5/28/2023 0 Comments Shine Bright by Danyel SmithYou’ll learn about Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, M ahalia Jackson and Dionne Warwick, and move on to Gladys Knight and the Pips, then to Whitney, to Janet, to Mariah, all while swaying to the rhythm of their iconic music. Courtesy of Amazonįormer editor-in-chief of VIBE and Billboard magazines and host of Spotify podcast Black Girl Songbook, Smith writes with the unique authority and passion for these icons of pop and in doing so cements their legacy. Told through intensely researched mini-biographies, this narrative breaks the mold by infusing Smith’s own story and relationship to pop music within its pages. Her ode to these women–both familiar and not so familiar–is explored in a chronicle of the evolution of pop. But the unsung champions and pioneers of the genre are the prolific Black women who are featured in journalist, critic, and author Danyel Smith’s Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop. When we think about modern pop music our minds often go to the gyrating hips, blonde tresses, and girl power anthems of the ‘80s to early aughts. Danyel Smith’s luminous ‘Shine Bright’ puts the spotlight on the oft-forgotten Black women who created pop music as we know it today.
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