How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music

This anthology of essays, interviews, and voice clips culled from NPR’s archives by editor Fensterstock (Turning the Tables) explores the historical impact of women in music. She is joined by NPR music critic Ann Powers, together with five additional narrators—Janina Edwards, Hillary Huber, Maggi-Meg Reed, Chanté McCormick, and Inés del Castillo—to recreate dozens of NPR stories and interviews of talents both renowned (Taylor Swift) and lesser-known (Skeeter Davis). The anthology is organized by topic—“Warriors,” “Listen to Your Body,” “Storytellers,” “Sweet Inspiration”—so that listeners can easily skip around or relisten to favorite passages. Interviews include Joan Baez explaining how nonviolence guided her music, Loretta Lynn detailing the origins of “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Tracy Chapman on writing music for herself, and Ani DiFranco discussing abortion in music. Details about a few women, including Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, and Queen Latifah, can be found under several topics. Source notations are given at the end of each entry. All narrators provide fully fleshed-out performances, as if doing a live broadcast, making their integration with the performer clips pop.