She Bop Ii

Popular music grew out of ragtime, vaudeville and the blues to become global mass entertainment. Women like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were the original pop divas, yet eighty years after they blazed a trail, have their successors achieved the recognition and affirmation they deserve? Or has the only was to success been to slot into saleable images of the cute baby or sexy chanteuse? Lucy O'Brien has written the ultimate hands-on history of women in rock, pop, and soul. Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield, Patti Smith, Madonna, Joni Mitchell, whitney Houston, Courtney Love, Alanis Morissette, Destiny's child - all the key names are here. But She Bop II refuses to look at women artists simply as personalities, problems or victims. From dream babes to rock chicks, riot grrrls and ragamuffins, girlpower, Lilith Fair rock and the rise of the corporate diva, She Bop II is the uncompromising story of women as creators and innovators. Lucy O'Brien is the author of two previous books: the bestsellers Annie Lennox (1991) and Dusty (1989). She has contributed to the Guardian, Sunday Times, Observer, Marie Claire, New Musical Express and The Face, and worked extensively in TV and radio, as both guest pundit and producer.

Popular music grew out of ragtime, vaudeville and the blues to become global mass entertainment. Women like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were the original pop divas, yet eighty years after they blazed a trail, have their successors achieved the recognition and affirmation they deserve? Or has the only way to success been to slot into saleable images of the cute baby or sexy chanteuse? This is the story of women as creators and innovators, aiming to provide a history of women in rock, pop and soul - on stage, on camera and working behind the scenes in a male-dominated industry. This edition contains an extra chapter and interviews covering trends such as Girlpower.

"Drawing on more than 270 original interviews with female artists and women working behind the scenes in A&R, marketing, music publishing, and production, She Bop presents a feminist history of women in popular music, from 1920s blues to the present day. Talking to iconic artists from Eartha Kitt and Nina Simone to Debbie Harry and Beyoncé, acclaimed author Lucy O'Brien charts how women have negotiated 'old boy' power networks to be seen and to get their music heard. This revised edition updates that story through many fresh interviews and new perspectives. Since She Bop was first published in 1995, digital downloading has transformed the music landscape. But has the issue of gender inequality changed too? In a new introduction and closing chapter, O'Brien celebrates the rise of unique women such as Lizzo and Billie Eilish, who are bursting through and creating new possibilities for female artists, while also looking at the struggles of artists like Kesha, and wondering whether the pop industry has had its #MeToo moment yet. Published to celebrate the original book's 25th anniversary - and in a year that also marks 50 years of Women's Liberation - this new She Bop will appeal to a huge cross-section of readers, from music fans to the LGBT audience and women of all generations." -- Front cover flap.

"Popular music grew out of ragtime, vaudeville and the blues to become global mass entertainment. Yet nearly eighty years after Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith first blazed the trail, have their female successors achieved the recognition and affirmation they deserve?" "The first hands-on history of women in rock, pop and soul, She Bop tells it like it is - on stage, on camera and working in a male-dominated industry. Adding a feminist perspective to her incredibly detailed knowledge of the stars and their music, and including an abundance of personal interviews, Lucy O'Brien tells these women's stories and their struggle not only for acceptance, but also for recognition and success, in a culture they are still striving to call their own. She Bop traces the different stages of women's progress in the music industry, from the early years of ragtime and the Jazz Age up to the present."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Fully Revised and Updated MADONNA: LIKE AN ICON is a groundbreaking biography finally solves the mystery at the heart of her chameleon-like existence. Extensively researched and perceptively written by journalist Lucy O’Brien, it explores the complex personality and legendary drive that has made Madonna the most famous female pop artist of our time. O’Brien draws upon scores of interviews with producers, musicians, collaborators, lovers, and friends - many of whom have never spoken so candidly - to examine Madonna’s fascinating life. From her mother’s premature death to her dynamic arrival on the New York club scene to her training for Evita and beyond, every stage of her life is illuminated.

There's more to me than most people see. Twelve-year-old Willow would rather blend in than stick out. But she still wants to be seen for who she is. She wants her parents to notice that she is growing up. She wants her best friend to like her better than she likes a certain boy. She wants, more than anything, to mush the dogs out to her grandparents' house, by herself, with Roxy in the lead. But sometimes when it's just you, one mistake can have frightening consequences . . . And when Willow stumbles, it takes a surprising group of friends to help her make things right again. Using diamond-shaped poems inspired by forms found in polished diamond willow sticks, Helen Frost tells the moving story of Willow and her family. Hidden messages within each diamond carry the reader further, into feelings Willow doesn't reveal even to herself. Diamond Willow is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

‘It’s amazing that this style came to be. Can you imagine being a struggling musician back then? It must take an incredible amount of restraint to play that gently.’ —Actor/comedian Fred Armisen, from his foreword to this book Just what is ‘yacht rock,’ you ask? Perhaps the easiest description is music that would not sound out of place being played while carousing aboard a yacht back in the good old days. But these songs were also some of the top pop gems of the 1970s and '80s. And while some associate yacht rock’s biggest songs with one-hit wonder artists, several of rock’s most renowned artists fall under this category, too - including Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, The Doobie Brothers, Toto, and more. Yacht rock seemed to have become extinct by the early twenty-first century … until a comedic video series, simply titled Yacht Rock, went viral and introduced captain’s hats and blazers to a whole new generation - as well as the emergence of a popular cover band, the Yacht Rock Revue, and of course, Jimmy Fallon’s on-air admiration of all things yacht rock. Now, yacht rock is one of the most celebrated ‘yesteryear’ styles of pop music, and has resonated with a new generation of musicians (including the Fred Armisen/Bill Hader-led Blue Jean Committee and soul/funk/electronica crossover act Thundercat). But despite all the hoopla, there has never been a book that told the entire story of the genre. Until now. Featuring interviews with many of the heavy hitters of the genre, including John Oates, Kenny Loggins, and Don Felder, The Yacht Rock Book leaves no sail unturned. This is the definitive story of the yacht rock’s creation, rise, chart-smashing success, fall, and stunning rebirth.

Three brothers struggle to stay together after their parents' death, as they search for an identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society in which they find themselves outsiders.