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A review by lindsloveslit
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
I. Love. Music.
I didn't realize it until I moved away after college, but I grew up in an uncharacteristically, musically talented town. We were reading music and singing four part harmony in first grade. By middle school it wasn't uncommon to sing eight part, acapella harmony. Even though sports were my first love, I made it into state and national honors choirs, and played four different instruments growing... that was just the norm!
Because of my love of music, I was really excited to pick this one up! "Shine Bright" was equal parts essays/memoir of Danyel Smith's experience with music and part history of Black women in pop music. It was easy to feel Smith's love of music through her writing. After recently finishing "The Three Mothers" by Anna Malaika Tubbs, I was struck how these two books both show how prominent the erasure of Black women is. We need more writings like this to show/give credit where credit is due.
I will say, the transitions between memoir and history did not always feel smooth to me which made the timeline difficult to follow. In addition, I craved more focus on the background and history of music. Instead, I felt like I was given Danyel's experience meeting the artists. I tried this one on audio, but much preferred it digitally/as a paperback. Overall, I'm glad I read it. There were some new-to-me singers I was introduced to, and I found #TheBlackGirlSoundtrack because of it, too!
I didn't realize it until I moved away after college, but I grew up in an uncharacteristically, musically talented town. We were reading music and singing four part harmony in first grade. By middle school it wasn't uncommon to sing eight part, acapella harmony. Even though sports were my first love, I made it into state and national honors choirs, and played four different instruments growing... that was just the norm!
Because of my love of music, I was really excited to pick this one up! "Shine Bright" was equal parts essays/memoir of Danyel Smith's experience with music and part history of Black women in pop music. It was easy to feel Smith's love of music through her writing. After recently finishing "The Three Mothers" by Anna Malaika Tubbs, I was struck how these two books both show how prominent the erasure of Black women is. We need more writings like this to show/give credit where credit is due.
I will say, the transitions between memoir and history did not always feel smooth to me which made the timeline difficult to follow. In addition, I craved more focus on the background and history of music. Instead, I felt like I was given Danyel's experience meeting the artists. I tried this one on audio, but much preferred it digitally/as a paperback. Overall, I'm glad I read it. There were some new-to-me singers I was introduced to, and I found #TheBlackGirlSoundtrack because of it, too!