While we mourn the destruction of NOTRE DAME, many odes to the history and beauty of the cathedral have been written. A take on Notre Dame's contribution to music as we know it today by WOSU RADIO's JENNIFER HAMBRICK grabbed my attention. Hambrick explains that the architecture of the cathedral allowed it to become an incubator of sacred polyphony (in layman's terms, multiple melody lines), which is fundamental to the idea of harmonizing in music. Without it we might not have one of the greatest harmony performances of all time by the BEACH BOYS or the close country harmonies of the LOUVIN BROTHERS and their descendants, and "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" would be unthinkable. Just to name a few... Women are having a good week, making me think 2019 could be the year of the woman part 2. ARETHA FRANKLIN became the first woman to be awarded a special citation by the PULITZER PRIZE board. It's unfortunate that the award is posthumous, because Franklin's contributions to music were stupendous, and it's sad that it took 89 years for an individual woman to be recognized. Franklin's musical talents were taken to new heights throughout her career by her faith and her church. She was the daughter of a preacher and songs of praise were part of her DNA. In thinking about what we would have missed out on musically without Notre Dame, I also wonder what future Pulitzer winners we may be missing out on after the church bombings in Louisiana, which a lot of folks on TWITTER have been reminding us are as worthy of our attention as Notre Dame... ELLEN REID also won a Pulitzer, garnering the music award for her opera P R I S M, which deals with the effects of sexual and emotional abuse. She began working on the piece before the #MeToo movement, and it aims to give listeners a way to relate to and understand the point of view of survivors, drawing from her own experience as a survivor. Make no mistake about it: The art made by women addressing sexual misconduct, objectification, empowerment and underrepresentation is the fall out of #MeToo for music. It doesn't have to all be about outing men for bad behavior. Women are finding their voices and using them to help us all understand why equality is necessary. And demand it... One more shoutout to women doing the work: Congratulations to ELAINA SMITH on her GRACIE AWARD for the WOMEN WANT TO HEAR WOMEN podcast. If you haven't been listening, go subscribe. Smith interviews women in country music, from CARRIE UNDERWOOD and MAREN MORRIS to workaday songwriters and up-and-coming talent, about the struggles they face in the genre. And she's doing everything she can to eliminate the false narrative that women listeners don't want to hear women artists on country radio. It's time for that old chestnut to go.