No artist has been more integral to my understanding of social issues and empathy for people who are seemingly different from myself than Tracy Chapman. Many issues that I am passionate about and fight for today were first discovered in one of her songs. Issues of socioeconomics, race and bigotry, and the bi-product of greed in our capitalistic society were not even on my radar growing up a white middle class midwestern boy until they were sparked by her writing.
I remember the first time I heard her song, Fast Car. I was very young, but somehow I could totally relate to this voice and her emotion even though I had no basis to truly understand the situation she was speaking about. It was the first time I can remember feeling transported into another persons life through a song. From that moment, I think I began to really understand the power of music and songwriting. With one song, an entire new world was opened to me.
It wasn't till much later that I really started listening to her. In high school as I began to form my own personal beliefs, I found I was drawn to her songs and began to really study her music. Her amazing voice makes you emotionally connect with what she is singning about, so it was natural to fall into the stories she was telling. While exploring these new worlds, my mind was cracked open and filled with new possibilities and I began to challenger beliefs that had been instilled in me as well as the status quo. As an artist, I feel it is essential to be able to break from what you know and think about every angle. Tracy's music helped to break those molds.
During this time, Tracy became my go to artist when I was troubled with the world. Not only for her insight, but because the emotional depth she has. I'm the type of person who listens to sad music when I'm sad and it makes me feel better that I am not alone. When I feel like I'm drowning in a world gone mad, Tracy's my woman.
She has also become an artist I can trust. When she puts out an album, I buy it. I know that I will love every song and learn something as well. There are very few artist that I trust so implicitly. I think she is one because I always believe what she is saying. There is an honesty in her voice and writing that can't be faked or replicated and that hooks me every time.
It would be hard to pick a favorite album, and impossible to pick a favorite song, so I will pick a highlight off her most current album, Our Bright Future. In the song, Thinking of You she delivers a lyric that makes me strive to be a better writer.
"I used to think, consider gravity
If I placed you on a pedestal, you'd slip and fall for me
But you floated on the air, far away at light speed
I guess some objects do defy the laws that we conceive."
-Tracy Chapman
And here is one of my favorite videos of her.
Ok, and one more.
In the end, she is definitely one of my favorite artists and biggest inspirations. Her talent, songs, and her integrity in the way she has navigated her career without every losing herself in it make her a true icon.
