2021 will be considered a legendary year for music. After a year of no concerts and everyone being inside, lots of anticipated projects were released that will define the music of this decade, such as Kanye West’s 10th solo studio album “Donda” and Olivia Rodrigo’s debut studio album “Sour.” Let’s take a look back at some of these unforgettable music moments and what the students and staff of GCHS have to say about them. 

Pop music in 2021 has  been very exciting, with new faces such as Olivia Rodrigo, and pop icons like Adele returning with new music. The British pop singer, Adele, put out her new album “30” which has remained at number 1 on the billboard charts for two weeks and is projected to sell over a million units. “Personally I love the new Adele album. I feel like her music is beautiful and lyrical and her voice is flawless,” said staff member Coleen Barbanera. Adele also broke records for having the most streamed song in 24 hours with her single “Easy on Me” leading up to “30” receiving 24 million listeners. 

Many artists this year owe lots of their success to TikTok. The amount of different and diverse music going viral every week on the app has shown users new types of genres and upcoming artists all across the world. 

But the most important thing in the culture of 2021 was the ongoing battle between artists Kanye West and Drake. Kanye and Drake’s differences have been going on for years, but this year things reached new heights with both artists having highly anticipated projects that were released around the same time. This caused fans to debate on which project was better. Drake ended up winning the numbers game with his album “Certified Lover Boy ” breaking records on Spotify and Apple Music. According to senior Aidan Roberg who attended a Donda listening event in Chicago, West’s album was superior. “ You could hear that Kanye was experimenting with new sounds, while Drake followed the same formulaic consistency that he’s used in the past.” However, fans of both artists were happy when in the middle of November West and Drake seemed to set aside their differences and announced they will be hosting a concert called “Free Larry Hoover,” which took place on December 9 at the L.A. Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA.