The 100 most important women in pop – places 34 to 30

Music knows no gender: the struck string, the stepped foot drum or the loop in the audio software – everything is completely gender-neutral. Nice thought, right?

But beyond the tone and beat, the charged theme certainly plays a role. Music, once it has left the instruments, is always context. Music depicts realities and also influences them.

There is no need to tell anyone today that pop and society have become more diverse over the decades. But anyone who likes to scratch their beard with all the movement and prefers to turn around again is a tradition-conscious pop culture canon. Countless lists are still topped by Dylan and the Beatles – Radiohead are still seen as young challengers here. This view may also have an appeal for some, but when it comes down to the argument that there are so few influential female musicians, then the lights dim.

We dedicate ourselves in the current MUSIKEXRESS hence all the influential women in the music business. As obvious as all of this may be, the impulses that female acts have given us in addition to their hits are still valuable. Keep it up, we’ve only just begun.

Here is a fifteenth teaser of the list of the 100 most important women in pop – places 34 to 30:

34th place: Amy Winehouse

Although Amy Winehouse only released two albums during her lifetime, she has etched herself into British music history like no other artist of the 2000s. With her unmistakable contralto voice, beehive hairstyle, strong eyeliner sweep and her iconic clothing style, she shaped the London zeitgeist. As tragic as her life and early death in the summer of 2011 were, which were shamelessly exploited by the British tabloid press, her songs move us more than 20 years after their release.

Without her Many artists would probably write less openly and vulnerable texts. Winehouse’s songs are characterized by their timelessness and enormous vulnerability, as well as intimate subjects such as toxic relationships and substance abuse.

(Louisa Zimmer)

33rd place: Alanis Morissette

Alanis Morissette hit teenagers’ bedrooms like a storm in the 90s with her smash hit “Ironic” from the successful album JAGGED LITTLE PILL. Your style? Wild! Leather pants, long, brown curls and an inimitable, loud rock voice. No one sang so heartbreakingly relentlessly about the pain of being replaced as she did in “You Oughta Know” and rapped so ironically about her lover’s shortcomings in “Sympathetic Character.” Her acclaimed, modern guest role as “God” in the cult movie “Dogma” will also remain unforgettable.

Without her Taylor Hawkins’ career would also have started later, because she hired the then unknown drummer for her live band before he found success with the Foo Fighters.

(Désirée Pezzetta)

32nd place: Tina Turner

The fact that women have value even without a man at their side, which arrived strangely late in the pop mainstream, is symbolized by no one as triumphantly, but also painfully, as Tina Turner. Not only did she manage to start a second career life without her exploiter and tormentor, but after a dry spell she was so successful that it outshined the first – and today hardly anyone knows who Ike Turner was. The role model was the first woman and first black artist on the cover of “Rolling Stone” in both lives: first Queen of Rock’n’Roll, later Queen of Soul-Pop.

Without her The world might have been spared the “rock tube” category.

(Thomas Winkler)

31st place: Siouxsie Sioux

While many London punks in 1976 didn’t yet know what styling would result from their attitude, Siouxsie Sioux was already entering the clubs with her trademark look: black, leather, bodice, red lipstick. As a musician, she showed no interest in punk rock; her debut LP THE SCREAM summed up the “jigsaw feeling” of the Goth movement. In the 80s Siouxsie & The Banshees released a fabulous series of major works. As a songwriter she combines darkness and light, as a singer she is still the blueprint for 99 percent of all neo-postpunk bands.

Without her Goth had no queen.

(André Bosse)

30th place: Billie Eilish

Billie Eilish is the standout pop star of the decade. With her experimental sounds, which sound like ASMR-like sequences set to music, and her dark lyrics, she enriches the pop world with a new kind of authenticity. Her open communication about mental health breaks taboos and represents a generation that doesn’t want to be stereotyped any further. The 22-year-old lives it by example and encourages young people to live a life beyond prescribed role models.

Without her existential themes and dark experimental sounds wouldn’t have made it into mainstream pop.

(Christin Rodrigues)

+++ Our current issue has been in stores since February 9th. There is a complete list of the 100 most important women in pop. Here we often share excerpts from the rankings. +++