Music in 2021
By Rey Martinez '23
Ask anyone in the Falcon’s Nest what their favorite thing to do on the phone is, and they’ll all most likely say the same thing: listening to music. Ah, music. The sound has come a long way, from cavemen being cavemen, to the birth of gramophone to mp3 players, opera, jazz, pop, rock, rap, you name it, music has its place in history. 2021 seemed to be the year in which music was “viral”. Majority of popular music was “memed” and danced to on TikTok, and the musicians got creative with their work. It’s worth noting who stood out and in this article, I wanna take a look back at the most popular music moments of 2021.
COVID-19 is still around, and it shows. Last year, it seemed that the infamous virus was going to be endemic. But even though it has so many negatives, it seemed to have been a big inspiration for many celebrities to come together and form many amazing things, with some even picking the mic back up after so long.
Do you remember Big Time Rush? The hit band from Nickelodeon that disbanded in 2013? They came back in 2021 in the form of a zoom call, performing one of their hit songs. That call inspired the band to come back together and make new material. As of February 2022, they are back and full of new music!
Another artist who came back that had even more of a bigger impact is Adele. At the time her last album was “25”, released in 2015. That’s a six year hiatus. But, unexpectedly, she announced her new album “30”, released in November 2021, it was massive commercial success, reaching #1 in the Billboard charts. The point is, these troubling times have somehow brought so many positives in music.
So everyone knows Lil Nas X at this point, we can all say that. After his breakthrough hit, “Old Town Road”, one of the most successful songs in music history, and his debut EP “7”, many critics started to ask what was next for the rapper. In November 2020, he came back to the music scene after taking a one year break from music with “HOLIDAY”, a song which wasn’t as successful as Lil Nas X hoped it’d be when released. Shortly after, he announced his debut album, “MONTERO” alongside another song called “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)”, it was a massive success, reaching #1 in the Billboard charts immediately. It became the equivalent success of “Old Town Road”, but it wasn’t without some controversy.
The song’s lyrics contained themes of LGBTQ romance, debauchery, and sexual content. The music video sparked outrage among christians and other religious people, as it featured many Biblical references, and Lil Nas X falling down to Hell in a strip pole, and “riding the devil” before killing him. It reached national news coverage and shocked the world, which added to the song’s unbelievable fame.
He would soon release the album after releasing more singles, like “INDUSTRY BABY (feat. Jack Harlow)”, and “THAT'S WHAT I WANT”. All of which hit #1, alongside the album itself. The album proved impactful, as it inspired many people of LGBTQ to take a stand and be proud of what they are. Lil Nas X became so inspirational that his birthplace, Atlanta, gave him his own day “Lil Nas X Day”. He proceeded to win the award for “Music Video of the Year” at the 2021 MTV awards for “Call Me By Your Name”.
Music in 2021 also saw a newcomer to the music scene. Do you know Olivia Rodrigo? The actress from the hit Disney shows “Bizaardvark” and “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”? (Yikes that title is long) she made her debut single “drivers license” and was released in January 2021 to critical acclaim and record-breaking success. It saw numbers that were never seen before in music for a debut single. In its first three days in the US alone, it achieved over 20 million streams on Apple Music, and Spotify. It even broke the record for the most streams of a song in a week ever, with 65 million streams. As of February 2022, it has reached over 1.2 BILLION streams in 1 year, making it one of the most streamed songs in history.
The young artist released more singles afterward, to similar success, like “good 4 u”, and “traitor”. She then released her debut album containing all the songs including “drivers license” called “SOUR” in May 2021 to massive success, reaching #1 immediately and became one of the best selling albums of 2021 and has been nominated for “Album of the Year”, and “Best Pop Vocal Album” at the 64th annual grammy awards, while her song “drivers license” is nominated for “Record of the Year”, “Song of the Year”, and “Best Pop Solo Performance”. This shows that anyone can achieve success at a time like this, even if you never released a song before.
Rap in 2021 was a bit strange. Many rappers seemed to stay quiet this year, except for a few big juggernauts, like Kanye West, J. Cole, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar. Kanye West released his album “Donda” in August 2021, after many delays. The album’s artwork is solid black, and the tracklist seemed a bit much for a rap record, which was 27 songs, clocking in at 1 hour and 8 minutes. It received mixed reviews, with criticism aimed at the run time, and lack of vitality. Despite that, it achieved massive success with fans of the artist, with it becoming one of the most streamed albums of 2021.
As for Drake, he released his album “Certified Lover Boy” in September 2021. It also received mixed reviews, with criticism aiming at its lack of variety, sound, and runtime, which was also an hour. The album artwork was slammed by critics and fans, calling it one of the worst album artworks of 2021, it featured a row of emojis of pregnant women.
Kendrick Lamar made an ultimate comeback after hiding from social media and the public for over four years. He teamed up with another artist named “Baby Keem” and released a duo album called “The Melodic Blue” released in September 2021, to positive reviews, and achieved success, with the majority of it due to Kendrick’s appearance on the album.
In 2021, we saw the comeback of ‘Bruno Mars’ the iconic music singer songwriter known for ‘24K Magic’, ‘Grenade’, and his appearance on ‘Uptown Funk’. He teamed up with ‘Anderson .Paak’ to form the super group ‘Silk Sonic’, their debut single ‘Leave the Door Open’ was released to positive reviews and critical acclaim from fans. It’s success ultimately followed with the release of the debut album “An Evening with Silk Sonic”. It received universal acclaim from critics and fans alike and reached #1 in the billboard charts.
We also saw the return of super star ‘Ed Sheeran’, releasing his latest album “=” 4 years after the release of “÷”, a monster hit album that included the most streamed song in music history “Shape of You”. Although with his new album, it received mixed to negative reviews from critics, it received positive reviews from fans. It reached #1 in the UK Charts, and #1 in the Billboard charts.
Last but not least, Billie Eilish marked her place in music history in 2021 with her 2nd album release “Happier Than Ever”, the most anticipated album of 2021. Seven singles were released to promote the album, like “Therefore I Am”, “Your Power”, “Lost Cause”, and the title track. All 7 singles reached #1 and the album broke the record for the most pre-saved album in Apple Music history. It was released to universal acclaim from critics and fans, all claimed it to be the best album of 2021, and has received 7 nominations for the 64th annual Grammys, including “Album of the Year”, “Best Pop Vocal Album”, “Song of the Year” for the title track, and “Record of the Year”. “Your Power” won the award for “Video for Good” at the 2021 MTV VMAs.
2021 has proven to be an extraordinary time for music, from ultimate comebacks, to groundbreaking sounds, to inspiring people around the world, 2021 has shown a lot of good. Did you know that vinyl records are making a comeback? Recent statistics have shown that vinyl records has surpassed CDs in sales. It has accounted over $232.1 million dollars while CDs only accounted $129.9 million. This is the first time that vinyl has ever been at the top since 1986. The point is, 2021 was a big year for music, and I hope that this continues for the remainder of 2022.