Sisters are doing it for themselves
When rock ‘n roll arrived in 1955, it was heralded by its proponents as nothing short of a musical revolution. Throw out all the old rules, they said, it’s a new morning, and the new guard is here to shake, rattle and roll things up. But this revolutionary “new guard” — guys like Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many dozens of pretenders to the throne — was woefully lacking in one key area: They were all men.
Where were all the women?
It’s curious to look back now and see what a boys club it was then, from the singer to the drummer, the producer, the engineer, the label executive, even the record store owner and radio DJ. As in most industries at the time, women in the music business faced discrimination, harassment and outright exclusion by a male power structure. (“You sing great, sweet thing, now let us finish the record and I’ll see you in my dressing room later…”) It seems a shame to me that, except for a few rare trailblazers, women were typically limited exclusively to supporting roles as mere background vocalists, even though sometimes it was the women who had the star power, the pipes, or the songwriting talent that everyone loved.
In 1962 in London, a Decca Records executive, a hapless soul who shall remain nameless, yawned as he listened to the audition of a fledgling band from Liverpool. He showed them the door as he told their manager: “Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein. Go back to Liverpool.” A few months later, George Martin at EMI Records signed The Beatles and went on to change popular music history.
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