Rock Music: Nona Hendryx and Alexis Brown
- Shadimon Smith
- Mar 6, 2025
- 4 min read
Nona Hendryx was born on October 9th, 1944, in Trenton, New Jersey. Her career as a musician started in a girl group called the Del Capris before she was 18 and then she later joined the Bluebelles with Patti Labelle. The group consisted of four women and their names were Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, and Cindy Birdsong. The group sang ballads and classic songs, releasing their first single in 1962 called “I Sold My Heart to The Junkman” after being signed to New Town records in 1961. The group didn’t fare well at New Town records after their music wasn’t gaining any traction and Cindy birdsong decided to go sing with the Supremes in 1967.
By 1967 Nona had become the main songwriter for the group now called the LaBelle's. They had a few years performing their version of rock covers and opening for the Who during the British Rocker’s tour. They never had a hit song like “Lady Marmalade” and eventually broke up in 1977 giving Hendryx the time to become a solo artist.
She was signed by Epic Records and released her self-titled album. Epic Records was unsure about marketing a black rock artist and dropped her from the label. Her first release as a solo artist contained rock music and a cover that showed that she was what rock and roll were all about. Her being dropped from her label made it harder for her, but she didn’t give up. She sang background vocals for different people until the early 1980s when she joined a rock group called Zero Cool. They had great performances but seemed to drown out Nona’s star power. She released her second solo album called Nona in 1983.
By the mid-1980s she was creating music for different movies and continuing to forge her own sound. In 1985 she was nominated for a Grammy award for the song “Rock This House” and she continued to record music throughout the years getting up to five albums worth of music under her belt. Each album never failed to make the top 40s hit list and this lead her to make her own label called Private Music. As a black rock artist it was hard to gain traction, but she hasn’t stopped making music.
"It's as tough as ever for emerging artists," she asserted. "Rock and roll is not considered black music. It's been co-opted by the white audience, and it's difficult to reclaim as our own. Radio dictates what rock is, and its parameters are increasingly narrow."
This shows that the issue with breaking into or being a part of the rock industry as a person of color can be hard because you may never get support from radio stations or fellow musicians.
After a couple of years, she started creating music for musicals and plays. As well as getting her music back on shelves from the past and continuing to create new music. She also did some acting in Finding the Funk and other films.
She doesn’t have anyone to really help her release her music due to lack of interest and other factors. She still tours today performing her released music and other sets from her time in the LaBelle’s along with Patti Labelle.
Her career has been amazing and she has been able to make music her way. As well as, finding a way to still be a black woman who has had an everlasting impact on rock music.
The industry chooses what rock music is but continues to categorize her music as R&B from her beginnings. This is a way to quietly tell people of color they don’t fit, or they can’t do this because they don’t fit the look and it makes it hard to provide a place for people of color in the genre.
This hasn’t stopped black women from continuing to contribute to the genre like the next artist that this post discusses Alexis Brown.
Alexis Brown was born on September 4, 1982 and she grew up wanting to sing R&B music but didn’t have the skill for writing songs that matched the genre.
Her brother introduced her to different rock bands, and she joined a rock band. She loved it and went on tour performing as an opener with her band for the band Straight Line Stitch. She currently is a part of the band Straight Line Stitch as the singer of the group after both bands lost a singer and drummer. After performing with SLS she officially joined them, leaving her original band in 2003.
This transition helped Brown find her spot and she has helped SLS grow and become more personable for their fans. She has also helped them find their sound and has been known to be the one to change the band's entire sound to another genre if she wanted.
Her being a part of this genre has allowed her to be accepted and loved by many mainly due to her being herself. She has garnered fans even overseas and has performed in London and other festivals. She doesn’t see herself as being stopped from contributing to the genre because of her skin color or her gender and has continued to perform and gain new fans.
With the rock industry during the 50s there was a separation called race music and rock was targeted towards teenagers. The separation of the artists made it to that when a black woman starts doing rock it seems as if she is trying to destroy something that they helped create. African Americans breaking into the genre of rock when it is described and seen as mainly Caucasian dominated is something that can be good for the African American community, but also cause backlash due to it having a Caucasian mainstream audience.
They haven’t experienced a lot of hardships with their race in this genre but haven’t had a full set of exposure and this could be why. These two artists in this post have had a somewhat good career and have built a name for themselves even though they are not as mainstream as other artists.
Listen to Their Music:
Black Veil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS71RSMN_4E
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