Eight music memoirs in women's own words

A music memoir can change the way you hear a familiar artist, but it need not depend on already knowing every recording. The work of learning, collaborating, performing and finding a voice can make an absorbing story in its own right. These books connect that work with the lives around it: family, friendships, political commitments, creative communities and the practical decisions that rarely fit inside a song.

The focus varies. Some writers organise their memories around a career, while others give more space to relationships or to a particular period of becoming an artist. A memoir is also a personal account, shaped by what its author chooses to remember and tell. We have chosen eight distinct voices rather than presenting them as interchangeable histories of an industry, so begin with the kind of life story that makes you curious.

Find your next read

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Patti Smith recalls her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe and their lives as young artists in New York. Music forms part of that world, but friendship, artistic ambition and the effort to find a way to live are central to the book's appeal. Choose it if you want a memoir focused on a formative relationship and creative beginnings, rather than a comprehensive account of every stage of Smith's recording and performing career.

No Walls and the Recurring Dream by Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco looks back at the experiences that shaped her as a musician and an independent artist. The relationship between creative work, personal freedom and political commitments gives the memoir a strong organising thread. It is a good choice if you are interested in how an artist builds a way of working as well as a body of songs, particularly when questions about independence involve practical choices rather than simply a public image.