Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

Sweet Nothings: Women In Rockabilly Music: Lavern Baker And Janis Martin, Stephanie P. Lewin-Lane

Theses and Dissertations

Rockabilly music is an exciting and vibrant style of early Rock and Roll that originated in the 1950s. With its aggressive beat and anti-establishment connotations, rockabilly is considered a widely male-dominated genre, a point supported by the majority of scholarship and literature on the subject. However, a review of available contemporary recordings, television shows, advertisements and interviews show that women were an integral part of the history of rockabilly music. In this thesis, I will discuss women in rockabilly music and address how issues relating to gender and race in 1950s culture affected women performers. More specifically, I will examine …