This past week marked the 100th anniversary of Mamie Smith recording Crazy Blues, African American women's breakthrough into the mainstream recording industry – a feat that is stunning and impactful, yet so often misunderstood or forgotten that most people would be hard pressed to name the artist whose smash altered the course of pop.
And although they are rarely acknowledged in histories of music, the black women and girls who responded to Smith's sound en masse helped upend the anti-blackness of America's nascent record business in the early 20th century.
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