npr:
What does it mean to be influential? When the Turning the Tables team got together to create a list of the most influential women and non-binary artists of the 21st century, we found ourselves challenged by just how much ground that word – “influential” – can cover. It’s a question that only led us to more questions: Who gets to decide what comprises an artist’s legacy? What does it mean to shape the sound of a moment? What does it take to truly last?
We made our list, in part, because of how frustratingly common it is for conversations about influence to be centered on men. Women and other people marginalized by their gender, meanwhile, are seen as playing supporting roles in the story of popular music. And the question of influence so often gets told as a history, through a perspective that is removed from the moment it describes. Our list argues that expertise actually lies in the hands of the people who lived through that moment, knew how it felt and documented it in real time. So when we made our list, we thought of it as an exercise both in taking stock of our present moment and in helping create a blueprint for the future – not unlike how writer Sydnee Monday described, for our series, the Afrofuturistic world-building of Janelle Monae’s music.
We think our selections — which complement our list of the 21st Century’s 200 Greatest Songs made by women and non-binary artists — illustrate much of what “influence” can describe: from Tegan and Sara’s ability to bring their queer identities into mainstream pop to Meg White’s no-apologies template for placing her work at the center of her public persona; from Sharon Jones’ heralded revival of soul to Destra’s broadening of the sound of soca; from Carly Rae Jepsen’s explicitly millennial fandom to Big Freedia’s particularly local sound.
We know that canons reflect the people who make them and the moments in which they are made — and that’s why we wanted to open up our conversation to you. We asked you to tell us which women and non-binary artists are the most influential of this century. And while there was considerable overlap between NPR Music’s list and yours, your responses, too, helped us broaden our understanding of what influence can mean.
You certainly showed up for the many of the same chart- and conversation-dominating artists as we did: Queen Bey tops your list, and Taylor Swift and Rihanna aren’t far behind. These artists’ fans are well-known for their passion and fervor — and so, too, are fans of artists like Lady Gaga (No. 2) and Kesha (No. 17), who made your list but didn’t make ours. Fandom isn’t the same thing as influence, of course, but they share something essential: the quality of bringing us together, making us feel seen and setting the terms for how we’ll move into the future.
Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Coachella
ReallyGroovyNinja 