Music is the Way- Playlist

 Alliyah Barrow

Dr. Harris

Final Project- Mixtape

11 November 2024

Music is the Way

For African Americans, music has been a vital way to express their experiences, cultural heritage, and struggles. Whether it is about love, struggle, or just experiences in general, they have the ability to make a unique song that can be self-healing. I was inspired by this article “The Power of Our Songs: Black Music As Resistance.” The article goes into detail about how our songs are self-healing/liberation. For this project, I have chosen to focus on love songs, self-love, and heartbreak. This mixtape will show you how music is a way for an artist to heal themselves by expressing their feelings through music.

Firstly, I will talk about love songs: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston, Anything by SWV, Die for You by The Weeknd, Collard Greens & Cornbread by Fantasia, and I Love Me Some Him by Toni Braxton. These songs represent a deep love and admiration between two people. These artists explain their passion for their partner in depth. For example, the Weeknd tells his partner “Just know that I would die for you Baby, I would die for you, yeah.” This shows the depth of the Weeknd’s love because he expresses such devotion to his partner that he would willingly sacrifice himself for her. SWV is another great example of how they dedicated a whole song to catering to their man. “There is nothing I wouldn't do for you. All that you want, I'll be all that you need. 'Cause, boy, you know you've got me. And I'll do anything.” All of these songs express the artists' love which is a way of self-liberation because they were expressing their emotions.

Secondly, I will talk about heartbreak songs: Silly by Denise Williams, Call Out My Name by The Weeknd, Un-Break My Heart by Toni Braxton, Officially Missing You by Tamia, and Bust Your Windows by Jazmine Sullivan. These songs express one going through heartbreak. Tamia says “Oh, baby tell me why'd you have to go. 'Cause this pain I feel. It won't go away. And today I'm officially missing you”. She is reminiscing about when she was with her lover but is sad because she misses them and they are no longer together. Jazmine said, “I bust the windows out your car. And no it didn't mend my broken heart”. Jazmine conveys that, despite her physically damaging the car of the man who broke her heart, it doesn’t bring her the relief that she wished for. The artists do a good job of conveying their emotions in the song with how heartbroken they are which can be a form of self-healing.

Thirdly, I’m going to talk about self-love songs; Treat Me by Chloe Bailey, I’m Every Woman by Whitney Houston, and Video by India Arie. These artists’ songs convey self-liberation/self-healing with how they give themselves praise. Whitney states, “I'm every woman, it's all in me.” She is saying that she can do anything because she is that woman. India says “But I learned to love myself unconditionally.” This lyric also shows how India was expressing self-liberation because she was showing herself self-love. All these artists’ songs show how they praise themselves, by doing so they are expressing self-love within themselves.

In conclusion, this mixtape will help anyone who wants to see how African Americans express themselves in their music. There are multiple ways that a person can self-heal but I feel that music is the best way. Each song conveys a different emotion that people can tend to relate to so they can self-heal.


Mixtape list:

I Will Always Love You- Whitney Houston

Anything- SWV

Die for You- The Weeknd

Collard Greens & Cornbread- Fantasia

I Love Me Some Him- Toni Braxton

Silly-Denise Williams

Call Out My Name- The Weeknd

Un-break My Heart-Toni Braxton

Officially Missing You-Tamia

Bust Your Windows-Jazmine Sullivan

Treat Me-Chloe Bailey

I’m Every Woman-Whitney Houston

Video- India Arie


Link to article: https://www.bet.com/article/ijy7wd/the-power-of-our-songs-black-music-as-resistance 

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