The talents, experiences, and storied backgrounds of women have played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of modern popular music. From breaking barriers traditionally dominated by men to pioneering new sounds and technologies, these trailblazing women have left their mark on musical history. This article explores the unique journeys and contributions of five women in music—Delia Derbyshire, Mahalia Jackson, Annie Lennox, Josephine Baker, and Poly Styrene—all of whom continue to inspire and influence popular music today. Read on to discover their remarkable stories.
1. Delia Derbyshire
Delia Derbyshire was born into a working-class family in Coventry, England, in 1937. She began playing the piano at age eight. She excelled at school and won a scholarship to Grifton College at the University of Cambridge to study mathematics and music — a stellar achievement for a woman in the 1950s.
After graduating, she applied for a position at Decca Records but was told that they didn’t employ women in their studios. She then worked at the United Nations teaching music and maths to the children of diplomats and as a primary school teacher in Coventry before joining the BBC as a trainee assistant studio manager. In 1962, she requested a transfer to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where she remained until 1973.
Established in 1958 as a sound effects unit for British radio and television, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was at the forefront of early electronic music in an era when synthesizers didn’t exist. The workshop generated an immense amount of incidental music, sound effects, and jingles. It became the most celebrated electronic music studio in the world.
Alongside pioneers such as Daphne Oram and Brian Hodgson, Delia Derbyshire created some of the most memorable sounds of the 20th century. Her most famous piece, the iconic Dr. Who theme tune, hugely influenced public perceptions about electronic music.
Throughout her career at the BBC, Derbyshire developed influential scores and soundscapes for a wide range of television and radio programs, from The Tower (1964) to her celebrated piece Blue Veils and Golden Sands, for The World About Us (1968).
Taken together, Derbyshire’s work profoundly influenced the course of electronic music. Her groundbreaking work lives on in the subsequent generations of musicians she inspired, from The Beatles and Brian Eno to Pink Floyd and Aphex Twin.
2. Mahalia Jackson
Born in 1911, in New Orleans, Louisiana, Mahalia Jackson was brought up in a strict religious household. Her mother died when she was five and she was subsequently raised by her aunt. Singing in the local church choir, her prodigious talent was evident from an early age. At 16, she moved to Chicago and joined the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir, quickly rising to become a soloist.
Jackson first gained the attention of the public at large in the 1930s during a nationwide gospel music tour, with her performance of popular religious songs like I Can Put My Trust in Jesus and He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands. In 1937, she became the first artist to record and sign a contract with Decca Records. Her 1947 release, Move On Up A Little Higher catapulted her to overnight stardom.
In 1958, Jackson collaborated with renowned jazz musician and composer Duke Ellington on Black, Brown, and Beige. She sang at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy in 1961. An active participant in the civil rights movement, she traveled throughout the South with Martin Luther King Jr and sang I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned at the 1963 March on Washington just before Dr. King delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.
Mahalia Jackson is considered to be one of the finest gospel singers to have ever lived. Critically, she was a major crossover success who crossed racial divides in a deeply divided country. She became a regular presence on radio and television at a time when African American musicians and entertainers were kept off the airwaves.
Jackson brought gospel music out of the churches and into the mainstream. A spiritual, gospel singer who courted the blues, her tender and soul-stirring, yet supremely powerful contralto voice rewrote the rules of American popular music.
3. Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. She played the flute and piano as a child before moving to London to study classical music performance at the Royal Academy of Music. She decided against a career in classical music and briefly played the flute in a band called Dragon’s Playground before becoming the lead singer of The Tourists in 1977.
Throughout her career, Annie Lennox has successfully blended elements of New Wave, Soul, and Electronica, with pop. Her rich, powerful vocals and ability to deliver both anthems and intimate ballads have made her immensely popular, successful, and influential.
In her work with Eurythmics (1980-2005) and as a solo artist, Lennox is known for her innovative and experimental arrangements, often incorporating avant-garde influences while maintaining a strong pop sensibility.
She is perhaps above all known for her bold dramatic aesthetics and androgynous look. In her music videos and live performances throughout the 1980s, Lennox challenged contemporary gender norms. In The Tourists (1977-1980) she appeared more or less as a classic “girl singer.” However, after founding Eurythmics (1980-2005) with Dave Stewart, she gained attention for her androgynous “male” style of dress.
Lennox’s striking eye makeup, bright red lipstick, cropped orange hair, and minimalistic tailored suits shook up the traditional gender norms of the music industry. Her appearance issues a stern challenge to the patriarchal structures that often struggle to understand female androgyny outside the likeness of men.
For over 40 years Annie Lennox has been a musical and style icon to millions. Beyond her music, she is famous for her political activism and vocal awareness of social issues, from women’s rights to the fight against HIV/AIDS. Her celebrated musical legacy includes hits like Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983), Thorn In My Side (1986), and Walking On Broken Glass (1992).
4. Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. Like her parents, she began her career as a vaudeville performer in the segregated American Midwest. Her parents never found financial success as performers, and Josephine was forced to take odd jobs for money. At age 15, she left home and performed in several traveling vaudeville shows before ending up in New York City at the start of the Harlem Renaissance.
In the 1920s, Baker’s success as a dancer and singer in Harlem took her to Paris, where she became a hugely popular and sought-after entertainer. Amidst France’s fascination with American jazz and all things “exotic,” Baker became one of the top draws of La Revue Nègre (The Negro Revue) at the famed Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
While her extravagant feather skirt in La Revue Nègre gained her admirers, her performances wearing little more than a skirt made from 16 bananas at the Folies Bergère musical hall made her famous.
Riding high on her popularity, she sang professionally for the first time in 1930 and landed film roles in the French musical comedies Zou-Zou (1934) and Princesse Tam-Tam (1935). However, when she returned to the United States in 1936 to perform, she was met with a largely hostile, racist reaction. Devastated by her mistreatment she swiftly returned to France.
Following the outbreak of World War II, Baker joined the fight against Nazism, becoming an active member of the French Resistance, performing for American and French troops, and famously passing secret messages hidden in her sheet music (and sometimes her underwear) to French resistance fighters and military officials. She was awarded the highest French military honor, the Croix de Guerre for her efforts.
In the 1960s, Baker returned to America to participate in the civil rights movement, becoming one of the few women allowed to speak at the March on Washington (1963).
5. Poly Styrene
Poly Styrene was a British punk rock icon and one of the punk era’s original talents. After posting an advert in Melody Maker magazine for “young punx that want to stick it together” she formed X-Ray Spex in 1976 and made one album before the band promptly split in 1979. She famously chose the name Poly Styrene “because it’s a lightweight disposable product.”
Born Mariane Joan Elliot-Said in 1957 to an English mother and Somali father, Poly grew up in Brixton, London. Raised by her mother alongside her siblings, she delved into poetry, art, fashion, and music during her teenage years. In 1976, she founded X-Ray Spex after seeing The Sex Pistols perform live on Hastings Pier.
As a woman of color in the white-male-dominated culture of UK punk, Poly Styrene blazed a trail for future generations of female punk musicians. Her lyrics were prophetic, witty, and loaded with joyful rage. Amidst a life of trauma, mental illness, racism and poverty, her critique of society was razor-sharp.
Poly Styrene was both a pioneer of punk and one of its greatest critics. She found punk radical and exhilarating, embracing its anti-consumerist, anti-establishment themes as a platform for her own self-expression and musical experimentation. However, she also rejected the nihilism of punk, the aggression of its crowds, the lack of women, and especially, the trend of spitting on stage.
An astute commentator and exceptional writer, her most famous song, X-Ray Spex’s debut single, Oh Bondage, Up Yours! (1977) calls for feminist liberation amidst a scathing critique of capitalist consumerism as a form of servitude. The band’s sole album, Germfree Adolescents (1978) features pioneering lyrics about consumerism, the environment, and the false promise of technology. Today, it is regarded as one of the greatest punk albums of all time.
