“Scars to Your Beautiful” by Alessia Cara does not have a direct lineage to a specific song or musical composition in the traditional sense. However, like many songs, it may have been influenced by various musical styles and artists that came before it. Alessia Cara wrote “Scars to Your Beautiful” to promote self-acceptance and body positivity. The song’s message is about embracing one’s unique qualities and inner beauty, regardless of society’s standards of physical appearance. While the song may draw inspiration from various artists and genres, it is an original composition with a distinct message and style.

Lineage:

The lineage I explored is as follows: Try by Colbie Caillat -> Scars to Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara -> Love Myself by Hallie Stienfield.  

Try 

Try, a pop song released in 2014 by singer Colbie Caillat’,  addresses the pressure to conform to societal beauty standards and emphasizes the importance of being comfortable in one’s own skin. Try can be seen as the start of this lineage, because while a song based around empowerment, this song starts off expressing the struggles that many women/girls face with trying to achieve the status of “perfect.” She refers to a girl putting her makeup on and looking good to appeal to the male gaze, or to the societal gaze, and follows up by sending an empowering message that everyone is beautiful just the way they are.

“Put your makeup on

 Get your nails done 

Curl your hair

 Run the extra mile

 Keep it slim 

So they like you, do they like you?”

 

Vocal Cues:The way she delivers this message is very crucial; unlike the other two songs, the vocal Cues throughout this song remain at an emotional and mellow tone, making this song heavier and less upbeat. 

 

Scars To Your Beautiful 

This follows up into Cara’s song as she starts off her song by also depicting a girl who craves society’s validation to be beautiful, almost leeching off of Caillat’s image of the girl putting makeup on.

“She just wants to be, beautiful

She goes, unnoticed she knows, no limits

She craves, attention she praises, an image

She prays to be, sculpted by the sculptor”

Vocal Cues: She also follows Caillat vocal cues during the beginning was the song starts off with a quieter beat. However as the chorus picks up, so does the vocals, creating more of an upbeat tone. As Cara talks about the girl struggling the beat slowly picks up, as she raises a glimmer of hope by embedding images of these girls becoming empowered within themselves, 

 

 

Love Myself 

Love Myself By Hallie Stienfield, a pop song released in 2015, finishes off this lineage strong by following the same theme, however in a more upbeat and catchy approach. This song alludes to the same theme as both Try and Scars to Your Beautiful of promoting self-acceptance and self-love, particularly in the context of body image and self-esteem. While the other songs have images embedded of girls struggling with insecurity, this song encourages individuals to find happiness and fulfillment within themselves rather than relying on others for validation by showing the protagonist talking about how much she loves herself rather than loathes herself. 

“I’m gonna put my body first

And love me so hard ’til it hurts (hey!)

I know how to scream out the words”

Vocal cues: In Try the vocal cues are mellow throughout, Scars to Your Beautiful starts to pick up this upbeat tone, and Love Yourself fully embraces the upbeat vocal cues to fully assert this message.

Overall 

While these songs come from different artists and have distinct musical styles, they all advocate for self-acceptance, self-love, and being comfortable with one’s true self. They are related in the sense that they address similar issues related to self-esteem and self-worth providing messages of positivity and self-empowerment to their listeners.  All three songs encourage listeners to embrace their natural beauty and inner worth without feeling the need to conform to unrealistic societal standards, in their own way.