Although Selena Quintanilla Pérez, better known as Selena, followed in the footsteps of pioneering Tejana (Texas-Mexican) women solo singers such as Lydia Mendoza, Chelo Silva, Laura Canales, and Patsy Torres—as well as influential duos like Carmen y Laura, Las Hermanas Cantú, and Las Hermanas Gongora—she made the most significant impact in transforming both the sound of Tejano music and popular culture. Selena began singing at the age of 6, after her father, Abraham, recognized her remarkable vocal talent. Although she loved singing, performing did not come naturally to Selena. As she recalled in an interview, “I started singing when I was six and a half and we’d perform for relatives. My father would do this show-off-the-kids type of thing. I was very shy, and I hated it. I used to cry and throw my little tantrums. I didn’t want to sing in front of anybody because I was too shy.”
Selena tribute mural in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico.
A former member of the doo-wop band Los Dinos, Abraham served as the family’s primary musical influence and quickly involved Selena’s older siblings in her musical journey. Her brother, A.B., became the lead guitarist and producer of much of her music, while her sister, Suzette, stood out as the only prominent female drummer in contemporary Tejano music. Originally, the group performed under the name Southern Pearl and was deeply influenced by country music. Selena’s early performances took place in the family’s restaurant, Papagallo’s, where she regularly sang for customers, and one of her first live performances on television was on the local program The Johnny Canales show in Corpus Christi, Texas.
A Selena fan’s jacket.
Although Selena’s performances at local venues launched her career as a vocalist, she faced significant challenges finding audiences in larger venues. As she explained in an interview, “When we started performing . . . we struggled because when you’re a new group, no one’s going go pay money to see you, especially if you’re not with a large recording company, if you don’t have distribution, or publicity, or any promotion. You’re just there. It’s very difficult. Another problem was that I was so young and a girl. And, with a lot of promoters–and it still exists, although not as much as before–there’s the issue of machismo. They would tell my father straight to his face, ‘Not only is she too young, but there’s no way she could draw like a male artist.’ And, with that my father, the more the people shut doors on him, the more determined he becomes to prove them wrong.” By 1994, estimates of Selena’s net worth exceeded $5 million, yet she continued to live in the working class Molina neighborhood of Corpus Christi, next door to her parents.
A 1994 performance in San Antonio, Texas. Photo credit: Yvette Chavez.
Posing with her younger fans.
One of Selena’s greatest accomplishments was the remarkable success she achieved within the Tejano music genre. Not only did she open the door for a new generation of young women to enter the field, but she also expanded the reach of Tejano music to audiences it had never previously reached. While established Tejano groups like La Mafia and Mazz had built followings in northern Mexico and Mexico City, Selena y Los Dinos brought this distinct cultural sound to Puerto Rico, Central America, and across Mexico. At the time of her death, the group had scheduled tours in Chile, Brazil, and Venezuela. Unlike any Tejano artist before her, Selena both transformed the genre and brought its regional identity to a wider international stage.
Selena’s remarkable creative talents also extended into the realms of fashion and design. From a young age, she devoted herself to clothing design, often creating and sewing many of the outfits she wore during her concerts. Early sketches and drawings reveal her ambition to launch her own fashion line, which she initially named Moonchild–a reference to the Greek origin of her name. In 1992, Selena realized that dream by launching her own clothing line and opening the first Selena Etc. Boutique-Salon in Corpus Christi, Texas. She later expanded with a second boutique in San Antonio.
The library of the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute) in Paris is home to an extensive collection of writings on music from the Arab world, a region stretching from the Atlas Mountains to the Indian Ocean. This series of blog posts highlights selections from this collection, along with abstracts written by RILM staff members contained inRILM Abstracts of Music Literature, the comprehensive bibliography of writings about music and music-related subjects.
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New, alternative, or underground music in the Arab world is not quite underground. It might be hidden, but in plain sight. Local in expression, it is global in its reach. Its new sounds defy and redefine the old. It protests it. It embraces it. It carries the youth’s inclination to break from norms as well as their yearning to belong. Classifying music as “new” in the Arab world can be fraught with assumptions indeed. From creating DJ samples that draw young clubgoers in Tunisia and protest hip hop in Ramallah to the remixing of ṭarab music in electronic music scenes, young Arab musicians are not short of imagination. These repertoires–the music of a young generation–reveal a whole new world.
In Tunisia, the words of rapper Hamada ben Amor became an anthem for the revolution, while in Libya, rapper Ibn Thabit gained prominence in 2009 for his critiques of the Gaddafi regime. In Egypt, the band Cairokee merged the Egyptian old with reggae beats and rock drums. In Lebanon, Mashrou’ Leila’s lyrics defied societal norms of gender and sexuality. In Morocco, Arabic and Berber became rap’s first tongue, and the local gnawa and chaabi came to incorporate elements of reggae and rock. Across the region, young women musicians have taken center stage, defying stereotypes and asserting the slogan ṣawt al-mar’aẗ ṯawraẗ صوت المرأة ثورة (a woman’s voice is a revolution). Outside of the Arab world, alternative, underground, and new music scenes have emerged among immigrant communities, notably in Europe and North America. Local and diasporic musical scenes connect on streaming platforms and Instagram pages, through YouTube clicks, “like” buttons, and TikTok “repost”.
Mashrou’ Leila from Lebanon.
New or alternative music styles proliferated across the region in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring, which provided an outlet for youth to express their frustrations with prevailing sociopolitical realities and articulate their aspirations for the future. As a revolutionary ethos dominated public discourse, activists created alternative public spaces for dissent, where they expressed their views on political and social issues and created art and music. These new musical forms became the soundtrack of popular movements, largely sustained by youth ages 15–29, a demographic constituting approximately 30 percent of the population of the Arab world in 2019.[1]
A performance by the Lebanese alternative rock band, Who Killed Bruce Lee, at the Institut du Monde Arabe in 2017.
Academic studies of emerging styles and scenes have remained limited as scholarly engagement is marked by long research periods and publication processes. However, other genres of writing have successfully captured and commented on these musical phenomena in real time. The annotated bibliography of journalistic, artistic, and academic writing below presents select titles that document, and in some cases analyze, the rise of the stylistic innovation that characterize the music of a new, young Arab generation.
Written and compiled by Farah Zahra, Associate Editor, RILM
[1] Arab Barometer, “Youth in Middle East and North Africa”, https://www.arabbarometer.org/wp-content/uploads/ABV_Youth_Report_Public-Opinion_Middle-East-North-Africa_2019-1.pdf
Annotated bibliography
Brehony, Louis. Palestinian music in exile: Voices of resistance (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2023). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2023-22405; IMA catalogue reference].
A historical and contemporary study of Palestinian music in exile in the Middle East, spanning half a century in disparate and undocumented locations. Based on seven years of research in Europe and the Middle East, stories show creatively divergent and revolutionary performances and compositions springing from conditions of colonialism and repression, and contributing to a transnational aesthetics of resistance. Interviews were conducted with musicians in Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank, and Turkey, including musician Rīm Kīlānī, singer and composer Tāmir Abū Ġazālaẗ, singer Rawān ʿUkāšaẗ, composers and ʿūd players Saʿīd Silbāq and Aḥmad al-H̱aṭīb, percussionist Fāris ʿAnbar, and guitarists Aḥmad Ḥaddād and Tāriq Ṣalḥiyyaẗ, among others.
Burkhalter, Thomas, Kay Dickinson, and Benjamin J. Harbert (eds.). The Arab avant-garde: Music, politics, modernity (Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 2013). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2013-8734; IMA catalogue reference]
From jazz trumpeters drawing on the noises of warfare in Beirut to female heavy metal performers in Alexandria, Arab culture offers a wealth of exciting, challenging, and diverse musics. The plethora of compositional and improvisational techniques, performance styles, political motivations, professional trainings, and intercontinental collaborations that claim the mantle of innovation within Arab and Arab diaspora music are examined. Engaging the “avant-garde”–a term with Eurocentric resonances–disturbs that presumed exclusivity, drawing on and challenging a growing body of literature about alternative modernities. (publisher blurb)
Clémente-Ruiz, Aurélie. Hip hop: Du Bronx aux rues Arabes [Hip hop: From the Bronx to Arab streets] (Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe; Gent: Snoeck, 2015). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2015-89747; IMA catalogue reference].
Issued as part of the exhibition Hip Hop, du Bronx aux Rues Arabes organized by the Institut du Monde Arabe in 2015. Hip hop is approached not simply as a genre but as an aesthetic, a lifestyle in perpetual evolution and a continuous transformation. Articles by multiple authors covering various topics and aspects of hip hop history and its adaptation by contemporary Arab artists are included.
Caubet, Dominique and Amine Hamma. Jil Lklam: Poètes urbains [Jil Lklam: Urban poets] (Mohammedia: Senso Unico Éditions; Casablanca: Éditions du Sirocco, 2016). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2016-56443; IMA catalogue reference].
The Moroccan music scene that emerged in the mid-1990s has become a crucial part of the overall cultural scene of the country. Rappers, slammers, reggae musicians, creators of metal music and nonmusic genres such as graffiti and break dance have all initiated an urban movement that mixes genres and contributes to a multicultural Morocco. The evolution of discourse emerging from the underground scene to the public sphere is explored, with attention to the lyrics of songs expressing a young generation’s interest in taboo subjects, cool music, and tough texts. Eloquent, humorous, sensitive, angry, and poetic, this creative and rebellious generation expresses, in multilingual tongues—vernacular Amazigh mixed with French, English, and Spanish–its love for its homeland along with its desire for dignity, freedom, and a better future. This generation adapted the U.S. counterculture’s ethos of do-it-yourself and solidarity while using new technology and social media to share its music. Interviews with experts on the new music scene, a selection of song texts shared in their original language and translated to French, and rich iconography are included. (publisher blurb)
Daoudi, Bouziane and Hadj Miliani. Beurs’ mélodies: Cent ans de chansons immigrées du blues berbère au rap beur [Beur melodies: One hundred years of immigrant song from Berber blues to Beur rap] (Paris: Séguier, 2002). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2002-17097; IMA catalogue reference].
More than any other form of expression, North African immigrant song recounts the often painful chronology, frustrations, hopes, and imaginings of thousands of men and women who came to France beginning in 1890. North African artists are unique in the French musical landscape, expressing themselves through multiple musical vectors such as chanson, rock, rap, reggae, and raï. (translated from the publisher blurb)
Deval, Frédéric. “Les échelles du Levant” [The scales of the Levant] Qantara 54 (hiver 2004-05) 21–23. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2004-47631; IMA catalog reference].
An interview with the Lebanese composer and pianist Zad Moultaka about his composition techniques integrating elements of Western art music and the Arab maqām. The piece Zarani for piano, ʿūd, and darbūkaẗ is analyzed.
Domat, Chloé. “L’effervescence de la scène ‘indé’ libanaise” [The effervescence of the Lebanese indie scene] Qantara 91 (printemps 2014) 22-23. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2014–96209; IMA catalog reference].
The Lebanese indie music scene has seen the flourishing of groups drawing on multiple musical sources. Born spontaneously in an eclectic musical landscape, the scene’s musicians have appropriated underground spaces which they maintain through new technologies and away from the commercial music industry. (translated from the article’s introduction)
El-Sakka, Abaher. “Mohammed Assaf: Portre-parole d’une jeunesse mondialisée” [Muḥammad ʿAssāf: A spokesperson for a globalized youth], Le monde arabe existe-t-il (encore)?, ed. by Chirine El Messiri. Araborama 1 (Paris: Institut du Monde Arabe; Seuil, 2020) 52–55. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2020-76899; IMA catalogue reference].
In 2013, the young Palestinian singer Muḥammad ʿAssāf from Gaza rose to fame as the winner of the second season of Arab idol, a singing talent TV program produced by MBC TV. His background as a refugee from a Palestinian camp resonated with audiences, evoking a sense of empathy and solidarity. Since his victory, ʿAssāf has toured internationally and served as a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO and UNRWA. Through his tours and performances, he used media, youth culture, and his artistic talent, to reach audiences beyond national boundaries.
Palestinian singer Muḥammad ʿAssāf performs on Arab Idol.
El Zein, Rayya. “Resisting ‘resistance’: On political feeling in Arabic rap concerts”, Arab subcultures: Transformations in theory and practice, ed. by Layal Ftouni and Tarik Sabry. Library of modern Middle East studies (London; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2016) 83–112. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2016-56445; IMA catalogue reference].
Explores the ways in which young Arab rap artists navigate the contradictions in the urban and public spheres in everyday life. The discourse of resistance permeating scholarship on rap and hip hop in the Arab world is critiqued and perceived as an expression of neoliberal power. Within the context of the rap scenes in Beirut and Ramallah, political feeling is expressed through objection, confrontation, repetition—a set of processes that hinges on collective action and solidarity rather than individual agency. Interactions, as such, should not be labeled as political but should be approached as subversive in their own terms. Conclusions are based on ethnographic studies conducted in Beirut and Ramallah, where interviews and conversations were conducted and exchanges between artists and audiences were observed.
Houssais, Coline. “La Tunisie entre rap et rage” [Tunisia between rap and rage] Qantara 99 (printemps 2016) 22–23. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2016-60281; IMA catalog reference].
The Tunisian rap scene has become the forum for a youth generation deprived of their revolution. Neglected by political power, young Tunisians turn to rap to express their frustrations and aspirations. The documentary Tunisia clash (2015) directed by Hind Meddeb covers the rap scene during and in the aftermath of the 2011 Tunisian Revolution. (translated from the article’s introduction)
Isherwood, Gustav. “The hip-hop resistance: Forging unity in the Arab diaspora”, Review of Middle East studies 48:1-2 (2014) 24–33. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2014-86897; IMA catalogue reference].
Examines the role of hip hop in motivating, supporting, and unifying political resistance movements and revolutionary activity in various Arab countries.
Mezouane, Rabah. “Alger qui rappe, Oran qui raï” [Algiers raps and Oran plays raï] Qantara 26 (été 1999) 22–23. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 1999-66771; IMA catalog reference].
Describes the rap music scene in Algiers and the raï music scene in Oran. In each city, young singers and musicians are shaping the sounds of Algerian popular music and reaffirming their cultural identity.
Pillault, Théophile. “Les mondes de Deena Abdelwahed” [The worlds of Deena Abdelwahed] Qantara 104 (été 2017) 19–20. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2017-93296; IMA catalog reference].
With her recent release on the prestigious electronic music label InFiné, Tunisian DJ Deena Abdelwahed introduced her compositions to the heart of the new Mediterranean electronic scene. (translated from the article’s introduction)
Deena Abdelwahed’s 2019 Tawab (Remixes) album cover.
Pillault, Théophile. “Au coeur de la nouvelle scène tunisienne” [At the heart of the new Tunisian scene] Qantara 96 (été 2015) 22–23. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2015-92520; IMA catalog reference].
All the way through a revolution, three years of institutional crisis, a new constitution, political tensions, and the horror of the Bardo National Museum attack, Tunisia was fighting for a space of freedom. At the same time, Tunisian youth went out and experienced new music on dance floors. A short interview with DJ Haze-M is included. (translated from the article’s introduction)
Poché, Christian. “L’Occident, nouveau creuset de la musique arabe” [The West: The new melting-pot of Arab music] Qantara 66 (hiver 2007–08) 22–23. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2008-53699; IMA catalog reference].
Arab music displays some original and unexpected aspects in the West. Whether addressing an Arab diaspora or a European audience, Arab musicians explore influences, present confrontations between genres, perform with musicians of different origins, all while revisiting their own musical traditions. (translated from the article’s introduction)
Salah, Alaa and Martin Roux. Le chant de la révolte: Le soulèvement soudanais raconté par son icône [The song of the revolution: The Sudanese uprising as told by its icon] (Lausanne: Favre, 2021). [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-108638; IMA catalogue reference].
In April 2019, the Sudanese revolution entered a decisive phase. At the end of four months of repressed demonstrations, protesters reached the outskirts of the army headquarters: they demanded the resignation of General Omar al-Bashir, the dictator in place in Khartoum for 30 years. His reign was marked by wars in South Sudan and Darfur and the oppression of women and all dissident voices. The youth of the country, where more than half of the population was under 25, dreamed of freedom. Suddenly, an image imposed this revolution on television news and the front page of international daily newspapers. Ālā’ Ṣalāḥ appeared a few days before the leader’s fall. Draped in white, an angry index finger pointing towards the sky, the young woman overlooked a crowd of thousands of demonstrators. As she chanted her revolutionary poetry, her gesture propelled her to the rank of a revolutionary icon and gave the Sudanese uprising a title: the revolution of women. Ultimately, Ālā’ became a leading figure in a revolution of a generation that finally tasted hope and a country engaged on a fragile path towards democracy. (translated from the publisher blurb)
Shalaby, Nadia A. “A multimodal analysis of selected Cairokee songs of the Egyptian revolution and their representation of women”, Women, culture, and the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution, ed. by Dalia Said Mostafa (London: Routledge, 2017) 59–81. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2017-90149; IMA catalogue reference].
Analyzes the music videos Ṣawt al-ḥurriyyaẗ (Voice of freedom), Yā al-mīdān (Oh, Tahrir Square), and Iṯbat makānak (Stand your ground) by the Egyptian band Cairokee. The three music videos were released during the year following the breakout of the Egyptian revolution on 25 January 2011, and each reflects the popular mood accompanying the phases of the revolution. The creation and reception of meaning through these music videos is a product of lyrics, music, and other semiotic resources such as visual cues, photographs, camera angles, framing, range of shots, and gaze. The visual design of each music video is discussed to show how multimodal discourse is formed through the employment of various visual, verbal, and musical modes. Finally, the presence and the agency of women in the three music videos are analyzed following the same analytical model.
Stocker, Valérie and Guillaume Thomassin. “Libye underground” [Underground music in Libya] Qantara 82 (hiver 2011-12) 22–23. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2011-54272; IMA catalog reference].
The underground music scene in Tripoli reflects societal shifts beyond mainstream visibility and in response to state-sponsored musical genres and censorship. Since 2011, the increasing availability of the Internet has provided young Libyans access to global musical genres, which they have adapted to articulate the unique concerns and identities of their generation. French reggae, rap, and pop-rock have been adapted and used as vehicles for social commentary and resistance.
Zegnani, Sami. “Le public du rap: Un révélateur des transformations de la société” [The rap audience: An indicator of social change], Tunisie, l’après 2011: Enquête sur les transformations de la société tunisienne [Tunisia, post-2011: Survey about the transformations of Tunisian society], ed. by France Guérin-Pace and Hassène Kassar (Aubervilliers: Institut national d’études démographiques, 2022) 197–211. [RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-28461; IMA catalogue reference].
Investigates the socio-demographics of Tunisian rap fans, considering age, gender, education level, profession, economic level, place of residence (urban and rural), political and religious affiliations, and extent of access to the Internet.
On March 1, 1954, the U.S. military detonated Castle Bravo, its most powerful nuclear bomb, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Marshallese residents were evacuated to a nearby atoll two days later without their consent. For the next 75 years, Marshallese music has responded to the profound impacts of U.S. nuclear militarism on their homeland. This music reflects their religious, cultural, and political struggles to make visible the devastating consequences of nuclear violence. Marshallese singing in particular has become a powerful means of addressing the literal silencing of their voices, affected by radiation, as well as the broader suppression of information about the human radiation study.
U.S. Navy building new homes for Marshall Islands residents on Rongerik in 1946.
Composed during and after the nuclear testing era, Marshallese radiation songs offer insight into the processes of imperial ruination, rupture, and fragmentation by reflecting the pervasive impact of radioactive decay. Radiation songs reveal how radiation can be made sensible, illuminating the ways in which the U.S. nuclear project can be considered in terms of imperial ruination. U.S. geopolitical strategies have relied on systematically displacing the Marshallese from their indigenous agency, which is deeply rooted in their matrilineal culture. The performances of women from the Rongelapese community embody the presence of radiation, both in the lyrical content and the affective resonance of their music. These performances trace vocalized moments of decay, conveying how the physical and emotional aftermath of nuclear devastation is embodied and shared within their community.
This according to Radiation sounds: Marshallese music and nuclear silences by Jessica A. Schwartz (Durham: Duke University Press, 2021; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature 2021-4549) and “Listening to radioactive rubble: Vocal decay, gender, and nuclear ruination in the Marshall Islands” by Jessica A. Schwartz (Twentieth-century music 19/2 [2022] 200–208; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-3395).
August 29 is the International Day against Nuclear Tests. The image at the beginning of the post is of the Baker explosion, a nuclear explosion test conducted by the U.S. at the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands in 1946.
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In the post 1970 revolution era, women musicians in Iran, especially women vocalists, have represented a challenge to societal norms and have inspired new musical trends. Such trends, however, have largely been inconsistent with the gendered restrictions of the Iranian state’s cultural policies which limit the musical activities of women, especially singing in public. Iranian society has long been one where religion and politics have been integrated into everyday life. With Islam as the official state ideology, this integration has been felt even more deeply. There is, however, a significant gap between such cultural policies, dominant official discourse, and the changing spiritual, intellectual, and cultural needs of Iranian society.
In this context, the emergence of women solo singers performing in public is unprecedented in Iranian history and must be understood in terms of the political, social, and intellectual changes of the late 19th and early 20th century. These changes included different processes of modernization including greater communication politically with the international community, the opening of modern schools, the establishment of a printing press, the creation of a modern educated or intellectual class (munavar al-fekr), the emergence of a literary renaissance movement (Bazgasht-i adabi), and a change in the country’s constitution. The Iranian public, especially the urban educated class, at the turn of the 20th century longed for changes in gender norms and for the participation of women in social and cultural spheres, including in the public performance of music. The early period of the Constitutional Revolution marked the beginning of Iranian classical music concerts performed in public. It was not until 1924, however, when the singer Qamar al-Moluk Vazirizade (better known as Qamar) gave her first concert at Tehran Grand Hotel, that an Iranian woman would perform before an audience of men in public.
Qamar was born in the small city of Qazvin but later moved to Tehran where she adopted her family name in honor of Ali-Naqi Vaziri, an Iranian musician who improved the social status of musicians and expanded the role of women in music. Qamar lost her father a month before she was born, and her mother died when she was only 18 months old. She was raised by her grandmother, Khair al- Nesa’, a reciter of the Qur’an and a religious professional narrator for women-only audiences (rouzeh-khani). Khair al Nesa’, who was known for her strong reciting voice, quickly took notice of Qamar’s interest in singing and encouraged her to join the performances–making them more captivating and helping Qamar to cultivate her singing voice. Qamar later recounted, “Those singing experiences in my childhood gave me the courage to sing in public”. Similar to the renowned Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum, Qamar’s professional career as a singer was influenced by and connected to her religious background.
From 1927 to 1937, Qamar’s career flourished, and she became one of the first Iranian singers to record for the gramophone market. Some of her songs reflected the social conditions and hardships faced by Iranian people after World War I. Furthermore, her recordings were even performed in public spaces such as theaters. Qamar is generally known to have played a significant role in the development of Persian classical music as a genre and expanded its popularity in aristocratic circles to wider society in the early 20th century.
Learn more in “Voicing their presence: Postrevolution Iranian female vocalists in context” by Malihe Maghazei [Popular communication XV/3 (2017), 233–247]. Find it in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature.
Listen to a recording by Qamar al-Moluk Vazirizade below.
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Women have been part of hip hop expression from its early days, primarily as part of MC crews such as the Funky Four Plus One and Sugar Hill’s female group, Sequence. For most of hip hop’s recorded history, however, women MCs were mostly seen as novelty acts, with a few exceptions. In the mid-1980s, some female artists were popularized momentarily through answer songs, which ridiculed popular songs by male acts. These answer songs included Roxanne Shante’s Roxanne’s revenge (responding to UTFO’s 1984 song Roxanne, Roxanne) and Pebblee Poo’s Fly guy (responding to the Boogie Boys’ 1985 song A fly girl).
MC Lyte strikes a pose.The early rap group, Sequence.
Some of the most enduring female hip hop acts released premiere albums in 1986. Salt-N-Pepa was the most commercially successful hip hop group with its first album, Hot, cool and vicious. Queen Latifah emphasized strong social messages and women’s empowerment on her first album, All hail the queen. MC Lyte recorded her first album, Lyte as a feather, at this time. Many women artists who appeared or recorded during the early 1990s adopted the extant masculine-oriented hip hop images prevalent in hardcore rap music. MC Lyte, for example, recorded a hardcore album in 1993 entitled Ain’t no other–the album’s first hit single, Ruffneck, was MC Lyte’s first gold-selling single. After the decline of gangsta rap music in the mid- to late 1990s, women remained on the periphery of mainstream hip hop, apart from the occasional pop hit, such as the platinum-selling Atlanta-based artist Da Brat’s Funkdafied (1994).
Cover art for Lil’ Kim’s Hardcore and Foxy Brown’s Ill na na.“Supa dupa fly” Missy Elliot.
By the late 1990s, artists such as Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown publicly celebrated or exploited female sexuality through explicit lyrics and widespread publicity campaigns that presented these scantily clad artists as sex symbols. For the most part, however, women artists failed to receive respect within the hip hop community as competent MCs and recording artists, although achieving mainstream success. Many of the writers and producers for the female groups were men, particularly through the late 1990s. The year 1998, however, was pivotal for women in hip hop, especially as rapper-producer-songwriter Missy Elliot began gaining notoriety with her debut album, Supa dupa fly (1997).
Learn more in The Garland encyclopedia of world music. The United States and Canada (2013). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.
Below are some videos from this early period of hip featuring women rappers. First up is the music video for Queen Latifah’s Ladies first, followed by Roxanne Shante performing Roxanne’s revenge (on VHS tape from around 1984!), and a 1985 recording of Pebblee Poo’s Fly guy.
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Amália Rodrigues was born into a family of immigrants from the northern province of Beira Baixa in 1920. She initially performed as an amateur at local clubs before starting her self-taught professional career at the age of 19 in Lisbon’s fado clubs. From 1940 to 1946 she appeared in various productions of traditional Portuguese vaudeville (revista), playing the lead in the two films in 1947 Capas Negras and Fado. The film História de uma Cantadeira consolidated her reputation as a fado star. Amália’s first international performance took place in 1943 at the invitation of the Portuguese embassy in Madrid. From 1944 to 1946 she had two major engagements in Brazil, where she made her first recordings in 1945 for the Brazilian label Continental.
In 1950 she began recording for the Lisbon music label Valentim de Carvalho, to which she returned in 1961 after briefly switching to the French label Ducretet-Thompson in 1958. In 1949, Amália sang in Paris and London under the patronage of the Portuguese government. As part of the Marshall Plan cultural program in 1950, she gave a series of concerts in Berlin, Rome, Trieste, Dublin, Bern, and Paris. Some of these concerts were broadcast globally by The Voice of America (VOA) radio network, which contributed significantly to making her better known internationally. Although the Portuguese government supported her first international appearances, Rodrigues’ career was not dependent on political protection, especially considering her performances in communist Romania and the Soviet Union.
In 1952 she successfully performed a series of concerts at the New York club La Vie en Rose over the course of several weeks. This was followed by tours of Mexico and the United States, where she performed in 1953 as a guest on the Eddy Fisher Show. In 1955, she appeared in the French film Les Amants du Tage and recorded her hit song Barco negro. The film achieved record sales in France which led to an invitation to perform at the Olympia in Paris, the most renowned music hall in Europe at the time. Over the next two decades, Amália gave concerts throughout Europe, Brazil, the United States, Japan, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East and performed at many festivals, including two appearances at the Brasov Festival in socialist Romania.
In the 1970s, Amália became a scapegoat for fado’s perceived ties to fascism after the genre became associated with the regimes of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, the dictator who ruled Portugal from 1932 to 1968, and Marcelo Caetano until 1974. Contradicting her reputation as a fascist sympathizer, Amália tapped into fado’s earlier radical tradition staying ahead of the censors by singing artfully subversive songs with lyrics inspired by socialist and anarchist poets and donating to underground antifascist political organizations. She continued to record and perform until 1990 and retired from public life in 1994 for health reasons that had already affected the quality of her voice. Amália received numerous awards and decorations both in her native Portugal and internationally.
This according to the newly published entry on Amália Rodrigues in MGG Online. Listen to her recording Saudades de ti at the link below.
On this Valentine’s Day, let’s look at an article that analyzes the 100 most popular songs between 1958 and 1998 for performer demographics and expressions of love.
In the 1990s women and black artists recorded more hits than in earlier periods; over time, references to love in lyrics performed by women artists decreased. References to sex in lyrics peaked between 1976 and 1984, when women used sexual references five times more than men; however, between 1991 and 1998, men used more sexual references.
Later songs and songs performed by white female artists expressed greater selfishness; the quality of love expressed in the lyrics remained the same.
The main entrance to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’s exhibition Lou Reed: Caught between the twisted stars opens up on Lincoln Plaza, directly adjacent to the The Metropolitan Opera house. On a sunny day, the Met’s … Continue reading →
Seven strings/Сім струн (dedicated to Uncle Michael)* For thee, O Ukraine, O our mother unfortunate, bound, The first string I touch is for thee. The string will vibrate with a quiet yet deep solemn sound, The song from my heart … Continue reading →
Introduction: Dr. Philip Ewell, Associate Professor of Music at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, posted a series of daily tweets during Black History Month (February 2021) providing information on some under-researched Black … Continue reading →
For it [the Walkman] permits the possibility…of imposing your soundscape on the surrounding aural environment and thereby domesticating the external world: for a moment, it can all be brought under the STOP/START, FAST FOWARD, PAUSE and REWIND buttons. –Iain Chambers, “The … Continue reading →
