Written by Eliza Peddi
This article is part of a showcase of articles published by current North Springs students who were part of the Sandy Springs Charter Middle School Journalism program in 2021-2022. For more info about Sandy Springs Journalism, see the link at the bottom of this page.
Covid has been a whirlwind for everyone. It has affected jobs, families, and much more. But something I find interesting is the way it affected entertainment specifically music. When covid hit some artists stopped producing music while others created more music. For the artists who continued some made the same music they did before while others made covid inspired songs.
For the majority of music I listen to, the artists decided to stay within what they did before covid. Most notably for me Olivia Rodrigo, Måneskin, and The Vamps. All of them have very different styles but they all stayed with the genre they had with their previous music. It caused their music to have a very nice and nostalgic vibe in a time where I thought my life wouldn’t be the way it was before for a long time. For Olivia Rodrigo it was nice to hear the sincerity and anger in her voice when “SOUR” came out. With Måneskin, I heard the angst, anger, and comfort from their new album, “Teatro d’ira – Vol. 1”, that I missed so much. And then for The Vamps, it was so nice to hear a familiar version of pop (a genre a rarely listen to) with their album “Cherry Blossom”.
Now, something I’m sad about is that barely any of the artists I listen to changed up their music. This meant that I only felt like one artist would fit, and for me, that was twenty-one pilots. Their first song released in covid was called “Level of Concern”. It was about being in a relationship during quarantine. While I wasn’t in a romantic relationship, I was in many friend relationships that were starting to disappear. This song helped me realize, I was ok and that I wasn’t the only one feeling trapped. There was a line that really stuck up to me, it was “Panic on the brain, Michael’s gone insane, Julie starts to make me nervous.”. That one line summed up my quarantine up to that point. Then later in December, they came out with “Christmas Saves the Year”. I loved how it talked about the non-religious parts of Christmas as a person who celebrates it but the non-religious part. It discussed all the things I missed about Christmas before covid. Going to a family member’s house, looking through the photos from different years, and just the general feeling you get in the holidays. Both songs really helped me through the tough times in covid giving me hope for the future.
Both types of music were comforting however I did find that the music influenced by Covid resonated with me more. Maybe it’s my bias with loving twenty-one pilots, but I truly think that hearing about others going through what I have made me feel better about the situation the world was in. But in the end, I felt more connected to the music that came out during covid. I guess that what we find in our hard times stays with us, it gives us a forever sense of comfort and peace, and that is what is beautiful about music and creativity.
After seeing the way I felt about music in the covid era I decided to ask a few friends how they felt like music experiences changes after covid:
“Oh, absolutely I used to listen to pop music and broadway. Now, I still listen to broadway but I also listen to pop-punk, punk, emo, and stuff like that. I grew up during covid so that really messed me up.” – Kate Lott
“I think before Covid I did not really focus on watching TV or listening to a lot of music. However, as time progressed, I came to the realization that music was a way to escape the harsh reality I was living in.” – Felipe Camargo Echeverría
Photos are in order of artist mentioned and the album/song associated with that artist
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