Women Drummers

In Women Drummers: A History from Rock and Jazz to Blues and Country, drum historian Angela Smith combining archival research with personal interviews of over 50 female drummers representing more than eight decades in music history to paints a vivid picture of their struggles to overcome discrimination against them as musicians in their personal and professional lives. Looking back several centuries, drum historian Angela Smith outlines the evolution of the woman drummer from pre-biblical times when women held important leadership roles to their silencing by the church during the middle ages to their changing role as they spearheaded the fight for women's rights in the modern era. The stories and personal accounts of some 160 female drummers who bucked tradition and societal norms are told against the backdrop of the times in which they performed and the genres they represented, from rock and jazz to blues and country.