NPR's 150 Albums Made by Women

high five

Was Grace Slick in there? surely she defined and woman-ized the otherwise-male Jefferson Airplane in much the same way Kim Gordon did Sonic Youth?

I think the reasoning might be that Slick rarely had more than a few songs on any given Airplane release, and outside of those songs her biggest musical contributions were harmonies whereas Gordon had a bigger part of SY both in songwriting and as a bass/guitar player.

I say this because I can't be the only one who picked up Surrealistic Pillow after seeing it on umpteen 'Women In Rock' lists and being disappointed that the only Grace songs were the two I already knew from the radio.

So much good stuff and nothing I could think of that was missing, tho I didn't see Judee Sill?

Amy Winehouse ranked in top 10 is OTM - Such a great loss, the only one I think who could've brought doo-wop back again and make it fresh

I can think of lots of stuff missing but they are personal favorites and why would critical consensus overlap with them

yeah I can think of stuff missing now too like Vashti etc but i'm with you there on consensus

the fader came out with their own list of 150 more great records by women: http://www.thefader.com/2017/07/24/150-more-great-albums-made-by-women-npr-list

Still no Gal Costa. We need 150 more.

top 1000 or gtfo

iirc Nina Simone's rehabilitation into the mainstream happened because of two 90s movies.

Bridget Fonda's 'Point of No Return' in 1993 and, later, the use of "Sinnerman" in the remake of 'Thomas Crown Affair' in 1999.

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Jazmine Sullivan - Reality Show
Kathleen Edwards - Failer

They picked the wrong (or at least less correct) Rilo Kiley and Tegan and Sara records, but yes to these!

Joni Mitchell is one of the few artists represented twice on this list, including (deservedly) at the top, but still, surely, Court and Spark should have made it thrice. Also, where's Anne Briggs?

Re Simone, I remember hearing "My Baby Just Cares for Me" quite prominently in 1995's Shallow Grave.

i don't think the reasons why are really mysterious, but reading through the npr list it seemed disappointing to me - basically, like, inescapably bound to the meagerness that can seem to attach to 'great x by women' or 'important women who xed' counter-historical efforts, where it's always the same handful of examples set against the historically biased entirety of xing. it's like the '... by women' version of a rolling stone greatest albums list or whatever that ends up having sgt pepper's or revolver in the top slot, but the legacy conceptions driving the listmaking process are the artists' past starring-role involvement in '... by women' narratives.

and then looking at a list like the fader list, it seems way more like a list of great albums - i bet if it wasn't flagged as a list of albums by women it would even take a while to register that it even was.

Re Simone, I remember hearing "My Baby Just Cares for Me" quite prominently in 1995's Shallow Grave.

Yeah, that's another one. Her resurgence came via movie soundtracks.

Some other major omissions: Dolly Mixture - Demonstration Tapes, Heavenly - Le Jardin de Heavenly, Big Mama Thornton - With the Muddy Waters Blues Band. Of more recent stuff I would have included the most recent Julia Holter, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Chastity Belt probably as well. But that's just me.

Slapp Happy - Acnalbasac Noom would have been a kick to see here as well.

Looking forward to a bunch of dudes criticizing the list.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

looking forward to endless bickering about #109

lol at npr confusing aynsley dunbar and sly dunbar

Still no Gal Costa. We need 150 more.

― Frederik B, Monday, July 24, 2017 7:06 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's really hard for me to look at this as anything other than "a list of records" given the selection criteria and this is still an awful omission

stuff like mirah, hanne hukkelberg, slapp happy and perhacs are omissions but more of a personal nature and the list is as others have mentioned, hit heavy

That's a lot of bad music on that list there, tell you what.

Some good stuff, too, though.

Btw, Peggy Lee made some pretty outstanding albums from 1964 on, including the one they dipped into for the Mad Men finale, Is That All There Is?. I realize she was no Britney Spears or Robyn, but still.

Re Jefferson Airplane: I understand C. Grissom's point, and his explanation for their absence is probably dead on, but for me Slick's centrality to the band can't be quantified by songwriting credits or number of vocal turns. Her two songs on Surrealistic Pillow dwarf the rest of the album in terms of public awareness--they shouldn't, there are other great songs, but they do--and my own sense as a teenager in the mid-'70s, when I bought Worst Of, was that she was the face of the band. I knew her name long before I knew Marty Balin's or Paul Kantner's.

The Sings Johnny Mercer Song Book is an excellent Ella pick, but for a second there I indulged in - wha-wha-what, this lower than Adele - type listicle outrage!

5. Missy Elliott
Supa Dupa Fly (The Goldmind/Elektra, 1997)
This album dismantled the hip-hop boy's club. For the first time in history a woman rapped, sang, wrote and produced every song on a major rap release.

I dunno if it makes sense to suggest the hip hop boys club was dismantled in 1997, but that's just contemporary journalism, and I wouldn't want to argue against praise in favor of this album. However, I'm surprised by the suggestion that Missy produced this album since it's usually assumed to be (and certainly sounds like) an all Timbaland production. Anyone know more about Missy's role as producer on this?

looking forward to commenters looking forward to the 150 albums made by men

...list

surprised to not see any Sarah McLachlan on this

Sandy Denny? Shirley Collins? June Tabor? Maddy Prior?

Finding space for Adele while snubbing Mahalia Jackson absolutely sucks as well! But lists eh? They are all nonsense.

Needed to be 1,500 albums.

looking forward to commenters looking forward to the 150 albums made by men

― plp will eat itself (NickB), Tuesday, July 25, 2017 9:12 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

was bloody waiting for someone to say this

Sure but were you looking forward to it?

Yeah, was waiting as well. Really didn't want to be the one to say it.

i personally would've loved to have seen mary margaret o'hara on that list but there are a good number of records that i've never actually listened to before so it's nice to be reminded to check them out without the usual manbands clogging the place up

I honestly think the NPR list is pretty exciting. The top 10 manages to consist of albums that both seem like no-brainers, but also for a lot of them isn't included on a lot of lists. It's a great counter-canon, even - perhaps especially - as it doesn't really seem to want to be that.

as it doesn't really seem to want to be that.

The intro is titled "A New Canon: In Pop Music, Women Belong At The Center Of The Story." "In building a new canon..." turns up below.

Which is fine. But I don't think you can say there's not a conscious effort to do exactly that.

Ok, fair point.

(I agree with you if you focus on the "counter-" part. They seem to be fine with including a lot of old standbys.)

While y'all wait for the 'what about the top 150 albums made by men?' comments, I'll await the 'how about giving some credit to all of the men involved in the top 150 albums made by women?' comments.

The majority of my favorite music is woman-centric. More lists like this, please.

This is what happens when I'm up early waiting for the A/C guy to come and do an inspection. I end up posting about the minutiae of canons and counter-canons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spYW0gutg38

They did a pretty decent job of hitting most of the majors. Beyond personal favorites who I wouldn't really have expected to see, I can only think of a handful of glaring omissions off the top of my head: Karen Dalton, Cat Power, Minnie Riperton, Janis Ian, Young Marble Giants. Maybe like Juliana Hatfield and/or Mary Timony.

http://www.thefader.com/2017/07/24/150-more-great-albums-made-by-women-npr-list/amp?utm_source=f&utm_medium=fb&utm_campaign=share

Clearly no one cares about Dionne Warwick (is it that there's a stated or implied rule about compilations?), no one cares about Sandy Denny/Fairport Convention, and no one thinks the Jefferson Airplane qualify. Some good stuff, though.

glad the Fader list catches Stereolab. In addition to the Brit folk oversights mentioned so far (Shirley Collins most egregious for me), Linda Thompson is being overlooked, and Anne Briggs as well.

yeah i was surprised by the lack of cat power...has her critical clout fallen that far?

so did neko case call in and say keep me the fuck away from your list orrrrrrrrrrr...

5. Missy Elliott
Supa Dupa Fly (The Goldmind/Elektra, 1997)
This album dismantled the hip-hop boy's club. For the first time in history a woman rapped, sang, wrote and produced every song on a major rap release.

Agreed that this um description is annoying at best - Timbaland has the producer credit on it, and it's kind of annoying how women get erased from hip hop history when they were prominent from the very beginning, from Sweet Tee to JJ Fad to MC Lyte etc etc

yeah i was surprised by the lack of cat power...has her critical clout fallen that far?

yup! no tUNEyARDS either

Kim Kelly is tweeting a list of 150 metal albums by women.

Clearly no one cares about Dionne Warwick (is it that there's a stated or implied rule about compilations?)

Yeah, kind of assume a lot of women active in the '60s or earlier are unfairly shut out of the list because coherent albums weren't as much a thing.

If compilations were fair game, this list should've had One Kiss Can Lead to Another number one with a bullet.

I’m thinking this might be a bad time to shop around the “Why Rock and Roll Needs to Be Left to the Men” piece I’ve been working on the past few months.