Culture
Celebrating Black History: The women who shaped dance music
From r'n'b to disco, funk and house
Julie McKnight
Having grown up with musical parents, Julie McKnight gravitated towards a career in music just before the new millennium. The New York garage favorite 'Finally' by Kings of Tomorrow, with its minimalist production, provided ample space for McKnight to fill with soulful vocals reminiscent of deep house tracks from a decade earlier. The track still evokes nostalgia, and was featured in Mia Hansen-Løve’s 2014 French Touch movie Eden.
Sharon White
Within the modern dance music community, early resident DJs like Larry Levan and David Mancuso are household names. Sharon White shared many of the same stages as these two legends, headlining both the Paradise Garage and the Saint in the 1980s. A recent Village Voice article also noted her status with Billboard as the first woman to hold the title of “DJ Reporter". She maintains a legacy amongst New York clubbers and has been playing gigs as recently as 2016.
DJ Minx
First cutting her teeth as a radio DJ in Detroit, DJ Minx is a prominent female voice in the Detroit house scene. As a resident of Club Motor, she gained influence within the community and started her own record label, Women on Wax, in 1996. Since then, she has toured across the States and Europe, hitting Tresor in Berlin, and performs weekly on Detroit’s Deep Space Radio. As both a DJ and an A&R specialist for her label, DJ Minx continues to influence new and emerging artists.
