Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll

Maureen Mahon

Published by Duke University Press 2020

Black Diamond Queens

African American Women and Rock and Roll

Maureen Mahon

In the series Refiguring American Music

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478012771

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

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.

Reviews

“We've got to know where we came from in order to get where we want to go, and there's no doubt that Maureen knows where she is headed! You can absolutely feel the passion in every word she speaks, whether in person or on paper, and Black Diamond Queens is no exception.”

-- Quincy Jones

“I thought I knew the stories of the women who populate this stellar revisioning of rock and roll history. Now I realize how much I had to learn. A revolutionary read that should chasten rock historians and will delight anyone who wants the full picture of how black women shaped a culture that pushed them to the side and how they survived.”

-- Ann Powers, author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music

"... Mahon has done plenty to expose how Black women rockers have been marginalized by musicians, audiences, historians, and critics. A well-researched, sociologically savvy effort to expand the rock canon."

-- Kirkus Reviews

“The book that's poised to set rock history free. Maureen Mahon's Black Diamond Queens sets the record straight by offering a meticulously detailed study of the ways in which Black women musicians and entertainers played pivotal roles in the birth of the genre and fearlessly revolutionized the form. Essential reading for anyone who cares about popular music culture.”

-- Daphne A. Brooks, author of Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850–1910

Starred Review. "With depth and breadth, Mahon’s work centers the many African American women who heavily influence rock and roll, from LaVern Baker to Tina Turner. Rock and roll emerged neither from a vacuum nor from the minds of white, male performers alone. Mahon’s comprehensive research and intelligent thinking are captured in her compelling writing."

-- Emily Dziuban Booklist

"If you are curious about music and its development across genres or would like more examples of Black women’s exquisite impact on every aspect of life, Black Diamond Queens is for you. You won’t find many of these queens on the walls of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or in canonical texts discussing the origins of rock and roll. Still, crucially and inspiringly, you might see yourself in this group of Black women whose manicured fingers are all over rock and roll. At the very least, you will be exposed to some incredible new songs."

-- Briana Spivey Women's Review of Books

"A rare gem. . . . this meticulously researched book is a key entry in the ongoing record-correction of 20th-century popular music history, one that recenters women, and most crucially, women of color. . . . The collective telling of their complex stories, within an intersectional feminist framework, is the kind of illuminating scholarship that rock really needs."

-- Jillian Mapes Pitchfork

"As I read each page of Black Diamond Queens, learning about the Black women who contributed to not only the sound but the ethos of rock and roll, I felt like I was also learning about myself. In the end, the stories felt less like a permission slip to feel at home in a genre I most resonate with, but a reminder that, like these women, I should never feel the need to ask for permission at all."

-- Erica Campbell UPROXX

"Black Diamond Queens does what the best music books do: It urges us to play this music again — or for the first time — and to listen to it. Mahon’s brilliant book repays careful reading and challenges us to think anew about the history of rock and roll and the ways we might have traditionally understood it."

-- Henry Carrigan No Depression

"[H]ighly recommended for anyone who is interested in deepening their knowledge of the legacies and profoundness of Black women in music.'

-- Jordannah Elizabeth Amsterdam News

"This monograph is not only a welcome addition to works on genre, gender, and race but contributes a unique insight into Black-middle-class respectability politics in twentieth-century America. Black Diamond Queens is a great jumping-off point for contemporary Black feminist theorists, musicologically trained or not. Mahon has gifted scholars with a mantle, leaving room for others to take it up and continue the work of re-storing music history through the investigation of race, gender, and genre."

-- Larissa A. Irizarry Notes

"Mahon’s use of contemporaneous accounts, interviews, and illustrations contributes immensely to 'setting the record straight' regarding the impact, role, and significance of a group of historic figures often subverted by a male-dominated record industry and largely overlooked in the standard literature on the evolution of rock 'n' roll. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers."

-- D. V. Moskowitz Choice

"Rich, engrossing, and profoundly important. . . . Black Diamond Queens offers a long-overdue correction of the rock and roll historical record. And the final verdict? Black women rock."

-- Kimberly Mack Journal of Popular Music Studies

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
ONE. Rocking and Rolling with Big Mama Thornton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
TWO. LaVern Baker, the Incredible Disappearing Queen of Rock and Roll Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	52
THREE. Remembering the Shirelles Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	76
FOUR. Call and Response Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
FIVE. Negotiating “Brown Sugar” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
SIX. The Revolutionary Sisterhood of Labelle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
SEVEN. The Fearless Funk of Betty Davis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
EIGHT. Tina Turner’s Turn to Rock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 408

eBook

Published: October 9, 2020
ISBN: 9781478012771