Black music is a term that describes music that is produced or inspired by Black people. Black music, such as blues, jazz, soul, and rhythm & blues, explores Black pain. Black women singer-songwriters have shared trauma and presented their experiences of Black womanhood by presenting and politicizing it through their music, but they also benefit from the popularity of Black womanhood as a cultural commodity. This presentation will employ Solange’s A Seat at the Table as a case study to explore the way singers have both positively inspired their audiences but also capitalized on their position. I will argue that Solange’s public admittance of trauma is communal and transformative but is also the result of the popularity of Black womanhood as a cultural commodity. Drawing on Black feminist theory, trauma theory, and identity economies, I will offer close readings of interviews, lyrics, music videos and scholarly research to contextualize A Seat at the Table as a product of this political and cultural moment.
