Minimalism was the first musical movement in which women were the driving force. Pauline Oliveros, Meredith Monk, Eliane Radigue, and Mary Ellen Childs all advanced the minimalist language in crucial ways. Sound and performance artist Laurie Anderson propelled minimalism into the charts in 1981 with O Superman. The piece was part of a larger performance piece, United States, the first part of which was called Americans on the Move, a birthday present from Holly Solomon to her husband. It was premiered in 1979 at Carnegie Recital Hall. The voiced pulsations and amniotic atmosphere tug us one way – into a comforting maternal world – while the quietly political and possibly apocalyptic text tug us in another.