2020 was a wild year in the world. The Covid-19 pandemic placed a lot of things on hold in the music business. Artists weren’t allowed to tour, and fans didn’t have the chance to enjoy their favorite artists’ bangers “outside.” For independent artists, the effect of the pandemic was different. Artists with label support and more significant platforms were able to navigate through this year more efficiently because of their following and label access. Artists such as Megan Thee Stallion was about to do awards shows, late-night television appearances and even a lot of branding deals. We saw this with Only Fans and how many artists leveraged their celebrity to bring in extra income.
As mentioned before, not every artist has the support of a Megan Thee Stallion or resources of a Chance The Rapper (Who is independent), so when performing basic tasks such as releasing music, some songs might of been overlooked. As a person who enjoys music and discovering new artists, I found it quite challenging to find or enjoy music from non-mainstream artists. The factors that played a role in this to me is the ability not to b able to go to clubs, events, open mics, and concert to hear new music. Streaming stuff on your phone is cool, but it some songs hit differently in various settings. For example, some songs may ring off better in a car, others at a bar, some are that good where they connect on an Instagram live stream Dj Set. Having options to consume music was lost in 2020. With that being said I want to commend any artist that released music this year especially the independent Artists.
Being a Chicago based curator, naturally, I’m more knowledgeable of the music releases from the hometown acts.
