Music & Rituals

 Throughout the past year of my life, I have been to more weddings than ever. My Dad, brother, and step-grandmother all got married within a 3-month span, and my sister will be getting married next month. This allowed me to learn of the different types of music played at weddings. At my dad and Step grandmothers wedding, I heard mainly classic 90's R&B. For example, Let's get married by Jagged edge, All my life by K-Ci, and You and I by Avant. This style of music sets the mood/tone for the wedding, bringing nothing but feelings of joy and emotion to both the newlyweds and the crowd.  It was beautiful to see how a simple song could perfectly describe two people's love story and control the mood of the room. When "Let's Get Married" by Jagged edge played at my dad's wedding you could literally feel the love in the air, as cliche as it sounds. As we all witnessed them come together to confess their love for one another while the song played it was obvious that their love for each other was genuine. The whole room was filled with happiness and bliss, nearly everyone in the room had tears in their eyes, as they looked into each other's eyes and sang.


At my brother's wedding, we heard both a mix of Hispanic music as well as R&B, as his wife is El Salvadorian. We heard many artists from Prince Royce, Bad bunny, and Shakira. Seeing that we are not from a hispanic background, my brother's ability to sing songs that he learned just for his wife made this ceremony even more beautiful, as that to me proved how deep his love was for her. 

When I think of a ritual at a traditional African American wedding, I think of numerous line dances such as the cupid shuffle, cha cha slide, wobble, and electric slide. These are classic dances, that get played at every gathering we host/attend.  At my brother's wedding there was more so salsa and meringue style dancing. This "ritual" allows time for everyone to come tother and bond trough the power of dance. It also forces many people to be more social and come out of their shells. These dances create a positive environment that is both playful and energetic to get everyone into a joyful spirit, that is hard to bring down. 





Comments

  1. LiyahSeptember 30, 2022 at 1:16 PM

    Hey shay! “Let’s get married” was also played at my mom's wedding and I cried so bad because it was just beautiful. I do agree with you when you said certain songs set the mood of the wedding because that song definitely did. It’s like you can feel the love between the couple through a song and I never knew how that was possible and I still don’t till this day. You selected beautiful wedding songs, thanks for sharing.

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  2. Tera NguyenOctober 1, 2022 at 11:48 PM

    That really is a lot of weddings within a short period of time... I think it's amazing that you were able to experience the differences between them all the more because of it. It can be really fascinating seeing how different each couple's chosen songs, dances, and general weddings are. What your brother and his wife did differently was especially interesting to me.

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