Veteran journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor has teamed up with Backbeat Books (a division of Rowman & Littlefield) to release She’s a Badass: Women in Rock Shaping Feminism (on sale 1/16/24; hardcover; $34.95; ISBN: 978-1-4930-7254-5) – an exciting collection of twenty in-depth chapters, each focusing on a groundbreaking artist as she discusses feminism and what it means to be a woman in the music business (and in life in general).
The book is currently available for pre-orders at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and via local/independent booksellers at Bookshop.org. Following the book’s January release, there will be several winter/spring 2024 author events TBA across the Northeast (including New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia), as well as Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and Nebraska.
Feminism has always been a complex and controversial topic, as female rock musicians know especially well. When they’ve stayed true to their own vision, these artists have alternately been adored as role models or denounced as bad influences. Either way, they’re asked to cope with certain pressures that their male counterparts haven’t faced. With each successive feminism movement since the 1960s, women in rock have been prominent proponents of progress as they’ve increasingly taken control of their own music, message, and image. This, in its way, is just as revolutionary as any protest demonstration.
In She’s a Badass, music journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor interviews twenty significant and compelling women in rock, devoting an entire chapter to each one, taking an in-depth look at the incredible talent, determination—and, often, humor—they needed to succeed in their careers (and life). Interviewees range from legendary artists through notable up-and-comers: Suzi Quatro, Ann Wilson (Heart), Exene Cervenka (X), Gina Schock (The Go-Go’s), Lydia Lunch, Suzanne Vega, Cherie Currie (The Runaways), Joan Osborne, Donita Sparks (L7), Amy Ray (Indigo Girls), Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses/The Breeders/Belly), Paula Cole, Tobi Vail (Bikini Kill), Laura Veirs, Catherine Popper, Amanda Palmer, Bonnie Bloomgarden (Death Valley Girls), Orianthi, Fefe Dobson, and Sade Sanchez (L.A. Witch). Their experiences reveal the varied and unique challenges these women have faced, how they overcame them, and what they think still needs to be done to continue making progress on the equality front. Their stories prove that promoting feminism—either through activism or by living example—is undeniably badass.
A very special Afterword is included from Susan Rogers, the longtime in-house recording engineer for Prince.
Katherine Yeske Taylor began her career as a rock critic in Atlanta in the 1990s, interviewing Georgia musical royalty such as the Indigo Girls, R.E.M., and the Black Crowes while still a teenager. Since then, she has conducted several hundred interviews and contributes regularly to Billboard, Flood, Spin, Glide, and American Songwriter, among others. She is a longtime New York City resident and is extremely active in the downtown rock scene.
