2024 was an emotional rollercoaster for the best and worst of us. It put us in the tightest of situations, replacing iron cages with barbed fences, lancing wires with electricity that charged you up and at the same time, singed you in the nerves. That journey of ups and downs, starry night skies and an empty black abyss was captured by several music artists, and these are, in my humble opinion, some of the best of them that took hold over the internet, the masses and the entire world.
#1: The Tortured Poets Department By Taylor Swift
The first on the list is Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, a double album with 31 songs that had every generation – whether it was millennials, Gen Z or Gen Alpha – glued to their airpods, earphones, headphones and speakers.
It grabbed onto the heartstrings of the audience, describing the excruciating pain that almost everyone has seen once in their lifetimes, weaving the threads of heartbreak, tears, fears and love in a fine tapestry called life.
A few notable songs are Fortnight (a collaboration with Post Malone, which talks about the pain of loving someone you had only for the briefest amount of time – also a metaphor for something that you had, maybe a dream, for a very short while – and the pain and aftermath is shown with vivid imagery specific to poets and writers in the music video almost a point out to the fact that pain makes a writer), So High School (a vibey song that brings in high school sweetheart nostalgia in the heart), The Prophecy (the inability of ever finding true love) and So Long, London (heartbreak and a stark contrast to the love themes of London Boy).
#2: Short n’ Sweet By Sabrina Carpenter
The release of Espresso had the song stuck on everyone’s minds, lips and hearts. The album talks about how, sometimes, the shortest of relationships leave the most lasting impacts. With songs hitting global charts and beating world records, it is a close second.
It explored deep themes with its playful sense of music and its singles like Espresso (about how she was the guy’s ‘dream come true’), Taste (featuring the actress Jenna Ortega in the music video, it shows the shades of betrayal, cheating and revenge viewed under a softer light) and Please Please Please (about the complexities of protecting both your relationship and your pride even though everyone told you it was a bad idea) had the entire world in the studio with Sabrina, dancing to the light-hearted tunes. It served as a remedy to fresh wounds, a final stitch to old scars and the last sigh of relief, a sort of closure.
#3: The Secret of Us By Gracie Abrams
This album set off to great heights with the release of the famous ‘I Love You, I’m Sorry’ (which shows the eras of a relationship, like the ghost of the past, present and future) and ‘us.’ (featuring Taylor Swift, talking about a broken relationship imbued with longing and regret). A few other notable songs were ‘I Knew it, I Know You’ and ‘Blowing Smoke’.
The variety of metaphors woven through the songs and the upbeat nature of it make them the sort you would keep listening to over and over again. It was almost destined to be famous as it connected to hearts worldwide.
#4: Hit Me Hard and Soft By Billie Eilish
This album explored themes in their purest form – true love (‘Birds of a Feather’), unrequited love (‘The Greatest’), missing someone (‘Blue’) and longing (‘Bittersuite’). As seen by the title, it was clearly something that hit the listeners hard and soft and pulled them inside out as they heard the melodies and lyrics that immediately grabbed massive attention.
#5: Radical Optimism By Dua Lipa
With songs like Houdini, Training Season and Illusion, this could probably be considered to be one of Lipa’s best albums ever. A long-anticipated album, Dua teased about it through several Instagram posts, and clues.
Houdini, a song about appreciating and enjoying singlehood, is one of the catchiest songs of 2024. Training Season is about reaching out for the sort of person you deserve and not someone who’s lower than your standards. The phrase ‘training season is over’ serves as a sort of metaphor sending a message that the trial period is gone and that anything new had to be as close to perfect as can be. Illusion is Lipa’s confession of all her past mistakes and I think these three sort of sum up the album and also hit a variety of niche masses listening to the songs.
BONUS ALBUM: Eternal Sunshine By Ariana Grande
Finally after 3 long years, Grande released a much awaited album that imbued emotional vulnerability into music and showcased it through the vocals displayed.
‘we can’t be friends (wait for your love)’ is the most hard-hitting song describes forbidden relationships and unrequited love. The music video is an emotional rollercoaster as Peaches, the main character played by Grande, decides to forget all her memories with the guy she was in love with just to get over him. Another really toe-tapping song is ‘the boy is mine’, inspired by Brandy and Monica’s ‘90s hit song, where Grande talks about how she thinks she and her crush are destined to be together, a shoutout to one of her other songs ‘Fantasize’.
Conclusion
As seen, these artists gave us exactly what we were looking for and more. For the heartbroken, there was ‘The Tortured Poets Department’. For the nostalgic, we had ‘The Secret of Us’. For the ones thirsty for revenge or mischief, we definitely got ‘Short n’ Sweet’. For those in love, we got ‘Hit me Hard and Soft’. For those looking for ‘The One’ and choosing to be single till then or those enjoying their own company, we had ‘Radical Optimism’. Lastly, for those going through an emotional rollercoaster, looking for self-discovery and introspection, we had ‘Eternal Sunshine’. Along with this, we also got ‘C, XOXO’, ‘Brat’, ‘Shawn’, ‘Cowboy Carter’ and many more all of which show the chaos of 2024 and managed to win the hearts of millions of music listeners and afficionados across the globe.
By: Jiya Doshi
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