As It Was by Harry Styles
The worldwide sensation Harry Styles blows away fans with his new song As It Was, released April 1st this year. The upbeat and catchy music with seemingly nostalgic lyrics joins together to create a song that millions listen to on repeat. The former One Direction member joins together with songwriters Tyler Johnson and Tomas Hull to create this song to share about his own loneliness in this world. This song feels like reminiscing on old times with its upbeat rhythm in the music, while the lyrics suggest he is lonely and shows other peoples concern for him. Music is a great way to gauge someone’s emotions, people tend to listen to music that matches a feeling and this song definitely connects to an emotion.
This piece of music is a part of Harry’s new album Harrys House coming out in late May of this year. The opening of the song took me by surprise with a little kid’s voice saying “Come on, Harry, we wanna say goodnight to you” and quickly going into the intro music. This is not what I was expecting when I found out about the new song nonetheless, it fits perfectly into the whole picture of the song. This intro of the song is different then the others songs I have listened to by Harry but, this technique grabs the attention of the listener while also relating back to the meaning behind it. At first the song was just upbeat and fun with the feeling of an older song from the music in the background, then upon listening to the song more and more the lyrics start to make more sense. Harry sings in a sorrowful voice while reflecting upon his loneliness he has felt in the past and how he could be feeling now. The lyrics “ When everything gets in the way seems like you cannot be replaced” suggest a missing part of someone. Loneliness is something that can make people reflect and wish they did something different to have a different outcome. Noticing the more emotional the words are in the song it does not take away from the upbeat rhythm of the song but it encourages other people to think about how it makes them feel. This song has encouraged people to look back and see how their life has changed up until now. You see people using this song on popular media sites to compare themselves in pictures from the past to now. It created an outlet for people to see how they have changed throughout their lives and for them to see how far they have come if they were having a difficult time in the past. This is a great example of how the media can help people express their emotions and connect this piece of artwork to their own lives. A lot of people like to use music as an outlet or to express what they are feeling and this song is an example of how that can happen. People could use it to reminisce on their own lives or they can use it as something they relate to on an emotional level. In the context of the world recently the lyrics may be easier for some to relate to, because of the pandemic people have been isolated more and may feel lonely just like Harrys lyrics suggest about his emotional state. Being away from people especially, the people you want to be around can be very hard to manage and the song does a great job at representing that in a way that other people can relate to while keeping it light and fun.
Overall, this song is recommended by me for anyone that wants to listen to a new song or to someone who wants to try and expand their taste in music. This piece of work is beautifully written with mesmerizing music in the background to create a whole experience while listening. The value of this song is its ability to give people something to go off of when thinking about their own feelings. It might be the piece to the puzzle that helps someone realize how they have been feeling and helps people when they understand that they aren’t the only ones who feel this way.
