Introducing our all-agency collaborative playlist to share music by Black artists that make us dance, sing, celebrate, cry, reflect and more. We will be updating this over the course of October with new additions, but for now, here are the stories behind the music that moves us.
Buffalo Soldier — Bob Marley and the Wailers
Music that makes me reflect. The song describes the fight put up by the members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army during the American Indian Wars. The “Buffalo Soldiers” were established by the United States Congress in September 1866 and were the first peacetime regiments made up of only Black men in the U.S. Army. Amongst other tasks, the “Buffalo Soldiers” were tasked during the wars to protect white men, settled on Native American lands, from being attacked by the Native Americans.
A song signifying Black resistance, Marley highlights the bravery of the Black soldiers whilst emphasising the oppressions that the Black man was subjected to in the same country he fought for and helped build with his own hands.
By Hannah Garvey
Walk Don’t Walk — Prince
Music that makes me… feel powerful! My Mum had the Prince & The NPG ‘Diamonds and Pearls’ album on cassette and we’d have it on in the car when she was running us around in her old Citroën Dyane. Some of the songs on there were probably not suitable for a 3/4 year old (I’m sure I didn’t really understand anyway) but it was my first introduction to the genius of Prince, and has grown to be one of my favourites. In particular Walk Don’t Walk, which gives me such a boost when I need a reminder to be my own person and walk my own path. I often used to listen to it on the walk from Southwark station to Bankside on a Monday morning so thought it was a good one to share with you all today!
For fellow Prince fans, there’s an episode as part of the 2011 series ‘New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s’ on iPlayer now…
By Chloe McMahon
Sounds of Blackness — Optimistic
This song makes me smile. I’m dancing with my family in the kitchen, I’m still too short to see over the table. My mum’s mouthing the words at me. Everyone’s singing. Twenty years on and this melody takes me straight back to that morning. It produces a physical endorphin reaction. This song and that specific uplifting feeling is definitely my first choice for this BHM playlist.
By Ashley Alleyne
Medley: Higher/Music Lover — Sly & The Family Stone
This music makes me feel like we’ve all got the power to lift up others. I spent part of my summers every year just outside of Monticello, NY with my best friend’s family. They would reminisce about Woodstock ’69 and how forever changed their thinking around the potential for peace and the radical power of love. I’ll never forget the way I felt when I first watched footage of Sly & The Family Stone performing — the energy was vibrating at me through the screen and I never wanted to be anywhere so desperately.
Their whole set was mind-blowing for me, but I especially love their performance of ‘I Want to Take You Higher.’ In a short interlude, Sly gives a really great speech about the way fear inhibits us from embracing everything we are and one another. He challenges the audience to put aside their self-conscious feelings for just a moment to feel a part of something positive and powerful. This is the meaning this song has taken for me — the affirming power of joy and love to elevate and build connections.
By Allison Gilbert
All Along The Watchtower — Jimi Hendrix
This song makes me want to practice and practice and practice…I’m 13. I’ve picked up the guitar and learned a handful of chords. I hear from an older kid Hendrix is the best of all time. I find a greatest hits album in my dad’s CD collection. Track 1 — All Along The Watchtower. 15 years go by and it’s still untouchable.
By Ollie Easthope
Dancing In The Street — Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
This song makes me want to protest. Becoming a summer hit in the year of its release, the song’s lyrics “it’s an invitation across the nation, a chance for folks to meet” soon took on a new meaning, becoming a 60s protest anthem during the Civil Rights Movement. Key Black Power figures during the mid-60s revolution, such as H Rap Brown, took on the song as their unofficial anthem as a result of the subtextual link between the song’s lyrics and the ongoing politics of race.
“Dancing In The Street” carries the same relevance today and Martha Reeves, aged 79, participated in a Black Lives Matter march this year, noting that although the prevailing purpose of the march remained the same as the 60s, the march experience was contrasting, as in 2020 people of all races joined to protest and were dancing in the street.
By Hannah Garvey
Am I Black Enough for you — Billy Paul
This song makes me boogie. A politically-charged funk and soul tune from the ’70s with a pretty awesome beat. Its’ hard not to shake your tush when this comes on in our house 😊
By Emma Kobayashi
Vuli Ndela — Brenda Fassie
This song makes me nostalgic. I have literally found it SO hard to pick a song for this celebration. This song, Vuli Ndela, by a South African artist Brenda Fassie has won out, just. It makes me think of home. She was the anti-apartheid ‘Madonna of the Townships’ and was HUGE in the eighties — her music blasted out of every radio. It’s in Zulu and I just think of good times, BBQs, pantsula dancing and family when I hear this. She died too young, but what a legacy.
By Larissa English-Rees
You Make Me Feel (mighty real) — Sylvester
This song makes me feel mighty REAL. When my husband heard we were making this playlist, he blasted this in our kitchen and was grinning ear to ear. This isn’t a song that just makes you want to move, it’s so much more. Sylvester was a musical and aesthetic icon in the 1970s and a courageous activist for LGBTQ+ rights and HIV/AIDs awareness. You Make Me Feel is regarded as a revolutionary piece of music and “the cornerstone of gay disco.” In fact, this song is now in the U.S Library of Congress for preservation for its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance.
This is a song celebrating authenticity and affirmation that makes every part of you want to move — from your toes to your nose.
By Allison Gilbert
Juice — Lizzo
This music makes me feel like IDGAF (and that’s a good thing). The ultimate I don’t give a fck what you think song, celebrating all things strong, beautiful, brilliant and empowered, by a Black Queen. It’s the ultimate hype tune and always puts me in a good mood. The whole album (Coz I Love You) is sensational. What a woman.
By Katy Dunn
Are You Gonna Go My Way? — Lenny Kravitz
This song makes me… screw up my face and head bang.That riff. Those drums. There’s not really much more to say about this — such a great Friday tune! Also very good for sliding around the kitchen in your socks.I hadn’t listened to Lenny Kravitz in so long, but this week’s Desert Island Discs castaway Baroness Floella Benjamin chose it as one of her tracks (who knew she was a rock chick?!) and so it’s straight back into my listening list.She said it was one she used to play at the graduation ball at Exeter University in her years as Chancellor there, while graduates would throw flowers at her and chant “Change the world! Change the world!” What a legend.
By Chloe McMahon
