2020 caused quite a dramatic change in all of our lives. We’ve come out of the year with different perspectives, ideas, and feelings. And this definitely doesn’t exclude music either. The music released in quarantine was some of the most versatile mainstream pop had seen. To name a few projects: 

Folklore and Evermore – Taylor Swift 

Positions – Ariana Grande

Plastic Hearts – Miley Cyrus 

Kid Krow – Conan Gray 

Wonder – Shawn Mendes 

After School – Melanie Martinez 

And everyone’s favorite breakup song that they hear constantly on Tik Tok: 

Drivers License – Olivia Rodrigo 

All of these and many, many more albums, EP’s, and singles changed the way we see music. You’re probably thinking ‘music didn’t change that much, did it?’, but yes, it did. 

Let’s start with the iconic Taylor Swift. In the pandemic so far, she has released two studio albums. We all know Swift as the girl who went from country to pop and crushed it with her #1 hits “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space”. In 2019, she released her 7th studio album “Lover”, and we didn’t expect another album for two to three years. She came back hard in July of 2020 with the record-breaking alternative album Folklore. Swift has mentioned in many interviews that she just kept writing in quarantine, but not from her own perspective anymore. She started writing stories and myths and made those songs, rather than the autobiographical songs we were used to from her first through seventh albums. The album is all about folklore (a fitting title) and magic. She later released Evermore, a sister album to Folklore, in December of 2020. This album also tells tales of love, heartbreak, and murder. A whole genre shift, incredible lyrics, and a way to emerge yourself in a world of lore was a great way to get us mentally somewhere other than our homes. 

Earlier in the pandemic, mid-March to be exact, Conan Gray released his first studio album Kid Krow. On Instagram, the week of the release, he let his fans know that no album promotion could be done. All of his fans were sad but it was too risky at the time. Instead, Conan took to social media and promoted the new album. We’ll never really know all of the surprises he had in store for the fans, but it seems like the hole was supposed to be filled with all kinds of Kid Krow fun. 

In addition, concerts and performances have completely changed through the pandemic. Most artists like Billie Eilish, Melanie Martinez, Lord Huron, Travis Scott, and many more have adapted from their live performances to virtual concerts. You buy a ticket online, receive a link the day of the event, and stream the concert on any device. The connection between the artist and the crowd is much different with these virtual concerts, however, we still get to hear our favorite music.

In this weird time, music has definitely brought us closer to ourselves. Art has been extremely vital this year and I think we can all agree that the lyrics, sounds, and emotions music brings has heightened with this pandemic. We’ve been isolated for quite some time and while we got to know ourselves differently this past year, music got to know us differently too.