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In watching the film the Color Purple you get a chance to not only see some wonderful colors, intense characters, and a gripping story , you also get to hear some of the best music that explains the black experience of the 1900's. When watching this movie you truly get to hear the raw emotions of how black people really felt back in that time period The way Quincy Jones who was the composer of the Color Purple , arranged each song to fit each scene , really tied the whole film together perfectly. It showed why the music was one of the most important themes of the film.

I chose two songs that where very key in helping this movie come to life. These two songs came in time in the movie that changed the whole landscape of the story and showed exactly how the struggle affected the whole black culture. These songs helped explain some of the pain that black people experienced in their lives. The first song was "sister be strong" that was sung by Shug Avery for Celi. The song really showed that even though Celi was treated like anybody she still needed to understand that she was someone, that she was a person. Shug sung bout being strong and being sisters, and being women. The song had a lot of power to it. It had a real powerful message that went far beyond the movie it self. The message is that no matter what happens in life you have to keep your head u high. No matter hat might happen in life you have to rise up and be strong in this life.

In the movie this scene has an effect on the people that where at Harpo's jook joint that night. We get a chance to see the expressions that the people give Celi and how they looked down on her in the town. It was like they couldn't believe that Shug would actually write a song for her with what was going on in their house. Just like in "there Eyes where watching god" you could tell that there was a lot of gossip that went on in the town. The women at the jook joint frowned down on Celi because of what she had on and how she allowed Albert to go crazy over Shug while she sat right there and watched. You also get a glimpse at how Johnson is affected by what he does to Celi also. When Shug reveals who she wrote the song for you get to see Albert look almost ashamed of himself. For him to hear the words that Shug was saying and how it was so real to life , you could tell that he was taken back when hearing the song.

The other scene where music plays a key role is the scene where Celi is passing the workers who are using the music with the work. This song is powerful because it too sends a direct message with raw emotions. We get a chance to see African American men working and using harmony and words to make the work move faster. In the same scene we see African men doing the same thing but in a different place. This tells the observer that this reaction is inside of us. We have these traits in our souls. It showed that this was how Africans and African American used music to get through what ever was thrown at us. We start