Kim Gordon

Arguably one of the most influential women in the post-punk and alternative music scene of the 1980s and 1990s, Kim Gordon was the bassist for and founding member of the fiercely independent and experimental band Sonic Youth. Like Kim Deal of the Pixies, Gordon anchored the band's rhythm while offering a cool, detached sense of humor and passion to the fiery guitar squall of husband Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. However, Gordon contributed an equal amount of creative input and control over the band while also enjoying leadership positions in a vast array of side projects, from fashion and art to bands like Free Kitten. In doing so, she was revered as a role model for creative women by critics and fans alike, who were shocked by the dissolution of both her marriage and Sonic Youth itself in 2013. Gordon's artistic ambitions and restless creativity soon led to new projects, while her body of work with Sonic Youth preserved her status as a major figure in the development of independent music.