Nina Simone’s Impact on the Music Industry:

Photographer: Kroon, Ron / Anefo. National Archives of the Netherlands. Public Domain

This article aims to examine the influence of Jazz musician Nina Simone on the modern music landscape. With insights from Jazz enthusiasts and musical history buffs we will aim to impress upon you reader the significant impact this ‘lesser known’ (within a contemporary context) this dynamic musician had. 

Brief history on who Nina Simone is: 

Nina Simone is an African American musician from North Carolina, born 1933 and tragically passed from breast cancer in 2003. As evident in her music, with it being not only a highlight but a key fixture, she began playing the piano from childhood. Several key life experiences shaped her perspectives on equity and racial inequality a present thematic through-line within her discography. She was a fervent voice leading up to and throughout the civil rights movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Though she was born in America, her musical influence travelled globally as she did, fleeing America and living throughout Europe and African and the Caribbean from the 1970’s onwards.  

What was she most known for:  

The first thing I noticed about Nina Simone was her unmistakeable vocal timbre and undeniable presence when performing.  As touched on earlier, the heartbeat of her music was the ever present tapping of piano keys across her projects. Many artists jazz fanatics and the like associate Simone with the Piano. A key insight from the jazz musicians consulted was her two distinct vibratos. She was vocally dynamic allowing her voice to be as versatile as any other instrument in a jazz ensemble.  

As touched on earlier, a person's lived experiences are shaped by their external environment and inherent identities as personally and socially ascribed. When considering the social theory of intersectionality when examining the impact Simone had we can elucidate the intention behind the kind of music she produced and the reasoning behind it. Though Simone has classical training in Piano she was drawn to Jazz due to its inherent link to African American culture and its dynamic presence. The genre and lyrical content of a lot of her music was a love letter to her intersecting identities; that of woman, African American and some also speculate ‘Queer’.  

Common themes linked with the Civil rights movement and general plights of African American people in the United States at that time and seeking freedom are clear in some of her most recognisable songs ‘Feeling Good’, released in 1965 and ‘I wish I knew how it would feel to be free’, released in 1967.  

Nina Simone and Rap/ Hip Hop, how are they connected?  

When looking into the impact that Simone had on the modern music landscape, an illuminating discovery was made, a trend of several hip-hop artists were sampling her music. When considering the purpose of sampling, (a way to imbue meaning from an existing track and build it into something new). The original track has associations that then apply to the song developed by the next artist. Simone’s art was prosaic, imbued with the history of the people in her community. The themes present in her songs then translate an emotional blueprint for these hip hop artists. Tillet examined this very phenomenon when noting that “Simones's popularity within contemporary American culture, however, owes a great debt to the increased use of her sound in Hip Hop music.” Though Jazz and Rap music could be seen as fairly divergent sonically, both genres were developed by African American people in the United States. Similar themes and lived experiences only divided by their time in history, this assertion is further bolstered, when Tillet noted “...hip-hop artists invoke Simone as both a heuristic and musical material that recalls a particularly radical moment of American culture and simultaneously undergoes transformation as they cite her in response to the aesthetic and political forces of their times.” It is clear that social and political unrest are the heartbeat and thematic throughline tying artists divided by genre and decade.  

Final thoughts:  

Ultimately, with the insights from musical and historical buffs (who wish to remain anonymous) and further deep dives it is clear that even though Simone passed over 20 years ago, her presence in modern music still permeates vibrantly. When an artist isn't afraid to dive into the harsh reality of their lived experience, singing unapologetically their music often holds weight and resonance for future generations.  

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References: 

Brandman, Mariana. “Nina Simone.” National Women’s History Museum, 2022. 

Burke, Myles. “In History: Nina Simone on How Racial Injustice Fuelled Her Songs.” Www.bbc.com, 19 Feb. 2024, www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240215-in-history-nina-simone-how-racial-injustice-fuelled-her-songs. 

“Nina Simone.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, nmaahc.si.edu/nina-simone. 

Samie, August. “Intersectionality.” www.britannica.com, Britannica, 8 July 2025, www.britannica.com/topic/intersectionality. 

Tillet, Salamishah. “Strange Sampling: Nina Simone and Her Hip-Hop Children.” American Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 1, 2014, pp. 119–137, www.jstor.org/stable/43823399.