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Turning The Tables Listening Party: A Dynamic Sister Duo

Beyoncé and Solange onstage at Coachella in 2014.
Christopher Polk
/
Getty Images for Coachella
Beyoncé and Solange onstage at Coachella in 2014.

In July, NPR published Turning The Tables, a list of the 150 Greatest Albums By Women released during the "classic album era," defined as 1964-2016. Our occasional listening parties bring together voters to discuss some of their favorites from the list.

Today, we look at two of the most powerful women to have shaped cultural conversation in recent years, Beyoncé and Solange. The Knowles sisters both released albums in 2016, and it was these two discs, Lemonade and A Seat at the Table respectively, that convinced the Turning the Tables staff to extend the cutoff for eligibility (originally 2014) into that year.

In this episode, critic Ann Powers, who spearheaded Turning The Tables, is joined by a trio of NPR Music commentators: Marissa Lorusso, Katie Presley and Sidney Madden. They discuss these two career-changing and culture-defining records and explain why so many felt that no list of the 150 greatest albums by women could be complete without these groundbreaking works.

Hear our discussion in the player above.

Copyright 2018 XPN

Sidney Madden is a reporter and editor for NPR Music. As someone who always gravitated towards the artforms of music, prose and dance to communicate, Madden entered the world of music journalism as a means to authentically marry her passions and platform marginalized voices who do the same.
Katie Presley
Ann Powers is NPR Music's critic and correspondent. She writes for NPR's music news blog, The Record, and she can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines and music programs.