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In this pop culture music report, Amber will be giving her opinion on songs that were recommended to her, as well as breaking down some lyrics to understand the songs more.
May Music Reviews
May Music Reviews
By Amber Medina-Montoya
By Amber Medina-Montoya
Well, everybody, it’s May, and I have got some new music to talk about. Music really has a way of connecting people and there is pretty much a genre or even a specific song out there for everybody. This article is for me to review songs that were recommended to me and to give my own personal opinion on them, while also breaking down some lyrics to fully understand them more. This month’s article includes “As It Was” by Harry Styles. (I got pretty busy this month, so I only have one song. I’ll have more next month!)
If you have any songs you would like me to listen to and possibly review in this column, leave them in the form at the bottom of this article. I may not put a review for them in this next issue, but I will definitely listen to all of the requests!
“As It Was”- Harry Styles
“As It Was”- Harry Styles
Harry Styles is back and making new hits, you guys. I personally am not a die-hard Harry Styles fan per se, but I am not going to hide the fact that he has some great music out there. I am excited to talk about this one because I have a decently-sized list of parts of the song I want to touch on, so let’s dive in.
Styles has stated this song for him was “about embracing change, losing oneself, a shift in perspective - lots of different things” and that description really sets the tone for this piece. This song truly has an upbeat vibe and has a synth-y sound to it. It has a bouncy beat and feels like it would be a great song to blast on a late-night drive. Do you see where I’m coming from?
This song was a little hard for me to understand and break down, so if my interpretation is different from the true intention, I apologize. (Harry Stans, please don’t come after me). From what I have gathered, this song was inspired by living life in lockdown, as well as feeling isolated from the world. The line “Holding me back/ Gravity’s holding me back/ I want you to hold out the palm of your hand/ Why don’t we leave it at that?” seems to elaborate a little bit on that feeling of isolation I touched on before. It would also help connect the listener a little more as pretty much everyone listening to it knows the feeling of being disconnected from the world during the lockdown. The rest of the verse follows up with “Nothin’ to say/ When everything gets in the way/ Seems you cannot be replaced/ And I’m the one who will stay”, definitely solidifying the isolated meaning of being confined. The “everything that gets in the way” could be referring to the pandemic and lockdown, saying it gets in the way of interaction. “And I’m the one who will stay” could be conveying the fact that he was stuck at home.
After doing some research on Styles and trying to get some background to go more in-depth with this review, I also found out that the second verse, “Answer the phone/ ‘Harry, you're no good alone/ Why are you sitting at home on the floor?/ What kind of pills are you on?’/ Ringin' the bell/ And nobody's coming to help/ Your daddy lives by himself/ He just wants to know that you're well” could directly reference the phone calls he has stated he had with his goddaughter during the lockdown. This also helps grasp the meaning of the verse in its whole, and honestly? That’s adorable. I don’t know about you, but I think that is a very sweet reference to throw in there.
This song really made me dig into some information about Styles, from the perspective he chose to write from, looking into the relationship that could possibly be referenced here, to the phone calls with his goddaughter. The 80’s synth-pop vibe really ties this all together as well. As I said at the beginning of this review, I would not call myself a superfan of Harry Styles, but this song helped put his writing into perspective for me and I truly appreciate it.
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