Kate Bush's The Kick Inside changed the game for young female songwriters. The album was released when she was 19, but Bush wrote several of the record's songs when she was only 13. Her influence on women in music is still felt today; Florence Welch and Joanna Newsom are just some of the artists who name her among their inspirations.
Bush's literary, lyrical songwriting and fearlessness in talking openly and smartly about sex in her lyrics were groundbreaking when she hit the scene in the late 1970s. So was her ability to stick to her guns in the notoriously male-dominated music industry. She insisted that her single "Wuthering Heights" be the first song to hit the radio from her debut album against her label's wishes. Bush eventually got her way, and the track quickly rocketed to the No. 1 spot on the UK charts.
