Black Women: Race, Gender, Genre, and the Electric Guitar

doi:10.1017/9781009224420.013

13 - Black Women: Race, Gender, Genre, and the Electric Guitar

from Part IV - The Electric Guitar in Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 November 2024

Mashadi Matabane

Edited by

Jan-Peter Herbst and

Steve Waksman

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Jan-Peter Herbst: Affiliation:
University of Huddersfield
Steve Waksman: Affiliation:
Smith College, Massachusetts

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Summary

The chapter traces the long, unheralded history of Black women electric guitarists in the United States from the 1940s to the present century. It identifies the unique challenges they face striving to work in an American music landscape that adores Black women as singers but largely overlooks them when they strap an electric guitar onto their bodies. It uses historical research and oral history interviews with intergenerational artists in blues, gospel, and rock to explore how race, gender, and genre conventions manifest and intersect to create barriers and opportunities.

Keywords

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to the Electric Guitar , pp. 229 - 244

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009224420.013 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2024

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References

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