Every Anthem Ain’t for You
I wasn’t watching a performance. I was watching a program. The sound, the symbols, the emotion, designed to stir something deep. It looks like pride, but often echoes pain. Music can liberate, but it can also program. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
I came across this reel on Instagram this morning…….I wasn’t even looking for anything. Just scrolling, letting the algorithm feed me whatever it wanted. But something about this one made me stop. Red screen. Pyramid. Beyoncé. A national anthem. I didn’t stop because of the name or the performance. I stopped because my body felt it before my mind did. That kind of stillness you get when something ancient brushes against your awareness. It wasn’t just a performance. It was a frequency.
And I get it. People loved it. The comments were full of praise. I even got a few replies myself when I posted about it. Some agreed with me, others laughed, a few got uncomfortable. But that’s what happens when you stop consuming and start seeing. People either lean in or get defensive.
What hit me most wasn’t the visuals or the voice. It was the emotional weight underneath it. The symbols. The timing. The staging. It felt rehearsed for something deeper than applause. That’s when it clicked.
This wasn’t about honoring anything. This was about triggering something. And not just any emotion; specifically pride, pain, and programmed unity. They keep giving us these high-budget moments that mimic empowerment but leave no healing. No clarity. Just recycled feelings and temporary fire.
As a melanated woman, I’m tired of the trauma loop being dressed up as performance art. Tired of watching my people be stirred emotionally without being offered any spiritual clarity. They touch our wounds and call it pride. They trigger our pain and call it strength. But sound doesn’t lie. Symbols don’t lie. And our spirit remember everything, whether we know it or not.
If you’ve ever studied sound medicine, cymatics, or frequency work, you know how powerful vibration really is. Sound can shape water. Shift cells. Restore harmony. It can also do the opposite, fracture your focus, embed confusion, lock you into cycles. Music isn’t just entertainment. It’s one of the oldest technologies for shaping human emotion. And when it’s paired with symbols, flags, lighting, and cultural tension, it becomes ritual.
These aren’t just songs. These are frequency-coded messages designed to activate a specific energy in the collective. The kind of energy that keeps people reactive, confused, and emotionally charged. And most people never notice, because they think they’re watching a show.But I’m not here to attack anyone. I’m here to ask better questions. What are you really absorbing when you watch something like this? What part of you is being activated? Why do you feel so moved, but never feel any more free after it’s done?
This isn’t about the artist. It’s about the pattern. We’ve seen it before. The faces change, but the formula doesn’t. Stir the pain. Wrap it in glitter. Rebrand it as pride. Repeat. Over and over again.
Eventually you start to recognize the script. And when you do, you can’t go back to sleep. That’s what happened to me while watching that reel. I wasn’t watching a performance. I was watching a program. And it reminded me how easy it is to get pulled into someone else’s spell when you’re not tuned into your own frequency. I’m not claiming to have all the answers. But I do have the awareness to pause and say something doesn’t feel right. That maybe we’ve mistaken emotional performance for soul healing. That maybe we’ve confused spectacle with liberation.
Sound can liberate. But it can also program. Symbols can awaken. But they can also deceive. And just because it looks powerful doesn’t mean it’s coded for your freedom. That’s all I’m really saying.
Not every anthem is yours. Not every stage is sacred. Not every voice is neutral. Sometimes what looks like a celebration is actually a spell. And once you realize that, you stop needing validation from the crowd. You stop trying to clap along with something your soul doesn’t resonate with. You start listening deeper. And that’s when the real awakening begins.
I had to write this before I forgot what I felt in the moment. I’m not sharing this to be right. I’m sharing it so you don’t fall for it again.
Until next time.
— Unbothered Txt
