By Monica Soni, MD, Covered California Chief Medical Officer
As we celebrate Black Music Month, I would like to share with you how I connect music to my family’s overall health and well-being. Since a very young age, music has always rocked my world.
At the age of 4, I was already dancing to the sounds of jazz, hip hop, modern, and West African styles. Music didn’t just play in the background of my life — it nurtured me. Its rhythms moved me, its melodies lifted my spirit, and its harmonies carried me through. Music has many properties that allow you to find health in every beat.
The benefits I’ve experienced from music extend well beyond being active. It has been restorative while supporting my mental well-being and offering a profound sense of emotional healing.
At home, we listen to music all the time, while making dinner, doing homework, and during our “Family Dance Party.” Research in the field suggests that music can be used as supplementary therapy for depression, anxiety, cognitive impairment, and chronic pain. When I need to decompress and relax, I always resort to music to find joy, be it a “quiet Spanish guitar,” “Moroccan mornings,” or “Funky Jazz Fusion.” In fact, I am listening to serene background music that puts me at ease as I write my thoughts on music and health.
One of my fond memories as a child was enjoying summer with dance and listening to songs such as “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” by Sly and the Family Stone, with its true evocation of a lazy summer day, or “Buffalo Soldier,” by Bob Marley, evoking my mom’s Jamaican roots. And “Wish I Didn’t Miss You,” by Angie Stone, which provides me with a rhythmic balance of emotion and internal conflict. All these songs help lower my stress levels, lift my spirit, and connect with myself and loved ones.
Music, especially Black music, has the power to bring people together and provide a strong sense of community. It has positive effects on people’s moods, helping us to balance the ups and downs of daily life, and keeping us moving.
In celebrating Black music and sound, I find it important to call attention to music as a resource for healing the mind, body, and soul. It has the power to unify people; to bring back memories; to connect us to our ancestors and history. It is through music that we allow our bodies and minds to be connected, to move and become active. One of the benefits of dancing—and I still call myself a dancer! —is keeping the body in motion. As the living legend Herbie Hancock said, “Music is the tool to express life—and all that makes a difference.”
Black music has long proven to be more than entertainment – it is a voice, a force, and a legacy that has influenced generations within American society. From the days of slavery to the present, Black music has been a form of resistance and a powerful way for communities to communicate when their voices were often ignored or silenced. Spirituals carried messages of hope, survival, and freedom. Blues and Jazz later became expressions of improvisation, resilience, creativity, and liberation, helping shape movements like the Harlem Renaissance in the early 20th century. During the Civil Rights Movement, freedom songs lifted spirits and united communities, while artists like Nina Simone and James Brown used music to inspire pride, courage, and action. That legacy continues today through hip-hop, rap, funk, soul, and other genres that speak openly about injustice, political representation, and the ongoing fight for equality and community empowerment.
Let’s celebrate the contributions that Black music has made to the well-being of our communities and for all Californians as we groove towards a future of healing and human connection. I hope we keep moving toward a more holistic way of caring for people—one that doesn’t try to fit everyone into the same mold, but instead listens, adapts, and honors each person’s unique needs, sensitivities, and limits.
So, let’s turn the music up and keep on moving!
Dr. Monica Soni, MD, is the Chief Medical Officer for Covered California, where she leads efforts in health equity, quality transformation, and clinical innovation. As a board-certified internal medicine physician and health care leader with over a decade of experience, Dr. Soni is committed to improving affordability, access, and health outcomes for all Californians.
