Tina Turner, the trailblazing singer who was hailed as the queen of rock’n’roll, survived so many personal and professional challenges that some of her fans might have believed that she was going to live forever.
Her death last week at the age of 83 brought home the fact that she was as mortal as the rest of us, but her refusal to stay in the box that Black women are expected to occupy will remain a lasting source of inspiration.
Turner’s musical journey is front of mind to me as a scholar who researches the contributions African American women have made to rock’n’roll. She was a bona fide superstar, the only artist I have written about who has such a high level of name recognition among people who are not pop fans. Indeed, as has become clear in the days since her death, everyone seems to have heard of her. I am fascinated by her ability to have achieved this level of celebrity and the skilful way she mobilised her remarkable vocal talent and riveting stage presence to refuse and resist being consigned to the margins of popular music.
Born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939, the young Tina Turner did not have an easy childhood, but she had the capacity to imagine other possibilities and a willingness to work to achieve her dreams. Anna Mae loved singing. She sang in church and sang along with the rhythm and blues (R&B), pop, blues and country music that she heard on the radio when she was growing up in rural Tennessee.
When, as a teenager, she saw the Kings of Rhythm she had the audacity to ask the bandleader, Ike Turner, to let her sing with them. Little Ann, as she was known back then, captured audiences in the late 1950s with the urgency of a voice that deployed rough vocal textures, shouts, screams and pure singing power.
As the frontwoman for the Ike and Tina Turner Revue during the 1960s and 70s, she became known for a unique combination of energetic vocals and non-stop movement. She and her backing singers, the Ikettes, sang full throttle and performed rapid-fire dance steps; the whirling arms, swinging hair and fringed mini dresses added excitement to the show.
Turner wasn’t afraid to be sexy and she wasn’t afraid to sweat. She was a bracing alternative to the controlled and composed style of performance that dominated among Black women during this period.
But she was also seeking a way out of her abusive marriage and professional partnership with Ike Turner. She had attempted suicide – and knew that she had to make a change. Well outside the box of the Christianity she had been raised in, she found in Nichiren Buddhism and the practice of regular chanting a source of strength that enabled her to escape the debilitating existence that was her marriage.
Her disclosures about the abuse she suffered during her 16 years with Ike shocked fans, but by leaving him she provided a model for people who were contending with intimate partner abuse. She became an icon of survival, not simply because she left her tormenter but because of the tremendous professional success that she achieved after the split.
That success was not preordained. When she started out on her solo career path in the late 1970s, she was working in a recording industry that generally kept African American artists from participating in the lucrative genres of pop and rock. But Turner was tired of singing R&B and determined to move on.
In direct opposition to conventional recording industry wisdom, she set her sights on rock, dreaming of large-scale concerts at arenas. It was an uphill battle to convince decision-makers to offer a contract to a Black woman in her 40s who wanted to play a style of music seen as the purview of white youth. Never mind the fact that rock was rooted in African American music. Never mind the fact that she had honed her skills alongside Ike Turner, one of the originators of rock’n’roll.
It took about four years to secure the recording contract that led to her 1984 blockbuster Private Dancer. Recorded in London in collaboration with white rockers who were longtime fans, the album delved into the sound of 1980s hard rock and synth pop. By placing Turner’s unmistakable voice in the foreground of songs it sealed her reputation as a versatile rock singer, possibly the best one working at the time.
The attitude-rich track What’s Love Got to Do With It gave Turner her first No 1 single and before long she was headlining sold-out concerts at the stadiums that she had dreamed of playing. Grammy awards, more chart-topping recordings, and record-breaking tours followed. She reimagined what a Black woman vocalist could do.
Turner escaped domestic violence and circumvented recording industry racism, sexism and ageism. She reinvented herself in her 40s, became a global pop superstar and, after a glorious run, retired from the stage as the undisputed queen of rock’n’roll. She leaves behind recordings and concert footage that showcase the inimitable voice and indomitable spirit that propelled her career and paved the way for artists, especially Black women like Beyoncé and Brittany Howard, who dare to think and do otherwise. Tina Turner’s legacy is her singular reminder of what is possible if you step outside the box.
• Maureen Mahon is professor and chair of the Department of Music at New York University. She is the author of Black Diamond Queens: African American Women and Rock and Roll
