She Bop Ii

Popular music grew out of ragtime, vaudeville and the blues to become global mass entertainment. Women like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were the original pop divas, yet eighty years after they blazed a trail, have their successors achieved the recognition and affirmation they deserve? Or has the only was to success been to slot into saleable images of the cute baby or sexy chanteuse?

Lucy O'Brien has written the ultimate hands-on history of women in rock, pop, and soul. Billie Holiday, Ell…