In July 2017, NPR Music launched Turning the Tables-a groundbreaking, celebratory, and provocative multi-platform series examining the important and equal role women play in popular music. Now in its fifth season, Turning the Tables has reached millions of listeners and is considered one of NPR Music's most successful, critically acclaimed programs. How Women Made Music is the book that continues this vibrant conversation and finally presents women at the center of the discussion about popular music.
"“Spanning from Joan Baez to Rihanna, the collection captures the varied ways women have innovated the American musical landscape, in the process powerfully giving due to music as a cultural artifact, a public artistic expression, and a site of personal meaning. It’s a buoyant, welcome ode to some of the most influential songstresses of the 20th and 21st centuries.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) ""Essential, definitive reading for anyone who listens to music or cares about women -- which is, in short, everyone. Simply put, I wanted this book not to end."" — -Sheila Weller, bestselling author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation. “If what neuroscientists tell us is true, that music is a social/emotion-delivery device…truly a woman's voice, words, rhythms, and melodies are best adapted to express what it feels like to be a human. This welcome book taps us on the back to remind us of the many underappreciated musicians whose work found its way into our own self images.” — Susan Rogers, legendary producer, neuroscientist, and author of This is What it Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You"