The Weekend Reset: It’s Ladies night. All weekend long.

It’s Friday. Looking for something to switch up your weekend, or to give you an excuse to relax a little? That’s what the Weekend Reset is for. Each week contributor Tim Johnstone pulls together five things to get your weekend started. Could be something to read or watch, something to eat or listen to, or even something to do. Enjoy the weekend fellas.

Take one look at the music charts right now and you notice something immediately: the ladies are leading the way. And a great many of them are now empowered to make their own decisions and choices about their music. This wasn’t always the case. With so much happening at the moment, I’m sharing words, stories and magic via this week’s reset. And I’ve built a playlist (below) that pays tribute to many of the women who proceeded them and made it possible for the exciting generation of artists we have today.

 

LISTEN: A playlist of important/iconic women in music of the rock era.

SHUFFLE ON FOR THIS ONE! It seems that everywhere I look right now, I’m seeing powerful female artists making statements via their music. It got me thinking of the women who have helped provide the path to what we are experiencing today. To be specific, this is a playlist highlighting the work of women who influenced music you are hearing in the last decade or so. So, most of these artists are from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. My guess is you have already discovered some great female artists of the past 20 years that have influenced you as a person. It’s my hope you make some connections here and find inspiration as well.

 

BEHOLD!: All Hail Queen Bey

Electrifying. And then some.

 

READ: Punk Rock’s OG Poet Laureate.

Just Kids is a National Book Award winning memoir from Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Patti Smith. In it she chronicles her relationship with photographer Robert Maplethorpe and their time together in New York City during the late 60’s and early 70’s. This was an exceptional time for music and art in a city that was completely different from the Big Apple of today. Patti was an integral part of the group of musicians at the heart of NYC’s punk scene. These were people living for their art, and in some instances, dying in its pursuit. Riveting stuff.

 

GROOVE: The world is ready for Lizzo

You guys have had a couple introductions to Lizzo via the monthly playlist. I became a fan after catching one of her shows a few years ago. It was the most fun I’d had in a long time. Lizzo has spent the last few years touring and collecting a fanbase that has exploded of late. All of this is good. Which is why it made my week when Joe forwarded this my way. This piece in GQ highlights her story and her personality and all the things that I respect about her. In my mind, Lizzo is fueling this bit of pop-culture history.

 

WATCH: When your bad reputation is pretty fantastic.

Joan Jett . She was a dream come true for teen boys when she first arrived on the scene, which is to say, when MTV began airing her videos. Leather jackets, power chords, and super-catchy choruses were her stock in trade. What I hadn’t been hip to back then were the years of abuse and crap she put up with from her first band The Runaways. This is a revealing look at Jett’s past with some pretty amazing footage from LA in the 70’s. What a lifetime’s worth of stories.

Tim Johnstone is Dappered’s music correspondent as well as our resident gatherer of all things interwebs related. He’s pretty sure about some of the things most of the time, but totally clueless about everything else all the time. But this? This he knows he likes.