Now that we’ve revealed all 50 of our essential women-in-music album selections, we thought we’d do a brief recap of all of our picks, ranked in order of influence. Our list was diverse so it was a tough job, but we think we nailed it. We also picked five up-and-comers we think could wind up on a list like this ten years from now. Once you’ve finished reading our rankings, it’ll be time to tell us what you think. Did we get it right? Which albums did we leave off the list entirely? Who should’ve been ranked higher/lower? Let us know. Read More »

Today we reveal the final 10 selections in our list of the 50 essential women-in-music albums. This week’s list features two punk queens, a few soul legends, and one of the most influential folk musicians of all time. A final recap of our criteria: Every album featured had to be a seminal influence on women in music, we couldn’t feature a particular artist more than once, and any bands featured had to be unequivocally fronted by a woman.

Next week, we’ll be doing a full recap of all 50 of our selections, ranked in order of influence, and listing the ones-to-watch — a list of new female artists that we think could end up on a list like this 20 years from now. But first, selections 41 through 50 (in no particular order). Read More »

Welcome back to our round up of the 50 greatest albums by women in music. We’re only one post away from revealing our complete list and this week’s selections are some of the most diverse. From the seminal recording of one of country music’s biggest stars to the hip hop artists that changed it all, the artists featured here are true greats. Just to recap our criteria one more time: No artist can appear more than once on our list, bands featured have to be unequivocally fronted by a woman, and every recording here must have made a significant contribution to music.

So, without further ado, here is the fourth installment (and check back next week for our final 10) of our list of the 50 most essential albums by female artists. Read More »

It’s time to unveil the third part of our list of the 50 greatest albums by female musicians. We’ve featured greats like Joni Mitchell, Tina Turner, and Janis Joplin on our previous two posts and this week our lineup includes an electronic music pioneer, a grunge goddess, and one of the biggest voices of all time. When conceiving the list, we limited ourselves to only one album per artist (no repeats), only considered bands fronted solely by a woman, and aimed to choose works that influenced other female artists in a big way.

Here, selections 21 through 30 (in no particular order) — and don’t forget to check back with us next Friday for part four. Read More »

Welcome to part two of our round up of the 50 greatest albums by popular female artists. This week’s list spans a half century, from the swinging jazz of the 1950s to the birth of socially-conscious hip hop in the late noughts. To recap our criteria: we limited ourselves to only one album per artist and featured bands had to be fronted solely by a female performer. Mostly importantly, we wanted to feature works that have become a seminal influence on the music industry as a whole.

So without further ado, selections 11 through 20 (in no particular order) – and don’t forget to check back next Friday for Part 3. Read More »

Scan any music-related “Best Of…” list and you may notice a disturbing lack of respect given to artists of the female persuasion (the top 30 greatest albums in history can’t all be by men, can they?). So we concocted our own list, highlighting the most seminal recordings of female artists. There were a few rules: No repeats (sorry Joni, we know you put out about a billion albums), any bands on the list had to be unequivocally fronted by a woman (yes, this means Fleetwood Mac is not on here), and every album had to make an essential contribution to the role of women in popular music.

This week, we only reveal ten of our selections (in no particular order) – so don’t get worried if you don’t see your favorite yet. It was tough to limit ourselves to only fifty albums, but we tried our best. If you love female artists, these are the recordings you have to hear. Check back next Friday for Part 2. Read More »