How Women Made Music

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.