"She Bop" is the definitive in-depth study of women
in popular music. Drawing on more than 250 firsthand
interviews, it covers nine decades of musical history,
from ragtime and vaudeville to punk and hip-hop, and
features a remarkable cast of trailblazing female
performers: Ella Fitzgerald and Madonna, Billie Holiday
and Whitney Houston, Dusty Springfield and Beyonce, and
many, many more. First published in 1995, "She Bop" was
widely praised as a contemporary classic and a must for
any serious muso's bookshelf. It became a key text on
numerous university and college courses, and has had a
major impact on writing about women in music. To
coincide with the second edition, published in 2002, the
National Portrait Gallery in London ran a "She Bop"
exhibition of photographs inspired by the book, while
BBC Radio 2 broadcast a two-part documentary series of
the same name, which was scripted by O'Brien. In recent
years there has been an explosion of female artists on
the pop scene. Artists like Adele, Amy Winehouse, and
Florence Welch have spearheaded a third British Invasion
of the US charts, while American acts such as Lady Gaga,
Rihanna, and Katy Perry continue to dominate the global
market. This revised and expanded third edition brings
the story of "She Bop" into the 21st century, with
extensive revisions throughout and a new final chapter
covering the current generation of female performers and
the ways in which the internet and digital culture have
reconfigured the music industry for women.
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