In 1970, after stints in journalism, advertising and mainstream public relations, Bridenthal began her music-industry career at San Francisco radio station KMPX-FM, where she served as an overnight air personality. In 1973 she founded the promotion/publicity department at Rolling Stone magazine, then headquartered in San Francisco.

She moved to Los Angeles in 1977 to lead the publicity team at Elektra/Asylum Records. During her tenure at the label, most notably as Vice President/Publicity and Artist Development, she orchestrated campaigns for Queen, Mötley Crüe, The Cars, The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Jr., The Pointer Sisters, Carly Simon, Eddie Rabbitt, Patrice Rushen, Grover Washington, Jr., John Prine and X, among many others.

Bridenthal resigned from Elektra/Asylum in 1984--by that time the company had moved its headquarters to New York--in order to return to Los Angeles to launch Bridenthal Public Relations with core clients Queen and Mötley Crüe. She shuttered the firm in the fall of 1986 to take the reins of the media and artist relations department at Capitol Records. There she shepherded press campaigns for acts including Megadeth, Duran Duran, Steve Miller and Crowded House. Bridenthal left Capitol for Geffen Records in March of 1987.

In fact, she founded the Geffen Records media relations department, in April 1987, and presided over it through the end of 1998, when the company was folded into Interscope Records. In this capacity she handled publicity, public relations and crisis management for Geffen and DGC Records, in addition to overseeing campaigns for joint-venture partners DreamWorks Records and Outpost Recordings and affiliated label Almo Sounds. She also handled publicity for Guns N' Roses from the time of their first recordings, as well as campaigns for such artists as Nirvana, Beck, George Michael, Enya, Slash's Snakepit, Forest For The Trees, Herb Alpert, White Zombie, The Sundays, Hole, Aerosmith, Jimmy Page, Robbie Robertson, Joni Mitchell and Don Henley.

In 1999 Bridenthal founded the publicity department at DreamWorks Records. During the next five years, she maintained oversight of publicity for the label's pop, urban and country divisions, which included artists as diverse as Nelly Furtado, Toby Keith, The Isley Brothers, Rufus Wainwright, Lifehouse, eels, Papa Roach, Floetry, Jimmy Eat World, Alien Ant Farm, Jessica Andrews and Buckcherry. While at DreamWorks, Bridenthal also retained a wide range of independent publicity firms, which gave her the opportunity to observe a broad spectrum of music-publicity styles.

In January 2004, when DreamWorks Records was sold to Universal Music, Bridenthal launched Bridenthal & Associates, an independent publicity firm focused on music-related ventures. Nelly Furtado was the company's inaugural client.