The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+ : NPR

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The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+

July 30, 2018 • This list tackles history in the making, celebrating women and non-binary musicians whose songs are redefining genres and attitudes and changing our sense of what popular music can be in this century.

Women Are The Fabric Of 21st Century Pop

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Women Are The Fabric Of 21st Century Pop

July 30, 2018 • Our new canon is a celebration of the women and non-binary musicians shaping the sound of this century, and an attempt to interrupt the history-making process before it's calcified by the status quo.

Turning the Tables: Your List Of The 21st Century's Most Influential Women Musicians

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Turning the Tables: Your List Of The 21st Century's Most Influential Women Musicians

November 20, 2018 • The results are in for our reader poll of the most influential women and non-binary musicians of this century. Your picks help us consider and question what "influence" can mean in new ways.

Missy Mazzoli Is The 21st Century's Gatecrasher Of New Classical Music

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Photo Illustration: Hiroyuki Ito/Getty Images and Angela Hsieh/NPR

Missy Mazzoli Is The 21st Century's Gatecrasher Of New Classical Music

November 16, 2018 • Classical music has a gatekeeping problem. Through her label-defying music and commitment to mentorship, Mazzoli is fighting to correct that.

Janelle Monáe Is The 21st Century's Time Traveler

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Janelle Monáe Is The 21st Century's Time Traveler

November 13, 2018 • Monáe's work reminds us that we don't need to be tied to one vision of the future: We can create worlds that help us process current hierarchies and others that try to break out of those structures.

Emel Mathlouthi Is The 21st Century's Catalyst For Change

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Emel Mathlouthi Is The 21st Century's Catalyst For Change

November 8, 2018 • Her song soundtracked the Arab Spring, but Mathlouthi isn't interested in being seen as an exotic activist whose art is secondary to a message. Her music is adventurous, bold and entirely modern.

Sia Is The 21st Century's Most Resilient Songwriter

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Sia Is The 21st Century's Most Resilient Songwriter

November 6, 2018 • Topline writers like Sia shape the sound of pop most directly — and everyone from Rihanna to Halsey to Beyoncé has been impacted by the shape created by Sia's voice and songwriting.

Rhiannon Giddens Is The 21st Century's Revelator

In her solo work and with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Giddens has helped shepherd the revival of the black string band tradition in American consciousness. Claire Harbage and Angela Hsieh/NPR hide caption

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Rhiannon Giddens Is The 21st Century's Revelator

November 2, 2018 • Giddens' influence is not contained by her many accolades but by her drive to unearth forgotten stories, developing the ethos of a new reconstruction based in truth-telling.

Big Freedia Is The 21st Century's Ambassador Of Freedom

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Big Freedia Is The 21st Century's Ambassador Of Freedom

October 30, 2018 • Big Freedia has always repped New Orleans, becoming famous by insisting on being her sui generis self. How could you see someone who loves herself so much and not follow her to the dance floor?

Vote: Who Do You Think Are The Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century?

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Vote: Who Do You Think Are The Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century?

October 29, 2018 • This year, we considered the most influential women and non-binary artists making music today. Now, we want to know what you think: Who deserves to be most acknowledged? Who makes your list?

Miranda Lambert Is The 21st Century's Advocate Of Imperfection

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Photo Illustration: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Big Barrel and Angela Hsieh/NPR

Miranda Lambert Is The 21st Century's Advocate Of Imperfection

October 22, 2018 • Taking on all manner of "shouldn'ts" is a specialty of Lambert's, whose body of work knowingly disobeys the rules of feminine decorum. Who else has been more strong-willed and sisterly at once?

Destra Is The 21st Century's Liberator Of Revelry

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Destra Is The 21st Century's Liberator Of Revelry

October 18, 2018 • She can command a crowd like few others — and during her career, she's broadened the definition of soca, established herself as a brand and fueled Trinidad and Tobago's growing feminist movement.

Sharon Jones Is The 21st Century's Godmother Of Soul

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Photo Illustration: Paul R. Giunta/Getty Images and Angela Hsieh/NPR

Sharon Jones Is The 21st Century's Godmother Of Soul

October 16, 2018 • The Augusta-born soul singer's ballads, floor-burners and soaring motivational anthems took the might of Motown's peak and sharpened it to fight the impossible.

Beyoncé Is The 21st Century's Master Of Leveling Up

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Photo illustration: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella and Angela Hsieh/NPR

Beyoncé Is The 21st Century's Master Of Leveling Up

October 12, 2018 • Through her career, Bey has shown that there are more levels to her artistry than we could have imagined. And she's using those levels to delve further into her personalized elevation of black women.

Natalia Lafourcade Is The 21st Century's Guardian Of Cultural Memory

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Natalia Lafourcade Is The 21st Century's Guardian Of Cultural Memory

October 9, 2018 • In many ways, Lafourcade has left her mark on the 21st century by looking back. Her work has freed music that for many younger listeners had been trapped in amber, and imbued it with new life.

Natalia Lafourcade Is The 21st Century's Guardian Of Cultural Memory

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Carly Rae Jepsen Is The 21st Century's Queen Of A Million Kingdoms

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Carly Rae Jepsen Is The 21st Century's Queen Of A Million Kingdoms

October 5, 2018 • Though "Call Me Maybe" has been a defining moment of her career, it's the aftermath of her 2015 album that's come to define who Jepsen is on social media: the subject of a bottomless well of memes.

'It's Amazing How It Stood The Test Of Time': M.I.A. On 'Paper Planes' 11 Years Later

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'It's Amazing How It Stood The Test Of Time': M.I.A. On 'Paper Planes' 11 Years Later

October 4, 2018 • "I've never come first at anything." M.I.A. reacts to her 2007 hit "Paper Planes" being named the No. 1 song on NPR Music's 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+.

M.I.A. Reacts To Turning the Tables

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Nicki Minaj Is The 21st Century's Insatiable Hip-Hop Monarch

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Nicki Minaj Is The 21st Century's Insatiable Hip-Hop Monarch

October 3, 2018 • Minaj indelibly changed the hip-hop landscape in the past decade. She wanted the throne. Now that she has it, she isn't going to relinquish it to anyone — male or female — gunning for that title.

Taylor Swift Is The 21st Century's Most Disorienting Pop Star

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Taylor Swift Is The 21st Century's Most Disorienting Pop Star

September 26, 2018 • Many people have surmised the mega-star learned her knack for extensive personalization from her country roots. But there's another genre that is perhaps equally responsible for her sound: hip-hop.

Taylor Swift Is The 21st Century's Most Disorienting Pop Star

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Meg White Is The 21st Century's Loudest Introvert

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Meg White Is The 21st Century's Loudest Introvert

September 21, 2018 • White's drumming made her one of the loudest musicians of this century, yet she's often remembered for being a quiet person — setting a no-apologies template for letting her work speak for itself.

Meg White Is The 21st Century's Loudest Introvert

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Hayley Williams Is The 21st Century's Pop-Punk Prophet

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Hayley Williams Is The 21st Century's Pop-Punk Prophet

September 19, 2018 • There is no precedent for the Grammy-winning, chart-busting, Hot Topic-surviving Williams, who didn't offer permission so much as show a generation of emo girls they did not have to ask for it.

Joanna Newsom Is The 21st Century's Timeless Voice

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Joanna Newsom Is The 21st Century's Timeless Voice

September 13, 2018 • An expert composer, Newsom challenges the independent music world's standards for feminine voices. Her music offers a particular gift, inspiring listeners to get lost on their own journeys.