Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop

ISBN: 0593132718

Author: Smith, Danyel

Condition: new

American pop music is arguably this countrys greatest cultural contribution to the world, and its singular voice and virtuosity were created by a shining thread of Black women geniuses stretching back to the countrys founding. This is their surprising, heartbreaking, soaring story-from one of the generations greatest, most insightful, most nuanced writers in pop culture (Shea Serrano)Sparkling . . . the overdue singing of a Black girls song, with perfect pitch . . . delicious to read.-Oprah DailyONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, The Root, Variety, Esquire, The Guardian, Newsweek, Pitchfork, She Reads, Publishers WeeklySHORTLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARDA weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smiths intimate history of Black womens music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to Midnight Train to Georgia on the family stereo.Smiths detailed narrative begins with Phillis Wheatley, an enslaved woman who sang her poems, and continues through the stories of Mahalia Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, and Mariah Carey, as well as the under-considered careers of Marilyn McCoo, Deniece Williams, and Jody Watley.Shine Bright is an overdue paean to musical masters whose true stories and genius have been hidden in plain sight-and the book Danyel Smith was born to write.