The 100 most important women in pop – places 64 to 60

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 ninth teaser from the list of the 100 most important women in pop – places 64 to 60:

64th place: Umm Kulthum

The popularity of the Egyptian singer and musician can only be compared with that of the Beatles. During the golden age of her artistic work in the 1940s and 50s, she also gained control of her career, denounced political grievances and took on important functions in the music industry. Bob Dylan, Bono and even Maria Callas admired her voice.

Without her pop culture folklore would be completely different in the Arab world. Kulthum’s funeral in 1975 was a major international event that is still talked about today.

(Stephan Rehm Rozanes)

63rd place: Memphis Minnie

Lizzie Douglas, born near New Orleans in 1897, is a unique figure: completely unusual for a woman at the time, she played classic blues songs as Memphis Minnie and accompanied herself on the guitar. She helped to electrify the genre and was one of the first musicians to pick up the electric guitar.

Without her There would be no female counterpart to blues heroes like Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson today.

(David Numberger)

62nd place: Shirin David

Shirin David is one of the first to stand up for a feminism in the German music industry that doesn’t allow high heels and short skirts to be banned. Through her rap lyrics, the artist emphasizes that a piece of cloth does not turn a woman into a patriarchal victim, nor does it constitute consent for sexual assault or a lack of female intelligence.

Without her pop feminism would not have gained momentum in Germany.

(Christin Rodrigues)

61st place: Solange (Knowles)

With her third album A SEAT AT THE TABLE in 2016, the “little” sister of the big Beyoncé freed herself from the prison of clichéd mainstream pop. She translated her main theme – self-empowerment as a black, female person – into psychedelic neo-soul, which didn’t fit the commercial zeitgeist at all. Nevertheless, the album became her first number 1 in the USA.

Without her we wouldn’t know that pop can be a great art form.

(Albert Koch)

60th place: Dorothy Ashby

Extremely bad conditions for a music career in the 1950s: she played the harp, was black and a woman. But Dorothy Ashby managed to introduce the harp as a lead instrument into modern jazz, which she enriched with elements from R’n’B, funk and Far Eastern music.

Without her the harp would still have been an exotic accompanying instrument and artists like Alice Coltrane and Brandee Younger would not have been possible.

(Albert Koch)

+++ 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. +++