By Erika San Diego
The end of 2019 and beginning of 2020 have been quite busy! With so many events such as the corona virus breakout, Australian bushfires and floods, Trump’s impeachment, Kobe Bryant’s death, etc, making their way into the front page of the news. With everything being quite serious at the moment, Loreto being a music centred school and Music Fest fast approaching, I decided to brighten it up a little. So, here are just some of the important moments in music history.
One of the first milestones for music is Juice Wrld’s death on the 8th of December. You may recognise his name, as one of his most popular songs is ‘Lucid Dreams’. It became a big hit in the United States. The song debuted at number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100 as of May 17, 2018, with 10 million US streams and 4,000 digital downloads. The song went to number 35 the following week and then number 15. Juice Wrld sadly died after having a seizure in Chicago's Midway International Airport. Many would say he was an insanely talented rapper, which is why his sudden death was such a shock and tragedy.
Another milestone for the music industry was that by November 14, 2019, Tones and I's 'Dance Monkey' was the most-streamed track on Spotify with 43.26 million streams worldwide, followed by 'Memories' by Maroon 5 with 30.22 million. Since ‘Dance Monkey’ was released on May 10, 2019, the song has topped the charts in over 20 countries. She’s also amazingly broken the record for most weeks at the top of the ARIA Singles chart which was previously held by Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape Of You’, which took the top spot for 15 weeks, but, ‘Dance Monkey’ surpassed that at Number One for 19 weeks! She’s also one of the first female artists to top the charts in Australia since Delta Goodrem in 2015.
The next important moment in music history is that the Jonas Brothers got back together after 6 years. They had no warning or hints about getting back together, but their song ‘Sucker’ confirmed this. ‘Sucker’ became number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and the US Hot Digital Songs chart, with 88,000 copies sold within the first week. They broke up in 2013, so it was quite an amazing return for the Jonas brothers, and we can only hope it stays this way.
Another important moment in music history is that Taylor Swift has received the title of artist of the decade at the AMA’S (American Music Awards). After her rise of popularity in her thirteen-year career, she definitely deserves it. She also won six awards at this year's AMAs, taking her all-time total to 29, beating Michael Jackson's record of 24!
Although Taylor Swift has had some highs last year, she also has experienced some lows. She has had some battles along her career, but this one is quite the controversy. Many popular female artists such as; Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello, Halsey and Tinashe expressed their feelings about this current situation on Twitter, standing behind Swift in this time of need. Fortunately, Taylor was determined, and fought till the very end. Luckily the record gave in and agreed to let her re-record some of her old songs, but, not until November this year.
One absolutely amazing milestone for music was made by Billie Eilish. At only eighteen years old she has won five Grammy’s! She is the youngest person to ever get one of Grammy’s top awards; Best Record, Best Song, Album of the year, and The best new artist. She also received best Pop Vocal Album. But not only has she become the youngest person to ever receive a top Grammy, she is the first artist to sweep all four since Christopher Cross did in 1981, 38 years ago!
On that note, I hope some of these moments in music history surprised, shocked and absolutely amazed you as much as they did to me.