“Lemonade” by Beyoncé

“Lemonade” was released on April 23, 2016 by twenty-time Grammy award winner, Beyoncé. It was her sixth studio album and it received both public and critical success. The album fuses elements of pop, hip-hop, rap, reggae, blues, rock, and other genres. The album’s diversity of sound and samplings of all different types of music are part of the reason it was so successful. The album won “Best Urban Contemporary Album” at the 2017 Grammy Awards.

“Lemonade” was also successful because of it’s storytelling element. Though every album released tries to tell a story of some sort, “Lemonade” goes that extra mile. Along with the music and videos released, the album was paired with a short sixty-five minute film of the same title. It tells the story of Beyoncé trying to keep her marriage to rapper, Jay-Z, together. She explores her own revelation about his extramarital and how she subsequently felt about it and decided to move on. She delves into the realities of learning to move past such a thing as infidelity in a relationship and how music and her heritage as a black woman helped her do that. To read more about the reason “Lemonade” was written, read here.

Perhaps the most popular song from the album, “Formation” tells the story of a woman finding herself and learning to keep it moving despite everything life throws her way. She does all this while also exploring the socioeconomic and racial disparities in the South. Her performance at the 2016 SuperBowl was both lauded and criticized widely for its political nature. The music video for “Formation” can be viewed on the “Song Bites” page of my blog.

“Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse

“Back to Black” was released on October 27, 2006. It was the second and final album released by British singer-songwriter, Amy Winehouse. The album spawned five singles, “Rehab,” “You Know That I’m No Good,” “Back to Black,” “Tears Dry On Their Own,” and “Love Is A Losing Game.” It also won The Best Pop Vocal Album at the 50th Grammy Awards in 2007.

“Back to Black explored the complex relationship between Winehouse and a number of her former flames. She chronicled how those relationships influenced her drug use and subsequent self-harm through the use of other substances. In “You Know That I’m No Good,” Winehouse sings about all the problems she sees in herself and despite knowing they exist, how hard it is for her to change because of how badly she’s been hurt. Winehouse’s music is influenced by jazz groups of the 1950s and 1960s and the genre of R&B, and the dark, soulful sounds of her music play into the themes that she sings about on this album.

Winehouse joined “The Twenty-Seven Club,” in 2011 when she died of an overdose. Her music still lives on today.

“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” by Lauryn Hill

“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” was released on August 25, 1998. It was the debut album of singer and rapper Lauryn Hill and she released it after touring with her former group, The Fugees, and becoming involved with fellow band member Rohan Marley. She became pregnant with their child, and this experience inspired the creation of this album. She said years later in an interview about the creation of the album, “Every time I got hurt, every time I was disappointed, every time I learned, I just wrote a song.”

The album was overwhelmingly praised by critics and listeners alike. They liked how Hill gave a woman’s view on life and love. These views can be heard in various lyrics throughout the album such as in the song, “Doo Wop (That Thing).” In the song, she raps, “More concerned with his rims and his Timbs than his women/Him and his men, come in the club like hooligans/Don’t care who they offend, poppin’ yang (Like you got yen!)” Hill also explored her relationship with God on this album in songs such as “Lost Ones” and “Forgive Them Father.” These songs were supposedly direct attacks on fellow Fugees members Wyclef Jean and Pras. To learn more about the history of the Fugees and the inspiration of Hill’s album, read here.

“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” ultimately went on to win the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1999.

“True Blue” by Madonna

“True Blue” was Madonna’s third studio album and it was released on June 30, 1986. Madonna showcased her views on love, marriage, and her hopes and dreams. The album was different than her two prior albums, however, in that she was trying to appeal to an older audience who tended to be skeptical of Madonna due to her risque nature of dress and music. “True Blue” was considered Madonna’s most “girly” album and it arguably gave us some of her greatest hits. Madonna experimented by adding flourishes of classical music to many of the tracks on the album, which is typically considered much more refined.

The album was an ode to Madonna’s husband at the time, actor Sean Penn. She dedicated the album to him. “True Blue” was recorded from December 1985 to April 1986 during their first year of their marriage. The two had a truly loving marriage and still have a lot of love for each other, and this has been chronicled over the years. According to Billboard Magazine, Sean Penn said in March 2018 that he “loves his first wife very much” and always will. “True Blue” has a wide variety of romantic songs, including, “Open Your Heart,” “Jimmy Jimmy”, and “La Isla Bonita.” Each of these romantic songs is written in a major key and sounds extremely happy and upbeat to showcase the feeling of being in love.

“Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac

“Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac, was released on February 4, 1977. It was the eleventh studio album released by the British-American rock band and it had a lot to live up to. The band’s tenth studio album, “Fleetwood Mac,” which had been released two years earlier, had garnered enormous success, and living up to it was something the band had to keep in mind while recording.

The recording sessions of “Rumours” were marked by great emotional strife. The members of Fleetwood Mac certainly liked to mix business with pleasure and several of the members were involved romantically. According to Rolling Stone, “Stevie Nicks had just split with her longtime lover and musical partner, Lindsey Buckingham, while Christine was in the midst of divorcing her husband, bassist John McVie. Meanwhile, Mick Fleetwood’s extra-band marriage was on the rocks, leading to an affair with Nicks before the year was out.” All of this emotional tension lead to brutally honest lyrics and because of it, the “Rumours” saga is still known as one of the biggest musical scandals in rock band history.

One example of the intense lyricism on the album, would be in the song, “Songbird,” which happens to be my favorite song on the album. Christine McVie wrote, “For you, there’ll be no more crying / For you, the sun will be shining / And I feel that when I’m with you / It’s alright, I know it’s right” in the midst of her divorce about the beginnings of her relationship with her ex-spouse. Most of the songs on this album have just as much intensity in their lyrics, and the album is hailed as one of the best of the twentieth century.

“Abbey Road” by The Beatles

“Abbey Road” was an album released by one of the most popular bands on all time, The Beatles, on September 26,1969. The album consists of 17 songs, and it was the last Beatles album to be recorded, according to The Beatles.com. It was the first Beatles album that did not feature the band’s name on the cover, just the infamous photo of the four members crossing the Abbey Road intersection in London, England. The album stayed number one on both the English and American charts for multiple weeks.

“Abbey Road” was released after an album entitled, “Get Back” was proposed, and Beatles member, Paul McCartney suggested to their music producer, George Martin that the group instead record an album, “the way they used to do it.” The Beatles had had a few tumultuous recording sessions following the death of Brian Epstein, their manager, and “Abbey Road” was their way of connecting again as a group.

This connection can be felt in the album’s upbeat, light style of music. Each of the 17 songs on the album somehow relate to reconnecting. From “Come Together” to “Here Comes the Sun” the entire album is about bringing old friends back together to make music again. Each song also, for the most part, features each of the members singing, which was different than what the group typically tried to do in their music. In the past, one lead vocal was featured typically on the album’s singles that were released. Other than “Octopus’s Garden,” each member sings a bit in each song. Many of the songs are also written in major keys, which are typically associated with and written for upbeat songs.

“Ella and Louis” by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

“Ella and Louis” was a studio album released in August 18, 1956 by famed jazz vocalist Ella Fitzgerald and American trumpeter and singer, Louis Armstrong. The album has a total of eleven songs, all different in their composition and intonation. They are all slow and melodic and at slow or moderate tempo,  however, from “Can’t We Be Friends?” to “April in Paris.”    The overriding theme of the album is perseverance through focusing on the good things in life, such as love, friendship, and happiness.

This album is a perfect depiction of life for African Americans during the 1950s and 60s. In the wake of Jim Crow, a common theme throughout African American culture was sticking together. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) helped to protect African Americans through pursuing lawsuits against state governments and individuals who did not uphold certain rights granted to African Americans. In fact, according to Encyclopedia.com, “the turning point came in 1954 when the Supreme Court struck down public school segregation in the case ‘Brown v. Board of Education.'” The US Supreme Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

“Ella and Louis” is an album that showcases perfectly how African Americans stuck by each other during the era of Jim Crow. Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong’s friendship was well-documented. The two were close on both a personal and professional level and their music reflects that closeness.

“The Voice of Frank Sinatra” by Frank Sinatra

“The Voice of Frank Sinatra” was released on March 4, 1946, just a few short months after the end of the second world war. In the years following the end of WWII, the United States witnessed a surplus of births throughout the country. According to CNN, “[a]t the end of 1946, the first year of the baby boom, there were approximately 2.4 million baby boomers. In 1964, the last year of the baby boom, there were nearly 72.5 million baby boomers.” 

People had been away fighting for the United States country during the war, and when they returned they starting having children, so to speak. This is what  caused the baby boom.

Love has always and will always be an important theme in music. Literally millions of songs have been written about the topic, but during the baby boom, love songs and albums witnessed a surge as well. Frank Sinatra was the voice of this generation and the voice of love at the time. He was known for these famous songs such as those featured on this album. In this way, the historical context of the second world war influenced the creation of this album and songs respectively.