Black Women In Music

Some of the most fond and early memories of my childhood are of me reenacting childish musicals from beginning to end, fully donned in makeshift costumes and equipped with surprisingly accurate household props. On the off days when I couldn’t convince one of my older sisters to accompany me, it never stopped me from having my very own one woman act. Most of these musicals I can’t even recall anymore, but there is one in particular that I will never forget. In 1997, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella starring Brandy Norwood and Whitney Houston was released. I realize now that I was only five at the time, but up until recently, if asked I would have told you that I was probably eight or nine. There is no way that I was singing like that at five years old, and yet I was. I do not say this to boast about my vocal skill but instead to speak volumes to the influence that this film had on my life. I did not know it then, but Cinderella spoke purpose and calling into my life, and for that I am so thankful to all of those whom were involved.

Growing up as a young African American female in New Jersey, I was fortunate enough to live a very eclectic lifestyle. Both sides of my family come from the south, Alabama and Georgia, but I grew up in a predominantly Caucasian town of Jackson aka Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey as I like to call it. I find it easier this way so that I can quickly skip over the ever so common Jackson, Mississippi question altogether. Even then, growing up southern black, and small town Caucasian, I attended a Hispanic church. My parents raised my three sisters and I on all different decades and genres of music, and what they didn’t put us onto I learned from the punk rock kids at school, or Christian reggae-ton at church. So despite current popular belief, the fact that the two main leads in Cinderella were black women, was not what I remember making the most impact on me actually. It was the diversity as a whole, the entire cast looked like the life I knew, and even more than that, it was fantastic music.

It wasn’t until many years later that the role of the black women in TV, film, and music began to draw attention to my mind. I remember vividly a time where black women and families like mine were depicted on screen and in music, Destiny’s Child, The Supremes, SWV, Sister Sister, Girlfriends, That’s So Raven. Media with a message or that was at least somewhat wholesome. However, somewhere along the road that changed. Now a lot of black culture doesn’t even seem comparable to the way things were before the early 2000s. I could no longer see myself in the one area of life that brought me so much joy and meaning growing up, so I found myself conforming to fit in with the now. Music has become such a major part of my life that it is now my career choice. I recently decided to pursue my career in songwriting, but it has been years in the making. Early on, I found myself making music that went against my personal beliefs, or was about bad choices I was making at the time and yet couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t allow myself to release any of it. So I gave it all up, for several years. I went back to the drawing board, I began to rediscover myself. I even went as far as to completely deleting all of my Apple Music to start anew, and if that’s not dramatic I don’t know what is.

Once I felt ready, slowly but surely I began writing again, singing again, adding music back onto my devices again. It began with some oldies but goodies like “At Last” by Etta James (1960) and “You Can’t Hurry Love” The Supremes (1966), then moving forward to “Ring My Bell” Anita Ward (1979), “Got To Be Real” Cheryl Lynn (1978), “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” Whitney Houston (1987), “What Have You Done For Me Lately” Janet Jackson (1986), and all the way up to “Have You Ever?” Brandy (1998) just to name a few. What I learned on my musical journey back through time is that there was and always will be a lane in music for non explicit, feel good music by and for black women. Music is and should be a complete expression of one’s self, so I do consider even more scandalous songs to be art as well, but not the only route to drive down. People of color have always brought soul into everything we are passionate about and music is no different. I applaud the courage, individuality, and authenticity that these amazing women of color have paved the way with for younger aspiring artists like myself.

It has officially been a year since I embarked on my career path, right at the beginning of this pandemic, and things have gone almost nowhere near how I expected. In an ever changing world where it seems all too easy to get quickly left behind, I looked for a sign to keep going. I longed for external affirmations that I am merely ambitious and not actually crazy. On February 12, 2021 I got my sign when Disney+ released Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella once again. A film that had long ago become a distant memory ended up reawakening a piece of me that I knew could never go away. Only a few days after that did I learn of this essay challenge and reaffirmed that I am at the right place at the right time, and that the influence of Black Women in Music can and will continue with me. For anyone else looking for a sign not to give up, I hope that just like I found mine, this will be yours. After all, “Impossible things are happening everyday.”