By Anton Dedvukaj
Back in May, I wrote an article for The Paw Print where I described how slowly the music scene was moving, especially during 2021 up to that point. Ever since that article was published, it seemed like America collectively made it their mission to make that article age like milk.
To start off, let’s talk about the songs that became massive hits this year. I initially stated that it seemed like “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo was the only song that really captured the public’s attention in a big way. I forgot to mention a fair amount of stuff, even back then. The biggest example at the time that I somehow forgot to mention was “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” by Lil Nas X, a song that stirred up loads of controversy upon release, primarily due to its music video. There was also another Olivia Rodrigo song, “good 4 u”, which, along with her debut album, SOUR, was breaking Spotify records left and right as I was writing that article.
Thankfully, I did mention albums such as Justice and The Off-Season, both of which had massive first-week numbers and had some hit singles off of them, in that article, so my errors mainly came down to some singles I neglected to mention, but all of that pales in comparison to the albums and singles that dominated the late spring, summer and early fall.
Let’s go in chronological order for albums. Tyler, the Creator’s CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST and Doja Cat’s Planet Her competed against each other during release week for the number-one album, and while Tyler won, Doja Cat still ended up scoring several viral TikTok hits off of her album. After that, Billie Eilish released Happier Than Ever, the follow-up to her debut, which was the single most successful album of 2019. Finally, there was the Kanye West and Drake rivalry, where Donda and Certified Lover Boy came out in back to back weeks and scored the two biggest sets of first-week numbers all year.
Now, onto the numerous hit singles that dominated the summer. Interestingly, I can point to two distinct “song of the summer” candidates that dominated the charts. One, “Butter” by BTS, dominated the Hot 100 in the first half of the summer, while another, “STAY” by Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber, did so in the latter half.
Even beyond the chart-toppers, we saw new singles from many other acts that captured the public’s attention for at least a little bit. For instance, Ed Sheeran began his new album rollout with “Bad Habits”, and Lil Nas X released his Jack Harlow collaboration “INDUSTRY BABY”, complete with another controversy-baiting music video. In addition, arguably the biggest hip-hop artists of 2019 and 2020 respectively both released comeback singles this summer, with Post Malone releasing “Motley Crew” and Roddy Ricch dropping “Late At Night”.
Even with all that’s already come out this summer, plenty more is still on the horizon. Travis Scott has continued to tease Utopia, the long-awaited follow-up to his blockbuster 2018 album ASTROWORLD. Kendrick Lamar has also begun teasing new music, with a cryptic message seemingly hinting at a new album. Finally, there’s even been recent hints towards Adele finally releasing a new album for the first time in six years.
All in all, while it seems like all the music scene wanted to do this summer was make me look stupid for calling it slow earlier on, there’s been plenty of great stuff coming out, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.
