The Black History Month Music Playlist for 2023

To celebrate Black History Month we have compiled a playlist that covers 6 decades of Black American music beginning with the Civil Rights era. Black music is 400+ years of pain, pride and perseverance that serves as the continuous drum beat that carries us towards freedom. As you move through this playlist you will feel the Black Experience in America through the instrumentation, hear through the voice of the artists, and comprehend it through the written lyrics.

Our song tells our story. The Blues puts you in the front seat of life, love, and tragedy in the lives of those living in Mississippi, Alabama, and elsewhere in the American south. Jazz displays our complexity, creativity, and disregard for rigid European convention. While Rap takes you to the streets with the revolution-minded youth no longer disillusioned by the Civil Rights Movement. While our music has been imitated, appropriated, and ridiculed it remains the soundtrack of our lives and an ongoing record of our legacy and our glory.

The Black History Month Playlist for 2023 is not a "best of" list, it's 60 years of Black music history beginning with RnB and ending with Urban Contemporary. The playlist only consists of the essential tracks needed to convey the sounds and energy of the time period, enjoy!

Songs in the 60's​

Thoughts on the 60's​

Picking a Rock and Roll song for the 60's playlist was very difficult due to the fact that Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix were both influential throughout the decade. I view the two similarly to how I view Rakim and Nas...there would be no Nas without Rakim but Nas took what Rakim built and elevated it beyond what we could have ever imagined. So while Chuck Berry invented Rock and Roll, Jimi revolutionized what a modern guitarist is and for that reason, I included them both.

In RnB, Sam Cooke's A Change is Gonna Come highlights the Black experience in the 60's and how we were fed up with the non-stop racism we were subjected to. When you hear Cooke sing...there's hope in his voice, there's some despair, but also an affirmative statement that change is on the horizon. While the change did arrive, thanks to Martin Luther King and co it appears as if a sequel is long over due.

To wrap up the 60's, we have Pigmeat Markham who is important because Here Comes the Judge serves as a reminder that Rap's origins are not the product of the African diaspora. Rap was a form of music already present in the culture prior to DJ Kool Herc's infamous party. That is not denigrate his contributions to Hip Hop or the contributions of others of African descent but rather to properly tell Black history.

Songs in the 70’s​

Thoughts on the 70's​

The 1970's was arguably the greatest decade in Black Music History due to the level of talent available and variety of music styles on the market. It also clearly demonstrates how the music of the USA is a Black American invention. If you removed every genre listed above, what would you have left? Yankee Doodle? Most likely. Even today's "Latin" artists are firmly rooted in the standards set by Black Americans. If you listen to Bad Bunny's rapping on Titi Me Pregunto it's clearly the Black American vocal style that traces back to the 1930's.

The 70's was also the era where Black Americans were completely erased as the face of Rock music. Black musicians who participated in the style would have their music classified as RnB, Soul, or some other genre society deemed "Black". For instance, The Isley Brothers - Get Into Something is a Rock song but is classified as RnB/Soul because they're Black. The society at large slowly wrote Black Americans out of Rock history to the point that many Americans do not associate it as a part of Black music history. We see this happening today once again with individuals like Fat Joe and Busta Rhymes claiming Rap as a Caribbean invention.

Songs in the 80’s​

Thoughts on the 80's​

The 80's saw a surge in synthesizer usage which was a dramatic shift in the sound of Black music. A great example of this is Calypso which has all the fundamentals of Traditional Jazz but with the addition of some very harsh and brash synths. A little known fact, Herbie Hancock states that Miles Davis encouraged him to start experimenting with electronic instruments which encouraged Hancock to extend the . He recorded the entire Mr. Hands album on an Apple II circa 1980, that's amazing.

The 80's also saw Michael Jackson explode into the scene as a solo artist. What makes Michael Jackson so special is that he is the most refined amalgamation and expression of Black history, Black music, and Black dancing to this day. His songs were often genre-benders incorporating many styles of Black American music and spirit. For instance, what genre is Billie Jean or Wanna Be Starting Something? White publications often stamp his music with the term "Pop" but it's truly a mix of R&B, Disco, Funk, Rock, and Rap. When you add in his exquisite dancing, pro-Black subject matter, and the fact that he premiered an all-Black Ancient Egypt themed video on primetime...he was the pinnacle of Black Music History.

Salute to Mike!

Songs in the 90’s​

Thoughts on the 90's​

The 90's was arguably the last era that we saw Black music in the US continue to expand and evolve in the mainstream. It is at this point where the White financiers of the music industry began to deprioritize artistic integrity and development for cheap, easy, and disposable hits. It was also at this point where the production and marketing budgets were targeted towards songs that highlighted the more negative depictions of Black American life.

Genres like Soul, Jazz, and Smooth Jazz were put on the back burner for increased investment into Rap music...but not all Rap music. Artists that pushed for social change and to fight the power were deemed "low-ROI" and forced into the underground. The Rap songs that the Record Labels chose to promote were the songs rife with violence and degeneracy. People often like to blame Black culture for this music and the lyrics but never the people who financed, produced, distributed, and marketed it.

Songs in the 2000’s​

Thoughts on the 2000's​

The 2000's is where the music industry begin to define Black music as simply Rap and RnB. The White financiers of the music industry also began to reduce the scope of the A&R function and leverage Social Media as the boilerplate for acts. As a result, we saw an uptick of disposable one-hit wonder social media Rappers and Singers. Also during this time, the ubiquity of the internet led to a homogenous national sound with every region looking to trace trends.

During this time we saw the South come to prominence within the genre of Rap starting with Cash Money Records and No Limit Records circa 1998. By this time, we saw the essence of the genre decline as technical lyrics took a backseat to beats and dance. Many people blame the decline of lyricism on the South's rise which to me is unfair because the decline actually started in the 90's.

Songs in the 2010’s​

Thoughts on the 2010's​

If we speak of the 2000's as the era where Rap and RnB took the forefront, the 2010's is where they began to merge. Artists like SZA and Drake are at the forefront of a new "Urban Contemporary" genre that takes the rhythmic patterns of rap and pairs them with the melodies and vocal range of RnB. It is hugely successful but leaves fans of RnB and Rap wanting more. RnB fans do not like the Genre because the singers don't have the range of a Whitney Houston and Rap fans dislike it because it's too soft.

Celebrate Black History Month Though Black Music History​

Our Black History Month Playlist shows just how pivotal Black Americans are to American music culture. We have created and influenced every single major genre in the USA today and by leveraging the US' sphere of influence have become the standard of popular music globally. However, if Black music is to survive it is our obligation as the Black people to cherish it, produce it, and support it.

We must instill a sense of pride in your youth so that they stand as a community to protect Black history. Start by listening to all genres and decades of Black music so that they understand the scope and learn to value it. Show them how Billie Holiday used Strange Fruit to talk about lynching, how Nina Simone vented the frustrations of the everyday Black American in Mississippi Goddam, why Marvin Gaye asked What's Going On, and how it all connects to Kendrick Lamar saying "We Gon' Be Alright".

Without this knowledge, they will expect no more from our music than to a be catalyst of dance and Black joy rather than the documentation of a multi-generational retelling of who we are and our battle with the power structure. Let's Celebrate Black History Month by having a renewed commitment to our people, our creation, and our beauty.

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