Maureen Mahon's Black Diamond Queens sets the record straight by offering a meticulously detailed study of the ways in which Black women musicians and entertainers played pivotal roles in the birth of the genre and fearlessly revolutionized the form. “The book that's poised to set rock history free. Ann Powers, author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music A revolutionary read that should chasten rock historians and will delight anyone who wants the full picture of how black women shaped a culture that pushed them to the side and how they survived.” “I thought I knew the stories of the women who populate this stellar revisioning of rock and roll history. “We've got to know where we came from in order to get where we want to go, and there's no doubt that Maureen knows where she is headed! You can absolutely feel the passion in every word she speaks, whether in person or on paper, and Black Diamond Queens is no exception.”

By uncovering this hidden history of black women in rock and roll, Mahon reveals a powerful sonic legacy that continues to reverberate into the twenty-first century. Mahon details the musical contributions and cultural impact of Big Mama Thornton, LaVern Baker, Betty Davis, Tina Turner, Merry Clayton, Labelle, the Shirelles, and others, demonstrating how dominant views of gender, race, sexuality, and genre affected their careers. In Black Diamond Queens, Maureen Mahon draws on recordings, press coverage, archival materials, and interviews to document the history of African American women in rock and roll between the 1950s and the 1980s. Despite this, black women's importance to the music's history has been diminished by narratives of rock as a mostly white male enterprise. One of No Depression’s Best Music Books of 2020Īfrican American women have played a pivotal part in rock and roll-from laying its foundations and singing chart-topping hits to influencing some of the genre's most iconic acts. One of Pitchfork’s Favorite Music Books of 2020 Shortlisted for the 2021 MAAH Stone Book Award

Winner of the 2021 Marcia Herdon Prize awarded by the Gender and Sexualities Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology Winner of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s 2021 Alan Merriam Prize Winner of the American Musicological Society’s 2021 Otto Kinkeldey Award

Maureen mahon black diamond queens