Read more
"From one of the preeminent cultural critics of her generation, a ... weave of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of Black women in music--from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet, Whitney, and Mariah--as the foundational story of American pop"--
About the author
Danyel Smith is an author, award-winning journalist, and producer. She’s the creator and host the Spotify-exclusive Black Girl Songbook, a music and talk show that centers black women in music. A 2021 Yaddo Fellow, Danyel was a senior producer and editor at ESPN, and a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford, where she cofounded HRDCVR, an innovative hardcover culture magazine. In addition to writing for NPR, The California Sunday Magazine, The New Yorker, Teen Vogue, and The New York Times, Danyel has served as editor of Billboard, editor at large at Time Inc., and editor in chief of Vibe. The author of two novels—More Like Wrestling (2003), and Bliss (2005)—Danyel lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Elliott Wilson.
Summary
American pop music is arguably this country’s greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the country’s founding. This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story—from “one of the generation’s greatest, most insightful, most nuanced writers in pop culture” (Shea Serrano)
“Sparkling . . . the overdue singing of a Black girl’s song, with perfect pitch . . . delicious to read.”—Oprah Daily
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, The Root, Variety, Esquire, The Guardian, Newsweek, Pitchfork, She Reads, Publishers Weekly
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD
A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo.
Smith’s detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley.
Shine Bright is an overdue paean to musical masters whose true stories and genius have been hidden in plain sight—and the book Danyel Smith was born to write.
Additional text
“Dazzling . . . Either by design or by perfect accident, Danyel, in celebrating the legacies of seminal Black women in pop music, has cemented her own legacy as one of the generation’s greatest, most insightful, most nuanced writers in pop culture. Shine Bright is wonderful.”—Shea Serrano, New York Times bestselling author of Hip-Hop (And Other Things)
“This book is revelatory about the specific experiences of Black women in music—my highlighter got a good workout, as did my praise hands—but it also keys in to the way that a song or artist can unlock complex memories and emotions, visions of where we came from and who we dream we might be. These are chapters full of heart and wonder.”—Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
“Shine Bright masterfully interweaves American history and personal testimony, resulting in a gorgeous tribute to Black women’s voices that only Danyel Smith could craft. Smith is a once-in-a-generation sort of talent: a griot, a journalist, and the fangirl of all fangirls, and this is her magnum opus . . . for now.”—Jamilah Lemieux, writer and cultural critic
“Danyel Smith’s ‘voice’ in this volume of history, memoir, and music is as vibrant, knowing, and evocatively joyous as that of the singers she writes about.”—Paula J. Giddings, author, Ida, a Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching
“Danyel Smith, arguably the most influential and innovative magazine editor of our generation, inscribes the stories of Black women who have systematically been written out of the very music history they created. . . . Riveting and infuriating and important.”—Dan Charnas, author of Dilla Time: The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm
“Smith, host of the music podcast Black Girl Songbook, combines memoir, cultural history, and criticism in this masterful examination of the Black women artists who’ve indelibly shaped American popular music. . . . Smith offers a sharply written survey of the Black women who blazed the trail . . . [and] the ways in which Black voices were ‘the very genes of popular American soul, R&B, and rock ’n’ roll’ yet often went uncredited. . . . This lyrical and whip-smart work is a cause for celebration.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
