"Women were as rare as UFO sightings," said the singer Emmylou Harris to writer Lucy O'Brien in reference to the 1970's music scene. That sentiment is still true today. There is a lack of revered female music writers in this world. Also, I loathe the distinction that people feel needs to be made between "music writers", and "female music writers". "Guitarists" and "female guitarists", "rock band" and "female rock band", etc. Maybe this list will be the catalyst of change. Of course, this list could be extended and multiplied by 10, but in the interest of keeping it concise and a beginning point of sorts, I bring you 5 Music Writers to Read NOW.
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- If you have to start somewhere, I suggest you do so with Ellen Willis. She was the founding mother of women writing about music. Ellen was hired by the New Yorker in 1968 as their very first music critic after they read her acclaimed essay on Bob Dylan from short-lived independent magazine, Cheetah. One of the editors even had the audacity to suggest she write under E. Willis as to not alienate readers. She of course, did not comply. She wrote several books and was a highly involved activist in feminist groups before feminism was really a thing. Although having passed away, her influence can still be seen in the progression in amount of female music writers and the sheer admiration of her 50 years after her start. Maybe even in the acceptance of women in pants at the New Yorker.
- Kandia Crazy Horse is the writer of Rip It Up: The Black Experience in Rock & Roll, with stories and interviews from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Slash, Little Richard and Bad Brains. She is a strong supporter of Southern Rock/Americana, as seen here in her stirringly titled, "Song O' The South: How The Allman Brothers Made A Redneck Negress Out Of Me". Kandia is clearly very passionate about music and it shows through in her unabashed writing that has little trouble of captivating audiences.
- Evelyn McDonnell was co-editor of the women music writer opus, Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop, and Rap. She was also the first female music editor at The Village Voice. Her work can be seen in countless publications, too many to name, just imagine, like, ALL of them. Evelyn's accolades are just as numerous, including a first place award for enterprise reporting by the South Florida Black Journalists Association for her 2004 Miami Herald expose, "Miami Police Secretly Watching Hip-Hop Artists", a personal favorite of mine. Evelyn is now assistant professor of journalism and new media at Loyola Marymount University.
- Additional co-editor to Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop, and Rap, Ann Powers is a powerhouse of unbiased opinion. She has a propensity for observing and assessing various genres without showing an actual distaste for any particular set of music. She was also a co-writer to Tori Amos in the book Piece by Piece, an account of the role of women in the music industry and the realities of the music business. Winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards, she now is the main writer for NPR's music blog, The Record (an interesting piece by her about musicians confronting their solitude).
- dream hampton is an extremely
inspiring writer in general, taking the lowercase spelling of her name from feminist writer, bell hooks. Her work ranges from music to politics to culture.
She, like Ellen Willis, is a highly involved activist. She served as
ghostwriter to Jay-Z's book Decoded about annotating his
lyrics and relating them to his generation. dream was the first female
editor of The Source and has been writing for Vibe for
15 years, and wrote a great piece on one of my favorite artists, D'Angelo, titled "Soul Man". Along with bylines at several other publications, she was a friend of Christopher Wallace,
a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G., and helped produce the Emmy-award winning "Behind
the Music: Notorious B.I.G." and also co-produced
the documentary, "Bigger Than Life".
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