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African American women have played a pivotal part in rock and roll-from laying its foundations and singing chart-topping hits to influencing some of the genre's most iconic acts. Despite this, black women's importance to the music's history has been diminished by narratives of rock as a mostly white male enterprise. In Black Diamond Queens, Maureen Mahon draws on recordings, press coverage, archival materials, and interviews to document the history of African American women in rock and roll between the 1950s and the 1980s. Mahon details the musical contributions and cultural impact of Big Mama Thornton, LaVern Baker, Betty Davis, Tina Turner, Merry Clayton, Labelle, the Shirelles, and others, demonstrating how dominant views of gender, race, sexuality, and genre affected their careers. By uncovering this hidden history of black women in rock and roll, Mahon reveals a powerful sonic legacy that continues to reverberate into the twenty-first century.
List of contents
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1. Rocking and Rolling with Big Mama Thornton 29
2. LaVern Baker, the Incredible Disappearing Queen of Rock and Roll 52
3. Remembering the Shirelles 76
4. Call and Response 105
5. Negotiating "Brown Sugar" 141
6. The Revolutionary Sisterhood of Labelle 182
7. The Fearless Funk of Betty Davis 213
8. Tina Turner's Turn to Rock 240
Epilogue 273
Notes 285
Bibliography 349
Index 375
About the author
Maureen Mahon is Associate Professor of Music at New York University and author of
Right To Rock: The Black Rock Coalition and the Cultural Politics of Race, also published by Duke University Press.
Summary
Maureen Mahon documents the major contributions African American women vocalists such as Big Mama Thornton, Betty Davis, Tina Turner, and Merry Clayton have made to rock and roll throughout its history.
