Music That Saved 2020

Throughout 2020, we dove in and out of lockdowns. The one thing that remained constant for me was music. We had release after release which helped us with our daily exercise. Personally, Dua Lipa’s album Future Nostalgia was my soundtrack of the first lockdown.

So, here is a little look at just ~some~ of the music that helped us to get through 2020.

Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa

Future Nostalgia is an 80s inspired album by English-Albanian artist Dua Lipa. After the success of her self titled debut album back in 2017, fans were eager for more. And she pulled it out the bag. The album was a hit and still is now in 2021. 

”fans awaited a very special and immersive performance from the star”

With the power of TikTok, dances were created from a number of Lipa’s songs, with Don’t Start Now as the most popular. Throughout the course of last year’s lockdowns, Lipa continued to provide us with more content. The most exciting thing she gave us was the announcement that she would be streaming a live performance from a vamped up warehouse, calling it Studio 2054. Tickets sold out as fans awaited a very special and immersive performance from the star.

This performance featured special (socially-distanced) performances from the likes of Elton John and Kylie Minogue. This allowed myself and many other people around the world to forget about what was going on in reality for a couple of hours.

My top three songs:

• Levitating
• Pretty Please
• Future Nostalgia

All three of these songs are a perfect mood booster. They certainly get me in the spirit to dance!

Fine Line, Harry Styles

Released at the end of 2019, second album Fine Line by Harry Styles was released. Throughout the course of 2020, Styles released music videos and merchandise for his beloved fans – myself included. My feed on TikTok and Twitter was literally Styles for about a week after the release of the Golden music video.

”acting as the perfect way of escapism during a very challenging year”

Like Dua Lipa’s continuous supply of content, Styles has done the same. Again, this acted as the perfect way to escape a very challenging year. He provided us with not one, but THREE music videos last year (two of which made me really miss going abroad). Those videos were the glorious Falling, Watermelon Sugar, and Golden.

Styles later became the first man to appear on the front cover of Vogue (US) which is a large milestone in his solo career since One Direction’s split back in 2015.

My top three songs:

• Golden
• She
• Falling

Also, keep your eyes peeled for the trailer for Don’t You Worry Darling which is expected to circulate at some point in the next few months. This will be Styles’ second role in acting after his success in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (2017). He will be starring alongside the likes of Florence Pugh and Chris Pine.

Folklore and Evermore, Taylor Swift

Yes, you read that correctly. Miss Taylor Swift treated us to two albums last year. Sister albums Folklore and Evermore went hand in hand after Swift released them merely five months apart.

”The sort of music that is perfect to listen to on a rainy day”

If you are familiar with Swift’s work, you will know that her ‘vibe’ changes with every album, and it is safe to say that I can get on board with this one. Both albums radiate the same ‘cottagecore‘ (a trend that took off in 2020) energy. It is the sort of music that is perfect to listen to on a rainy day, or when taking up your daily walk.

As a university student, I rarely manage to find a substantial amount of music that I can listen to whilst working. With the pairing of these albums, I can actually concentrate on my work – I could not work whilst listening to Future Nostalgia.

My top three songs:

Folklore

• cardigan
• exile (feat. Bon Iver)
• august

Evermore

• willow
• no body, no crime (feat. HAIM)
• gold rush

Which songs helped you get through 2020? 

Jen Charlton

Tweet to @jenjcharlton

Header image courtesy of bruce mars on Unsplash. No changes made to this image. Image license can be found here.