“Why shouldn’t women play the guitar and write songs?” How Suzanne Vega broke barriers for women singer-songwriters — and became the “mother of the MP3”

Then, almost by accident, her voice on “Tom’s Diner” became an important tool in the development of a technology that would transform the way the world listened to music. Why shouldn’t women play the guitar and write songs? British production duo DNA turned Vega’s a cappella “Tom’s Diner” into a dance track and scored a major hit. “They put together this funky remix of ‘Tom’s Diner’ on a weekend! “My album got pretty good reviews, but it didn’t hit the way that their version of ‘Tom’s Diner’ did.