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The evolution of love songs

caption: In 2019, Lizzo released her fourth album, <em>Cuz I Love You</em>, and had two older songs, <em></em>"Truth Hurts" and "Good As Hell" reach the top 5 of the pop charts.
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In 2019, Lizzo released her fourth album, Cuz I Love You, and had two older songs, "Truth Hurts" and "Good As Hell" reach the top 5 of the pop charts.
Getty Images for iHeartMedia

How have love songs evolved? And what's the song of your romance? We hear from listeners and local artist SassyBlack about the love songs that are meaningful to them.

Local singer, songwriter, and producer SassyBlack joined Bill Radke to talk about how love songs have changed over the decades.

SassyBlack noted that a love song doesn't just have to be one thing.

"You know, I think a love song's a lot of different things depending on who you're loving on... So like a love for a partner is the most traditional sense of a love song. But people write love songs about their family members, about their kids."

But that doesn't mean love songs haven't evolved over time.

SassyBlack notes that songs used to be about courtship, about a kind of innocent love.

"Now it's less about courting someone. And I think that has to do a lot with the Internet and advances in technology and people's access to different people. If someone was right around the corner and you grew up with them and that's like your neighborhood friend, your childhood friend that you've had a crush on forever, you're writing different kind of music."

But, SassyBlack says, no matter how it's changed, love songs are still out there -- waiting for you to find them.

"Love comes in many forms. And I think there are still people that are making love songs. Raheem DeVaughn, India Arie, Janet Jackson... they still exist. And so if you don't know where that music is, take a step out, make a leap to go find it."

We've made a Spotify playlist to help you find at least a few songs for your Valentine's Day.

And you can find SassyBlack's new EP "iBeBae" here.

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