Rock created the music publications we read today, R&B created rock, blues created R&B, and Mamie Smith made the blues a national sensation. In the summer of 1920, a small label called Okeh Records recorded Smith singing a rendition of Perry Bradford’s “Crazy Blues.” The record was an overnight sensation among Black working-class consumers, catalyzing a series of reactions by the record industry that would change popular culture forever. As Angela Davis pointed out in her book, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, Smith’s success simultaneously led record companies to finally consider the tastes of Black consumers (while pigeonholing them into segregated buyer categories) and producing the music of Black women musicians. As blindly rooted in profit as these corporate labels’ reactions were, the ultimate impact was that rock ‘n’ roll and some of our biggest music icons’ signature sounds originated in Black communities—often Black women musicians, specifically. Because of Mamie Smith’s success, the country’s biggest record labels rushed to sign Black women musicians such as Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie, Ethel Waters, Gladys Bentley, and Bessie Smith (no relation to Mamie Smith), who a teenaged Billie Holiday listened to before moving to Harlem and singing in the nightclub where Benny Goodman discovered her. The rest is history—or as Frank Sinatra put it in a 1958 interview with Ebony, “Lady Day [Billie Holiday] is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.” Little could he know that, as was finally acknowledged in 2000 by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Holiday’s genealogy of sound extends to today.
Comments
Thank you for the great article. It’s really important to share the history that was not made visible because of societal biases towards race and gender.
Comment by Timothy Gauthier on September 26, 2020 at 1:00 pmWhen I began exploring the roots to the all the music I love it became very clear that there were people who were relegated to the small print, the footnotes and the editing floor because they did not fit the mould stereotypical of those genres. Being of First Nations background finding untold contributions in Blues, Country and rock and roll was invigorating but at the same time there were all these phenomenally talented women whose contributions needed to be celebrated. I loved reading about Memphis Minnie cutting heads, Mildred Bailey bringing elements of traditional Native singing to Jazz, how Jimmie Reeds wife Mary Reed worked as his manager and often drummer and vocalist. Karen Dalton was a great musician on top of her unique vocal talents. I loved Maria Muldaur’s fiddle playing with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. So many celebrated Classic Rock heroes had BOTH parents for musicians. I have an early Aretha Franklin album where she accompanied her Father’s sermons on piano improvising with him with facility and grace.
Music and music history belongs to everyone and the sooner we begin exploring the more we can learn and share. Talk to all the old folks while you can, find the words and the questions to help them remember and to open up. If your heart is in the right place the truth will rise out of the ashes of a past burned by ignorance. We all have potential role models out there buried in the past. I wish I had come across your magazine sooner. Meegwich
[…] Although the only woman on this list who is not a guitarist, as the recording artist who made the Blues a national sensation in 1920, Mamie Smith deserves every inch of recognition when discussing music. Read more about her contributions here. […]
Pingback by She Shreds Media on September 28, 2020 at 3:25 pm[…] media, as we mentioned in “Changing Tides: The Evolution of Women in Music Media,” shapes our understanding of who truly embodies and belongs in guitar and music culture. […]
Pingback by She Shreds Media on September 29, 2020 at 12:19 pmLove the article. Do you know Tina Bell? She is a black woman and a grunge pioneer erased from the music history. They made grunge a white male genre.
Comment by Tânia on September 29, 2020 at 2:11 pmthe article i am looking for. Your article gives me another approach to the subject. I hope to read more articles from you.
Comment by fnaf on October 14, 2020 at 9:50 pmTalk to all the old folks while you can, find the words and the questions to help them remember and to open up.
Comment by t rex game on October 19, 2020 at 2:47 amThis share is great, I found a lot of things in your post.