelle Gureviche’s Party Girl (that voice just draws you in), but why not choose Björk (Biophilia, Medúlla), tUnE-yArDs, Coco Rosie or Nico instead if you want to mention someone more alternative?

I also keep struggling with the subtitle The twelve strangest women in music. I have been called a little bit of a strange woman before, more than once, and I am very sorry: I don’t see Taylor Swift and Rihanna as potential sisters :)

So basically I don't understand some choices. But this book is a perfect read for music lovers. It broadens your horizon and has you (re)discover great music (Buffalo Stance by Neneh Cherry is on repeat now).

[Molly Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my usual type of read but that cover definitely caught my attention and also it fitted with my challenge to read more non-fic but unlike the other NF books I have read this year this one I struggled to keep engaged with.

If you love pop music and are into dissecting songs then you will love this book. I will say that I did absolutely love how it got me listing to music and artists I have not listened to in years and a note to the publishers and/or the author; You should really put together a public play list on Spotify off all the songs mentioned in the book. It would make for GREAT companion listening whilst people are reading.

Overall I did enjoy the book and how it was not pretensions about pop music, in fact it celebrated it for what it is and this amazing artists that used it the genre to create songs that get under your skin. I am glad I stuck with it and finished the book as some of the latter chapters where my favourite but I would also love to know more about the women featured in the books from a personal level. I may look to see if their biographies about any of them which I can try.

Also Nenah Cherry's Buffalo stance and Manchild are the best songs EVER and even now make the hairs on the back of my hair stick up. She was such an underrated artist.

[B.S. Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genre: Non-Fiction

Release Date: 9th March 2021

Publisher: Repeater Books



You're History is not a biography of sensational female stars - it's a full on exploration into some of pops greatest icons from Janet Jackson to Kate Bush to Nicki Minaj.

Women who don't stick to the ideas of following the tide, of being strange and loud and vulgar and proud - this book analyses just who they are and what makes them truly unique whether you like them or not and makes us face the fact that their uniqueness is so feared or unaccepted simply because they're women.

Opening up with the legend that is Neneh Cherry, Chow not only comments on the social issues and views that female artists face, but deeply analyses and critiques their songs identifying the most amazing work and trying to find out just what makes them all so unique. If you're looking for life stories you're in the wrong place - this is a love letter to the music that shaped the careers of these amazing women.

Were these the twelve strangest women in music? Probably not, but even wth this being purely about pop artists I appreciated the eclectic range of women and styles included.



RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Lesley Chow, Repeater Books and Netgalley for this ARC in return for an honest review.

[Becks · Rating 3 out of 5]

You're History is a compact little book with each chapter diving deep into a different unconventional female artist. Right off the bat, I enjoyed this but I didn't love it. While Chow has an interesting way of talking about music, the purpose of this book didn't have enough clarity. The general theme of 'strangeness' wasn't quite enough for me to sink my teeth into.

That said, the artist list that the author chose is compelling – from Janet Jackson and Kate Bush through to Rihanna and Taylor Swift. I would gladly read music theory about any singer featured in this book which made it enjoyable by default. And the author did have some truly interesting thing to say, especially in talking about artists who usually get little credit for the artistry. Discussions of non-lyric centred pieces of songs were particularly intereting – think the oohs and ahhs or the pop use of 'baby'.

It was worth a read because it gave me food for thought but it never quite gripped me. Despite that, I certainly wouldn't discourage people from reading it, especially if the artist list appeals to you.

Huge thanks to Repeater Books for the ARC.

[Mitchie Rainbow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would love to thank Netgalley and Repeater books for giving me an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Pop music is often ridiculed for being vapid and shallow and it's not uncommon to hear people dismissing pop stars as having no artistic merits and female pop stars face a lot of criticism and dismissal but You're Historh by Lesley Chow hae us reconsidering that perception. She chooses 12 women, some of whom are famous pop stars and others a bit more obscure and shows us why they deserve their acclaim and why a seemingly inconsequential "ooh" has just as much depth as a song with lyrical virtuosity. You can tell the author is really knowledgeable about music and cleverly articulates why a certain part in music works. I'll be honest, some of the explanations went over my head and i do think her descriptions became a bit abstract in some parts. I think that music lovers and people with musical knowledge would be able to better understand what she means. It was a really fun book and i definitely recommend it.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection takes deep dives into records by Janet Jackson, TLC, Nicki Minaj, Kate Bush, and several other artists I have enjoyed immensely without ever reading much about them - and a few, such as Shakespear Sister, Michelle Gurevich, and Azealia Banks that I haven't heard. Chow is a brilliant music critic, and she's developed ways of listening and writing about music that I haven't seen done otherwise. Her emphasis on finding what makes the pleasures of pop so darned pleasurable leads her to a theory of the "oh," a simple syllable in thousands of records I've never thought about, and often just ignored. Here's a quick sample: "The greatest songs are those whose meanings could only be released through music, where the lyrics are laid down in some odd or beguiling pattern, in which no note can be replaced. That underlying pattern is what grips, and gives us mysteries to decode forever." I will be looking to have her decode anything she wants to talk about from now on.

[Jay Gabler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's clear this up right off the bat: critic Lesley Chow means strange in a good way.

This is a book in the spirit of "well behaved women seldom make history," but in the true spirit of that expression, not in the bumper-sticker version that implies women should break the rules to make history. What Laurel Thatcher Ulrich originally meant was that women who make positive impacts on society seldom have their names remembered: history would prefer to remember the Lizzie Bordens.

Some of the twelve women celebrated in You're History have names that may be unfamiliar to you. In most cases, though, you have heard of them, and when it comes to the likes of Chaka Khan, Neneh Cherry, and TLC, Chow has this to say: "these women are not influential enough."

I wrote about You're History for The Current.

[RensReadingRainbow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popular music has a reputation for being vapid and overly sexualized without purpose: this book not only challenges that entire notion but also challenges you to alter your perception of what good music is. This is a stellar analysis, appreciation, and dissection of work by pop artists who built their foundations on sounds that are considered uncomfortable, shrill, and strange. Each section feels like a love letter from an ex: sweet, bitter, and entirely unexpected. I was blown away by Chow’s language to describe how music sounds and how it feels in the body. She analyzes so much more than lyrics: we get to look closely timbre, texture, and tone of voice, instrumentals, synths and historical context for full-bodied criticism. Her appreciation for the variety of oohs, ahhs, and babadadas (which are often reduced to filler, but actually have weight and meaning) was charming and I loved seeing her return to it throughout the book. Highly recommended.

[Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

En “You’re history”, Lesley Chow nos habla de algunas de las mujeres que han cambiado la historia del pop y reivindica la importancia que han tenido.

Algunas de ellas respetadas por la crítica como Kate Bush o Chaka Khan y otras consideradas más un “guilty pleausure” (a pesar de su poder comercial) como Nicki Minaj o Rihanna, todas ellas tienen en común que han sido pioneras en sus propuestas.

La autora profundiza en la importancia del pop en nuestras vidas, lo reivindica como se hace siempre con otros géneros, rompe barreras entre pop, r&b y hip hop, gracias al trabajo también de Neneh Cherry, Sade o las TLC.

“You’re history” es un libro que celebra la música, la innovación de algunas artistas femeninas que marcaron el camino a seguir. La autora habla de sus obras, del significado de algunas de sus canciones y desgrana la aportación única de cada una de las autoras.

Además de las ya citadas, aparecen Taylor Swift, Sade o Janet Jackson.

[Steve Erickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

YOU'RE HISTORY is a sibling to Kit Mackintosh's NEON SCREAMS, also published by Repeater Books. Both books analyze music through vocal tone and timbre. Lesley Chow makes a convincing case that, for example, the key moments of Rihanna's "Umbrella" are her singing the the syllables "ella" and "eh." She doesn't totally ignore lyrics but she's rebelling against a tradition that valorizes Bob Dylan as the high point of popular music. For YOU'RE HISTORY, the history of pop music is the history of women singing "Ooh." However, the book is just as loaded with preconceptions as the stereotypical rockist Kelefa Sanneh and Carl Wilson were fighting against. Her main examples of snobbish rock critics placing too much emphasis on lyrics are '70s Robert Christgau reviews. Her definition of "strange" is rather perverse - she hails Taylor Swift and Sade as though they're underdogs ignored by the media.

[Vnunez-Ms_luv2read · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book on female singers,, and their music style. The book also includes an analyses of some of their songs which was very interesting. Most of the singers I am familiar with, some I was not. But that did not take away from the book. I even found myself going to Youtube to watch the video of the song the author was writing about. Let me say this: !! I will never listen to Rihanna's "Umbrella “ the same again. Great read and informative. I do recommend.this book. I also agree with the author, Chaka Khan had not received her due!!! Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

[Verity W · Rating 3 out of 5]

****Copy from NetGalley in return for an honest review*****

I enjoyed this, but I think I was missing some of the information/background on some of the songs to get the most out of it. Really I think it needs to come with a playlist so you can listen to the songs that are being talked about as you read the book, because unless you're really, really into music (and I used to work at radio stations as well as watching a fair few music documentaries both general and artist specific, so I consider myself fairly well across music) you may get lost here unless you've done some prep work or have a playlist handy.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was attracted to this book due to my being a music lover and having what I consider to be a wide ranging musical taste, so I was interested in finding out more information about the singers featured here. However Lesley Chows choices for what she considers to be the most strange in pop to me are not really strange at all. How are Taylor Swift or Janet Jackson 'strange' ? I found in some ways she analysed her chosen subjects a little too deeply, we do not need a discussion about every ooh, ahh or sigh in a song to know more about it. However I did enjoy her style of writing which was both funny and informative .

[Sym · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book delves deep into the music of 12 amazing female artists. It examines their songs in detail and without pretension; focusing on the effects they're able to achieve through their voice and lyrics. It offers a glimpse into the craft of songwriting and provides critical appreciation as a fan of the music/artist rather than a journalist/critic. I agreed with a lot of the critique, discovering a couple of new artists along the way and am re-discovering the work of others. An enjoyable and worthwhile read, succinct and highly recommended.

[Fionn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review:

Witty, honest and well-researched, this book is perfect for music fans and musical laymans alike. Although parts of this book feel like overly-gushy blog posts, the heart of the message is loud and clear: pop music is no less significant than any other genre of music and it is time we stopped treating it as such.

Read it one day: a very easy read and thoroughly enjoyable.