Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound

Brooks, a professor of African American studies at Yale University, offers in this enlightening survey a fresh perspective on more than a century’s worth of Black female musicians. “Critics have casually glorified them as unparalleled innovators of popular vocalizing and yet rendered [many of] them unworthy of serious and sustained intellectual care for their creative labors,” she writes. What follows is a mix of analysis, storytelling, and history. Brooks pays homage to early blues legend Ethel Waters, who could not read music but used her innate musicality to survive a racially discriminatory and male-dominated music industry for decades. Jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln is recognized for incorporating social commentary into her lyrics, style, and sound. Brooks also gives a nod to contemporary innovator Janelle Monáe, who in 2013 came out as pansexual and incorporated her sexuality into her work via a classic literary scene of female seduction, Homer’s temptation of the sirens from the Odyssey. Brooks combines an impressive archive of musical works and the artists’ own words to convincingly reveal how they each impacted popular culture. Music aficionados should take note. (Feb.)