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The 10 ‘Be’s: A Self-Help Mix for the End of Black History Month
Songs of inspiration and self-determination.
At the beginning of February, my editor at Variety asked me to do a weekly series for Black History Month on “songs of Black identity” that mean a lot to me. It was a challenging and enlightening assignment that allowed me to incorporate my two favorite subjects — music and history — into four articles.
As I was coming up with my quartet of Black identity songs, I realized how big a role inspiration and self-determination have always played in music, not just music made by Black artists, but music in general. Love is the most popular music theme, and in songs and in life, it’s indivisible from inspiration and self-determination. The former is the literal foundation of big hits like The Righteous Brothers’ “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration” and Chicago’s “You’re the Inspiration.”
Self-determination, meanwhile, is at the root of many of pop music’s greatest self-love anthems, from Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” to Cher’s “Believe.” Getting there may be more complicated than listening to a self-esteem anthem, reading a self-help book, or listening to a podcast about being your authentic self, but you’ve got to start somewhere.
