Question

Female musicians have always played a significant role in popular music. Choose one of the following three female musicians and complete the task and questions below:

• Memphis Minnie (born Lizzie Douglas)
• Carole King
• Patti Smith

Briefly discuss her career and musical contributions. In what genres of music did she (or does she still) perform? What instrument(s) does she play? In interviews, has she discussed her female identity and how it affects her career?

Answer 1

Patricia lee smith is a famous American jazz singer and songwriter who was an important part of the punk rock movement in New York City. “Because the night” was the4 most well-known song of her that reach the top 13 on Billboard 100 chart in the year 1978. She also received Polar music prize in the year 2011.

At the very early stage of life, she got a chance to record her first album that includes famous songs of that time. The album “the coral sea” would be explained as the resource about the relationship between her and Robert Mapplethorpe. In the year 1969, she went to Paris with her sister to perform the concert in “performance art”. She gave the spoken word soundtrack in the art film named “Robert Having His Nipple Pierced” in 1969. In the same year, she appeared in the play named “Femme Fatale” directed by Jackie Curtis and mesmerized the audiences with her dreamy voice. Smith was the lead singer of the “Blue Oyster Cult” band where she contributed several lyrics of the famous songs. After 1974, she performed as a rock musician in America where she performed the single song "Hey Joe / Piss Factory". Later in this year, she performed spoken poetry for the album “The Whole Thing Started with Rock & Roll Now It's out of Control”. In an interview in the year 1996, she explained her artistic influences by saying Rimbaud as her boyfriend.

In April 2004 she released an album named ‘Trampin’ which explain motherhood by several songs to dedicate her mother. Smith was awarded by the “rock and roll hall of fame” in 2007 where she dedicated her award to her late husband and performed “Rolling Stone” in her husband’s memory. In 2016 "People Have the Power" was performed by Smith at Manhattan, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of “Democracy Now”. In 2018, a documentary film named “Horses: Patti Smith and her Band” was premiered to feature the life of Patty Smith.