Category Archives: Women in Music

The New Wave Tsunami



For our third show for Rocktober 2021, a band that seemed to do something only The Beatles did a decade prior: absorb all of their influences so well as to create their unique but highly recognizable sound that proved the leading light of a new form of Rock and Roll in the late 70’s and early 80’s, American band Blondie. #blondie #newwave #debbieharry #altrock #CBGB


White Heat and Black Leather



For my first program for Rocktober 2021, an audio primer for the very first documentary of one of the most important bands of the latter half of the 20th century, The Velvet Underground, directed by Portlander Todd Haynes and broadcasting on October 15th on Apple TV. The Velvet Underground are a band you have heard … Continue reading White Heat and Black Leather


Really Old School Vol. 5: Early Hip-Hop 88-89



How do you know when you have made it? When the lawyers start coming around. As Hip-Hop was becoming more a part of the mainstream daily, all of sudden, the checks got bigger. At least it did for some. What started out as Black, block party music in New York City over a decade prior was now very big business, and about to get bigger, which also drew the attention of an unfair, racist system that wanted it gone. #hiphop #oldschool


Really Old School Vol. 4: Early Hip-Hop 86-87



Nineteen Eighty-Six was the year mainstream America could no longer ignore Hip-Hop. It exploded nationally in the middle part of the year and then did something that took it even further: white kids from the suburbs became fascinated with it in a major way. This was also the era where Hip-Hop sub-genres, such as New Jack Swing and Hip-Hop Soul, were hitting the Pop charts regularly, along with female rappers and dance remixes further pushing it everywhere. #hiphop #rap #hiphipsoul #newjackswing #oldschool


Queen of the Doubles



The 1970’s were the era of the double vinyl LP. Forget what you think you know or remember about this time, because no one was more successful at this format than the most unlikely of music giants of the era: a Black woman from Boston named Donna Summer. #donnasummer #disco #dancemusic #1970s #giorgiomoroder #summer #solstice