Women on Top: The Quiet Revolution That's Rocking the American Music Industry [Hardcover]

James Dickerson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823084892
• ISBN-13: 978-0823084890
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,878,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A native of Mississippi, James L. Dickerson is the author of twenty-six books, and over 2,000 magazine and newspaper articles; he has worked as a magazine editor and publisher, newspaper editor, reporter, columnist, book critic, and social worker.
Dickerson's book, The Mojo Triangle, was the winner of a 2006 IPPY award (Independent Publisher Book Awards) in the non-fiction category. Two other books, Goin' Back to Memphis and That's Alright, Elvis, were finalists for the Gleason Award. Reprint rights to Dickerson's books have been sold to publishers in Australia and China, where two of his books have been translated into Chinese.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars unusual focus, weak execution, January 15, 2001

By 

Marci Cohen (Evanston, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women on Top: The Quiet Revolution That's Rocking the American Music Industry (Hardcover)

John Dickerson would have been better off just aiming to write a book focusing on women's advances in the music industry, both behind the scenes and on the public face. But he overreaches, building Women on Top around the thesis that 1996 was a breakthrough year, the first time female solo artists outsold male solo artists. The problem is that he attaches so many qualifiers to this thesis that it ultimately points to a triumph for semantics rather than a triumph for women. He spends paragraphs explaining how he did the calculations, but his methods are dodgy. For example, he classifies the Bangles as a solo artist on the basis that all members sang, but he excludes the Beatles despite their meeting the same criterion.

Dickerson supports his argument with personality profiles. He chronicles specific women's achievements throughout the history of popular music, both the stars and the businesswomen behind the scenes whose accomplishments are less known. It is the latter that makes this book unusual relative to others on women in music. However, another weakness is that Dickerson's coverage is heavily slanted towards those who work in country music. He never clarifies whether this is because country music is more female-friendly than other genres or simply because these were the women to whom he had access to interview.

His collection of profiles clearly documents the barriers of sexism that so many women in the music industry have encountered, and the tales of success are inspirational. But Dickerson undermines his credibility by making too definitive, too broad a statement. The individual bricks are solid, but there are gapping holes in the wall.