The Book Prize Index

Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound

Daphne A. Brooks

Winner of the Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Winner of the American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation Winner of the PEN Oakland–Josephine Miles Award Winner of the MAAH Stone Book Award A Pitchfork Best Music Book of the Year A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of the Year “Brooks traces all kinds of lines, finding unexpected points of connection...inviting voices to talk to one another, seeing what different perspectives can offer, opening up new ways of looking and listening by tracing lineages and calling for more space.” —New York Times An award-winning Black feminist music critic takes us on an epic journey through radical sound from Bessie Smith to Beyoncé. Daphne A. Brooks explores more than a century of music archives to examine the critics, collectors, and listeners who have determined perceptions of Black women on stage and in the recording studio. How is it possible, she asks, that iconic artists such as Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé exist simultaneously at the center and on the fringe of the culture industry? Liner Notes for the Revolution offers a startling new perspective on these acclaimed figures—a perspective informed by the overlooked contributions of other Black women concerned with the work of their musical peers.

Arts & CriticismArts & Criticism · medium confidenceArts & Criticism81 signalsLlm Classifier: Arts & Criticism -> Arts & CriticismGoogle Books: Social Science -> Society & CultureKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryArt, Music & PerformanceBlack History & CultureEssays & Cultural CriticismGender & Feminism

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
PROSE Award for Music and the Performing Arts2022WinnerOfficial source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

    This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.

    The book argues that Black women’s radical sound and the perceptions of Black women in music are shaped by critics, collectors, and listeners—so iconic Black women artists can be central and “on the fringe” at once.

    Model confidence 52%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    70 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 72%.