Black women's contribution to American music deserves to be recognized and celebrated. To that end, we offer a playlist based on contributor Briana N. Spivey’s (available in full on Apple Music). Inspired by Maureen Mahon’s Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll, this list explores the immense musical diversity of the Black female vocalists who helped to create the genre of rock and roll even as they were marginalized and excluded from it.
Some of these songs and singers are more widely familiar than others. Hearing them all together, one is struck by the richness and variety of these artist’s sonic styles. There are the barnstorming blues vocals of Big Mama Thornton on these under-recognized recordings of songs that became rock hits for white artists. There is that nostalgic, melancholy girl-group sound of The Shirelles on classics like “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” From the artfully abrasive funk of Betty Davis’ Nasty Gal to the code-switching skill of Darlene Love and The Blossoms’ backup vocals, to the familiar anthems of Tina Turner’s genre-bending career, it’s evident that Black women’s complex voices and aesthetics have shaped American music as we know it.