Music has often defined a particular decade especially in the latter half of the 20th century. You can easily distinguish the psychedelic ‘60s from that of the New Wave ‘80s. Grunge music was so associated with the ‘90s as disco was to ‘70s.
While the past two decades were less-definable, owing to the emergence of a lot of genres with relatively equal exposure via digital and social media platforms, we entered this new decade somewhat in high hopes that it will be as identifiable as that of the Jazz Age or otherwise known as the Roaring Twenties that happened a century ago. Besides, 2020 is naturally linked with the term most people would rather think of as perfect vision. We all were envisioning a great year, probably including feng shui experts since none of them vocally predicted that it would be as catastrophic as how it has become.
Pandemic happened and it is still ongoing, far from being eradicated because there’s no vaccine available yet to serve as saving grace. Thus, the music scene has taken a backseat—no concerts, no gigs, no recordings the way these were done. Before COVID-19, scoring a legit hit song was already an uphill climb and even going viral has no specific formula.
The past months (or since community quarantine took its effect) saw no hands-down, certified LSS (Last Song Syndrome) track, in part because the prevailing scenario is not conducive for most people to hear new releases on a regular basis, like one coming off the radio whether you are in a public utility vehicle, or in the office. Even a barrage of new songs being shared on social media, many of them composed to uplift spirits in this time of global strife, would only reach some listeners and quickly be forgotten.
Don’t feel bad if you aspire to score a major hit, the virus redirected us back to dealing with basics like food storage and medicine supplies. Somehow, people would rather hear inspirational classics rendered as covers. The difficult times lessened the urge of listeners to immerse themselves to new melodies.
But then again, we have to remember that the jazzy 1920s came after the carnage of the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic that infected 500 million people. So, there’s no reason to lose hope.
Keep writing and recording songs. When the so-called “new normal” really sinks in and people accept the fact that there’s no choice but to adjust to the new ways of surviving our current world, public consciousness will regain its interest in music in the same breath as when not threatened by a vicious killer.
It won’t hurt if songwriters create, no pun intended truly infectious melodies instead of focusing too much on the message of the lyrics. Music is melody; lyrics are poetry, get that. The same’s true with people behind the machinery promoting possible hits. It’s melody over words and arrangement, it's the quality of the composition over the singer’s fame or the songwriter’s status. The next big hit may come from an unknown tunesmith or faceless singer.