New Music in 2022

2022 has been an amazing year for the music industry and its consumers. Many people, including myself, find comfort in certain artists, songs, albums, or just music in general. It helps us cope with the problems we are having, and are able to apply the lyrics into our everyday life events. We listen to music everywhere we go: Whether it's shopping, in the car, at a restaurant or at parties, music follows us everywhere. This year many new artists or artists we’ve known for years now, have released music…and it feels like 2014 all over again! In the following list, I’ll be exploring the successes of some album releases as well as reactions audiences have had to them.

#1 Un Verano Sin Ti - Bad Bunny

Bad Bunny surprised us all this year with a new album. With his last album El Último Tour del Mundo a lot of people on TikTok seemed convinced he was retiring from music, but as he kept releasing singles like Yonaguni, people started to doubt his apparent retirement. Then, out of the blue, he announced his new album along with the tracklist…and I thought he was going to break the Internet!. It was everything anyone was talking about. His initial Instagram post about the album received over six million likes and 74,000 comments. 22 out of the 23 songs in his album made it to Billboard’s Hot 100; four were in the Top Ten. His tour for Un Verano Sin Ti sold out at an incredible speed. Bad Bunny is a Latin icon, and his fans all over the world can't wait to see what he has in store for us next.

My top three songs from the album:

1. Tarot (ft. Jhayco)

2. Moscow Mule

3. Efecto

#2 Harry’s House - Harry Styles

Harries all over the world had been waiting for this album since 2019, after falling for his sophomore album Fine Line, so when Styles released Harry’s House in May, audiences and critics received it with great anticipation and enthusiasm. With only one single, As it Was, Harry managed to be Number One on the Billboard 200. He achieved massive worldwide success with this album. He also beat the record of most single-week sales for vinyl albums, previously held by Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version). 18 months before the release of Harry’s House, only three albums had received at least 500,000 equivalent album units in their debut weeks, but with this release, that number three became a four with it reaching 521,500 units. Harry also performed 15 (almost consecutive) nights at Madison Square Garden, and the arena created a banner with his name that will hang there forever. It is safe to say that Harry has received unprecedented success with this album, and we're all sure he'll continue to do amazing things in the next few years.

My Top Three:

1. Matilda

2. Grapejuice

3. Little Freak

#3 5SOS5 - Five Seconds of Summer

It had been two years since 5SOS had released an album. And as a fan whose first album release whilst being in the fandom was this one, I could not be happier. 5SOS5 was received with open arms from the 5SOS fam all over the world. Ever since the day the album was announced fans were speculating over song titles, album length, who would get solos, etc… To announce the tracklist, 5SOS did something pretty cool: Instead of just announcing it all together, they decided that approximately every 30 minutes they would tweet a picture of a new song being added. So that at the end we would have an image with all 19 songs on the album. This was a unique, different way of announcing a tracklist and also impressive PR, which would make fans be on edge tweeting, posting, and talking about what they thought songs would be about or the vibes they received just based on track titles. The album reached number one in album sales, according to Billboard. 5SOS got to have a “One Night Only” show at the Royal Albert Hall in London the night of the album’s release. Personally, this album has been my favorite of this year so far and has quickly become one of my favorite albums of all time.

My Top Three:

1. Bad Omens

2. TEARS!

3. Flatline

Honorable mentions: You Don't Go to Parties and Bloodhound

#4 Midnights - Taylor Swift

Can you hear all the Swifties screaming? Taylor truly did surprise us all with this one. We were expecting to see another re-recorded album but instead we got a whole new one. As it normally goes with Taylor, this has been a record-breaking release. She became the first artist to EVER have ten of her songs on the Top Ten of Billboard’s Top 100. Taylor also did a segment on TikTok called “Midnight Mayhems with Me” where she would roll a bingo spinner, take the little ball out, read the number that was on it, and announce the track title that went along with that number; she did this for 13 consecutive days. It had fans speculating about what the signs would be about or what possible names other songs would have. Taylor recently announced a world tour called “Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour.” She received more demand for the tour than she expected and had to go ahead and add eight more dates. This has been another amazing and well-loved record by Taylor.

My Top Three:

1. Lavender Haze

2. You’re On Your Own, Kid

3. Midnight Rain

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve only mentioned big names in the music industry so far, but there have also been countless less-known and independent artists who have also released music this year. It is important we talk about them and help them by streaming their music. Here, I’d like to share a few of my favorite “smaller” artist releases of this year so far.

#1 Sentimental Playback - 19&YOU

With only 5,729 Instagram followers (as of November 6), they are a fairly small band. I can't wait to see what they have in store for the future and am excited to see them grow and evolve their sound. For people who enjoy music by Five Seconds of Summer or Why Don’t We, 19&YOU has a very similar sound to some of their music!

My Top Three:

1. Past Life

2. Finer Things

3. Thought Process

#2 all the things that could go wrong - Johnny Orlando

We all know Johnny Orlando from Musical.ly back in the 2016-2017. But, did you know he released music AND it’s actually pretty good?! He recently released his album all the things that could go wrong. It contains 15 pop-sounding songs that are pretty good. I’m excited to see where he takes his music career as he grows up more.

My Top Three:

1. trust her more

2. blur

3. if he wanted to he would

Works Cited

Caulfield, Keith. “5 Seconds of Summer Score Fifth No. 1 on Billboard's Top Album Sales Chart with '5SOS5'.” Billboard, 7 Oct. 2022, https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/5-seconds-of-summer-5sos5-top-album-sales-chart-1235152086/.

Caulfield, Keith. “Harry Styles' 'Harry's House' Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 with Half-Million-plus First Week in U.S.” Billboard, 31 May 2022, https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/harry-styles-harrys-house-number-one-billboard-200-chart-1235078807/.

Caulfield, Keith. “Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' Has Already Sold 1 Million Albums in the U.S. (Updating).” Billboard, 28 Oct. 2022, https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/taylor-swift-midnights-sales-record-breaking-start-1235159835/.

Staff, Billboard. “Five Burning Questions: Bad Bunny Debuts at No. 1 with Year's Best Single-Week Tally for 'Un Verano Sin Ti'.” Billboard, 17 May 2022, https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/bad-bunny-un-verano-sin-ti-five-burning-questions-1235072390/.