![]() Shine Bright is by turns warmly conversational and brilliantly analytical, achieving the feat of illuminating new contours of some of the greatest artists of all time. In writing about Aretha and Whitney, she lays out the long tradition of sleazy men in the music industry swarming around female artists, waiting to see what they can take from them. In a chapter on Gladys Knight, she unpacks her own childhood traumas while exploring the expectations of teenage girls to trust in the decisions of their elders. ![]() ![]() Each chapter treats an icon of mononymous fame-Aretha, Donna, Whitney, Mariah, Janet, Gladys, and so on-as a lens for Smith's own story, kaleidoscoping cultural criticism and meticulous reporting on their lives with reflections on Smith's own. In Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop, Smith articulates just how profoundly music can inform our understanding of self. ![]()
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