How Women Made Music

In July 2017, NPR Music launched Turning the Tables—a groundbreaking, celebratory, and provocative multi-platform series examining the important and equal role women play in popular music. Now in its fifth season, Turning the Tables has reached millions of listeners and is considered one of NPR Music’s most successful, critically acclaimed programs. How Women Made Music is the book that continues this vibrant conversation and finally presents women at the center of the discussion about popular music.ANN POWERS has been a music critic for more than thirty years, working for NPR, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and other publications. In the decade she has worked with NPR, she has written extensively on music and culture and appeared regularly on the All Songs Considered podcast and on news shows including All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Her books include a memoir, Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America; Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music; and Piece by Piece with Tori Amos. Powers lives in Nashville.

“Spanning from Joan Baez to Rihanna, the collection captures the varied ways women have innovated the American musical landscape, in the process powerfully giving due to music as a cultural artifact, a public artistic expression, and a site of personal meaning. It’s a buoyant, welcome ode to some of the most influential songstresses of the 20th and 21st centuries.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Almost every reader is likely to find a host of new names to check out... An indispensable survey of the too-often neglected role of women in creating the music we all listen to." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"The project endeavors to correct the persistent marginalization of women and nonbinary artists in the music world... Full of photographs and other visuals, this is not a book on women in music; it is the book on women in music." — Booklist (starred review)"Essential, definitive reading for anyone who listens to music or cares about women -- which is, in short, everyone. Simply put, I wanted this book not to end." — Sheila Weller, bestselling author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation.“Just reading this made me want to dance! A reminder that women have built many revolutions, credited or not, and we will continue to revolt, innovate, and shine.” — Lindy West, author of Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman“Somehow both appropriately broad and perfectly detailed, a beautiful, easily digestible book…. Also guess what, you don’t have to be a woman to enjoy it!” · — Yasi Salek, host of Bandsplain and 24 Question Party People “If what neuroscientists tell us is true, that music is a social/emotion-delivery device…truly a woman's voice, words, rhythms, and melodies are best adapted to express what it feels like to be a human. This welcome book taps us on the back to remind us of the many underappreciated musicians whose work found its way into our own self images.” — Susan Rogers, legendary producer, neuroscientist, and author of This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You"HOW WOMEN MADE MUSIC: A REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY is a rich harmony of different writers paying homage to some of the greatest musicians of our time....It will change the way you experience their music forever." — Liz Garbus, documentary film director and producer of What Happened, Miss Simone? and Harry & Meghan"With the rabble-rousing How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music, Alison Fensterstock has assembled a Turning the Tables greatest-hits compilation, with bonus tracks culled from half a century of NPR chatter with tuneful women." — Shelf Awareness"An epic history of the women who shaped popular music... The vibrant production is further enhanced with 55 audio excerpts from luminaries such as Joan Baez and Alicia Keys, who describe their creative process, key works, and musical journey." — Library Journal