2021 Through Music
Tags: Music, Pop Culture, Opinion, Music Blog

2021 Through Music

With 2020 is coming to an end, Let’s take a look at how 2021 music industry might look like. Trystan Follow Dec 25, 2020 · 5 min read

2020 has been a disastrous year. A lot of things went south, mainly due to COVID and an endless period of lockdown. There’s plenty of sectors directly affected by this pandemic and forced everyone to take the bumpy road for survival and the music business is no exception. Music is a thing where the crowd and masses are heavily involved in keeping the game alive. Those two factors are something that people avoid and it made the music world took a big hit.

However, every storm has a silver lining. Although everyone involved in music has seen some unforeseeable event, this year sparked something to carry on next year. As we near the year’s end, we’re trying to envision what’s next for this industry based on what happened during this entire year. This pandemic shaped a whole new way of listening to music, and there’s a fair amount of chance that new habits could shape what’s going to happen next year.

P.S: This is simply a prediction and writer isn’t an expert either. So if this doesn’t age well, don’t @ me people :).

PLATFORMS

2020 marks the decline of live music as a common platform. With the COVID forcing people to spend most of their daily lives inside, music streaming services have become the leading platform for listeners and musicians to express themselves. This phenomenon also become musician primary income while the live concerts are entirely banned.

Let’s take a look at Spotify for example. There are 130 million premium users alone in Q1 of 2020, according to the company. This is up from 124 premium users in Q4 of 2019. This increasing number sign a significant change of music world that caused by the pandemic.

With the pandemic didn’t seem to find the end of the road near time, 2021 could be another victorious year for streaming services. The online music services will continue their dominance even after the COVID period end. Accessibility and personalization are why people switched to digital service, leaving conventional platforms such as CD for a more convenient reason.

GENRE & MUSIC STYLES

This year has been an interesting one in terms of music genre & style. They’re not afraid to be more adventurous and creating sounds that we’ve never heard before. People became more open-minded to the music and expected an entirely new thing whenever they explored something new to hear. Those two things are a match made in heaven for a new sound in years to come.

With the adventurous listener and evolving sounds, this could make the new tune more diverse and indefinite between every genre. It might distinguish how the genre should sound. Lil Nas X and Tyler the Creator are examples of genre-crossing with a good reception from public opinion. Their success opens up the way for other artists to be more playful and ingenious without being afraid to cross the ‘genre’ line. It wouldn’t be a surprise if next year a lot of music is heading this way.

80s style will also dominate next year, or we could say every year? People never seem tired of the heavily synthed sound and grainy aesthetic of the 80s. ‘Future Nostalgia’ by Dua Lipa and ‘After Hours’ by The Weeknd are albums that define how obsessed we are to the 80s-esque tune. Every year has been a great tribute to the 80s, and next year wouldn’t be an exception either!

‘After Hours’ album artwork. Property of Abel Tesfaye/The Weeknd

LIVE MUSIC

2017 Coldplay Concert in SG. Property of @trysstann

This is the hardest pill to swallow among things that might happen next year. Even with the COVID end, there’s must be some concern for people to gather in a large number again. Festival and concert organizer must change their way to keep the show going with maintaining the health protocol properly. It takes time to recover completely, but with many shows rescheduled to next year, we’re sure everyone involved in the show will do a great job to provide us a great experience with high safety.

On the other hand, this year also proves that a digital concert isn’t bad either. Perhaps it feels weird earlier when 10.000 people are watching you and your room still…..silent. As time goes by, everyone recognized it as an everyday thing. It’s understandable why both listeners and musicians are into this. The musician can hold a global event without hopping from place to place but still have spectators worldwide. They also could spend minimum money and getting a fair amount of revenue by only performing at home.

From the listener’s point of view, they can enjoy their favorites music live and interact with them from their bed. They only need a proper internet connection to experience something that seems to be an impossible thing in normal times. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this trend will keep going in 2021.

THE PEAK OF INDIE/SELF-MADE MUSICIAN?

2020 has been a rising of self-made musicians. The perception of ‘you have to be supported by the big label to produce music’ is a past thing. Many artists today have access to their studio where usually placed in their bedroom. They can record their stuff with a lower budget and distribute it quickly without approval from the label. Sure the coverage wouldn’t be as comprehensive as the professional label, but the internet is a vast place where promoting something isn’t hard.

A lot of company provides a service to publish someone’s music to streaming services and, of course, the internet. The number of self-made artists who make their way up next year will increase, and we’re not surprised if one of them becomes a talk of the town.