The 100 most important women in pop – places 14 to 10

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 nineteenth teaser of the list of the 100 most important women in pop – places 14 to 10:

14th place: Grace Jones

Model, actress, society queen, regular guest at the New York posh disco Studio 54. Grace Jones only began her music career in 1977, at the age of 29. Four years later, with NIGHTCLUBBING, she created a total work of art that not only defined the 80s, but also had an impact far beyond. With her fifth album, the Jamaican artist wiped away the remnants of 70s rock left over from the iconoclasm of the New Wave, at least for a short time. Grace Jones had invented the future and it sounded electronic, ice cold and dehumanized. On the cover she presented herself as an androgynous creature with a crew cut and a cigarette in the corner of her mouth. “Feeling like a woman, looking like a man,” she sings in “Walking In The Rain” and opened all doors to gender fluidity.

Without her We wouldn’t know that pop culture is a conglomerate of music, image, fashion, style and art.

(Albert Koch)

13th place: Beyoncé

Queen B is a luminary in the live business, the master of musical revivals and a pop culture icon. Despite the notorious accusation of being a PR puppet, Beyoncé significantly advanced female autonomy and celebrated her artistic individuality. Back in 2008, she underlined the unequal power dynamics between the genders with “If I Were A Boy” and two years later delivered an anthem for women with “Run The World (Girls)”. The albums BEYONCÉ (2013) and LEMONADE (2016) made feminism a priority for Gen Z and “Flawless” became the soundtrack of pop feminism. The 42-year-old was and is a role model for female self-empowerment, and when she declared “I’m feelin’ myself” in 2014, many women followed suit.

Without her Family-oriented or figure-hugging women would have a much harder time as feminists.

(Christin Rodrigues)

12th place: Sylvia Robinson

Nobody fucks with this mother! Before Sylvia Robinson became the forefather of hip-hop, she had already had a steep career: in 1957 she created the evergreen “Love Is Strange” in the duo Mickey & Sylvia, and later produced soul hits for her own record company All Platinum before moving to the Club “Harlem World” hears MC Lovebug Starski freestyling over the beat of the summer hit, “Good Times” by Chic. Robinson offers him a recording, but he declines. Her son then introduces her to the hobby rapper Henry Jackson. Around this, Robinson casts the Sugarhill Gang and, as CEO of their new label Sugar Hill, releases the first hip hop hit ever: “Rapper’s Delight”. In 1981 she responded to a rap parody by Mel Brooks with the first answer song of the genre, “It’s Good To Be The Queen”. The following year, with the release of the socially critical “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, she made rap what it is still today in the USA: the CNN for black people.

Without her the dominant youth culture of the 21st century would be completely different.

(Stephan Rehm Rozanes)

11th place: Debbie Harry

As punk morphed into new wave, its beer-sweat masculinity disappeared, replaced by an androgynous elegance that Debbie Harry gave face and voice to. No one was as cool as the 5’1″ New Yorker from Andy Warhol’s circle, her bleached hair so striking that her band was named after him. Blondie not only led New Wave to the top of the charts, but also built a bridge to hip hop, which was emerging at the same time. One could accuse Harry of making the image she created a curse for future generations, but even she couldn’t single-handedly undermine capitalism: “Sex sells, that’s clear to me,” she wrote in her autobiography “Face It,” but If you do use the principle, then “at least on my terms, not on those of any manager.”

Without her The New York Dolls, for whom she worked as a driver before she became famous, would have been even less likely to be on time

(Thomas Winkler)

10th place: Joni Mitchell

Without having performed there or been there, Joni Mitchell wrote the anthem for the Woodstock Centenary Festival in 1969. The Canadian-born singer, guitarist and songwriter had the gift of spelling out her songs in a language that could convey the essence of events to the audience. Mitchell’s signature tune “Both Sides Now” has received more than 1,000 covers. She let her songs, which she soon recorded with jazz musicians (such as Charles Mingus), flow on open chords; Mitchell spoke of “exploring chords”, which formed a perfect backdrop for her sharp observations and the questions she asked about life . The ten-time Grammy winner became a world-class poet and role model for generations of songwriters. Shortly before her 80th birthday, she celebrated a live comeback in 2022.

Without her women in pop would only have been recognized as songwriters and producers much later.

(Frank Sawatzki)

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