So we learn not only about Donna Summer, but also about the anti-gay, anti-Black Disco Sucks movement that emerged around her as the music business began to grow more inclusive. Smith gets and loves Black women and can contextualize the contributions of Black women artists within American pop culture. Then there’s Stephanie Mills, the star of the Broadway production of The Wiz, who is, Smith writes, “one of the most beloved, and one of the most underrated Black female recording artists in history.” A former Soul Train host, Marilyn McCoo, also occupies a starring role in the book, as do Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin. There is Dionne Warwick – known recently for her tweets, but not so much for the $2 million her special, “Dionne & Friends” (featuring Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and Gladys Knight), raised for AIDS research. This is how Shine Bright ends up being conversational, despite encompassing several decades of nuanced, largely forgotten stories in fewer than 300 pages. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play From there and without a college degree she worked her way up the music journalism food chain, helped by the assistance and mentorship of veteran music journalists. She was working retail when she got her first freelance assignment in 1989 to review a Natalie Cole performance in Oakland. In order to know how and why the book is so singular, you need to know Smith. Smith’s encyclopedic knowledge as a self-made pioneer in music journalism combines with extensive interviews, and behind-the-scene stories of some of the biggest cover stories of her era at Vibe to produce an essential and effervescent text for music lovers. Journalists are trained to leave themselves out of the story-but as the subtitle suggests, Shine Bright is a lovely and refreshing exception to that rule. Smith has said that Shine Bright is the book she was born to write, and her shimmering, witty language is proof that she’s right. Smith reflects on the songs and the women behind them as she reveals how they inspired her to grow from an ashy-kneed, Huffy-riding rebellious girl to become the first Black person and the first woman editor-in-chief of Quincy Jones’s groundbreaking hip-hop culture magazine, Vibe, at the height of the genre's global ascent. It features several mini-biographies of the most influential and underrated Black women in American culture, from the poet Phillis Wheatley to opera star Leontyne Price the Dixie Cups, who gave pop music “Chapel of Love” and “Iko Iko” to disco queen Donna Summer. It is also the overdue singing of a Black girl’s song, with perfect pitch. Johnson, turn me loose - When you ain't got no money, well you needn't come a 'round - The new bully song - My gal is a high born lady - Possumla - At a Georgia camp meeting - Eli Green's cake walk - My coal black lady - Lucky Jim - Maple Leaf rag song - The ragtime dance song - I'm a Jonah man - Under the bamboo tree - Who dat say chicken in this crowd - Mother's body is lying in the baggage coach ahead - Just tell them that you saw me - The chili widow - The rabbi's daughter - Hiawatha - Tammany - There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight - The missionary's flirtation - The preacher and the bear - Ain't it a shame - Bill Bailey - Since Bill Bailey came back home - He done me wrong (The death of Bill Bailey) - My Ann Elizer - The "rag time" girl - Creole belle - Didn't he ramble - The ragtime oyster man - What you goin' to do when the rent comes 'round - Hello my baby - I'm certainly living a ragtime life - Goodbye Mr.Danyel Smith’s Shine Bright: A Very Personal Story of Black Women in Pop is an entertaining blend of memoir, music history and journalism. Louis tickle - You've been a good old wagon but you done broke down - Mr.
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