Suzanne Vega

Vega's debut album marked a turning point, both for singer-songwriters and for female artists. Inspired more by the dark, poetic visions of Leonard Cohen than the hippie goddessisms of Joni Mitchell, she brought to the public an awareness that acoustic guitar-based music could be arch, urbane and artful. She also proved that, in an exceptionally male-dominated era, women didn't have to be either wallflowers or sexpots to make their artistic statements.