Wrapping up Black Music Month 2021

I feel really good about this month.

There was mission creep, but I liked the directions it went in. I learned a lot. I came away with some new music.

I am going to write a couple more posts based on it, but they are less about music and more about people.

It worked out well that it came along as I was finishing up the Review Retrospective. That was a good transition into doing reviews again, and my first new reviews tied in well.

Two of those retrospectives specifically pertained to Black music: Stevie Wonder in May and Black Women Rock! in March.

In both cases I felt like there was more to know. I had always known that I would need to get back to Stevie Wonder.

It has more recently become a solution of mine to create a playlist when there is something I want to capture. I introduce to you my Stevie Wonder playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3a30gRgQOxVFw1U1NDeX0s?si=72e22679adde46ac 

I agonized over what to include, and I still have doubts that I have not missed really important tracks. However, I think there is a case to be made for just going back and re-listening to the entire Stevie Wonder discography every few years, and I can live with that. Having gone through and created the playlist, even those songs that I decided not to include are more fixed in my mind. That worry that I had heard good things and forgotten them is resolved.

(The concern that there is a more perfect arrangement that I have not figured out may be more of a thing I just need to live with.)

Obviously there was the intention to do a playlist for Black women too, but that has been more complicated.

Of all of the deep dives I have done -- into any musical topic -- that initial section inspired more individual reviews than anything else. Yes, I have bands that I intend to review from the emo and greatest guitar listening, but it doesn't compare. That initial list had 172 unique entries, including some team-ups, plus additional artists that I did not find until after but really like. There is just a lot there.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2015/07/musical-black-girls.html

I could make a playlist simply reflecting the songs in the order played; that would not be well curated. It would be ground that was already traveled but somewhat shallowly, so it would not solve anything.

Initially I had thought it was just a matter of groupings, like maybe the playlist would be for disco and rock and with a little bit of blues, but that I didn't need to do the girl groups and the gospel singers.

Even if that felt fair, just trying to decide who is who for that is a challenge. Like, if I decide that the Blues, Jazz, and Swing singers can go together, and that combining the Gospel and Classical works, there are still at least five distinct lists, and maybe I want a playlist that is all Blues. 

So right now there is not a playlist; there are merely notes for listening more, and getting to know enough that I feel comfortable with what I know.

That is how a lot of these things go for me.