The Last Playlist of the Decade

Paisha Watkins, Staff Writer
December 8, 2021

As the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31, 2019, the new decade of 2020 began. Many things will change over the course of the next decade, but one thing I know for sure is that the importance of music will never dissipate. Before the decade came to a close however, I set out to discover the music taste of the teenagers of this generation, including the music they are listening to, the artists they like, and even how their music taste has changed from 2010 to now.

With over 248 million users on Spotify, 60 million on Apple Music, and millions more on other platforms, it is safe to say that music is a huge part of people’s everyday lives. Senior Jack Githens, whose song of the decade was “Thunderstruck” by ACDC, says he listens to music for about four hours every day. Whether that is in the car, through headphones at school, or while just hanging out at home with friends, teens listen to music practically all the time.

Music taste is a large part of people’s identity and can even affect their mood and influence their decisions. Junior Emily Palm, whose song of the decade was “She Used to Be Mine” by the Waitress cast, said, “I listen to music based on my vibe. Like if I’m sad, I’m going to listen to sad music and if I’m happy, then it’s happy.” After talking to more students I learned that a majority of them even have playlists catered perfectly with all their favorite songs to a specific mood. Junior Ashley Hickey whose song of the decade was “sex” by EDEN, said, “I have a playlist for every mood I’m in, one for simpin’, one for when I’m really hype, and then a playlist for all my chiller songs.”

With‌ ‌all‌ ‌that‌ ‌time‌ ‌spent‌ ‌listening‌ ‌to‌ ‌music,‌ ‌teenagers‌ ‌have‌ ‌a‌ ‌pretty‌ ‌good‌ ‌

idea‌ ‌of‌ ‌the‌ ‌type‌ ‌of‌ ‌music‌ ‌they‌ ‌like‌ ‌and‌ ‌the‌ ‌type‌ ‌they‌ ‌do not.‌ They also have strategies in which they find new music they like. Sophomore Conor Pocinwong, whose song of the decade was “Ready” by Lil Baby, explained that he knows which artists he likes so he hears about their new albums on their social media or through playlists based off what he likes on Youtube. Hickey has a different approach, saying, “I get a lot of my music from Tik Tok, because you hear a lot of different types of songs that I would never really listen to before. Also, you kind of start hearing it over and over and a lot of them start to grow on you.”

Comparing the top songs of this decade to the last, many students surprisingly prefer the music of the last decade where artists like Rihanna, Beyonce, and Usher were taking the world by storm. Freshman Rayesa Chouhan whose song of the decade was “She’s So Nice” by PINK GUY, explained, “I actually really like last decade’s music a lot better. I feel like that is the stuff everyone knows and can sing along to and it was a lot less autotuned.” However, sophomore Priya Bedi said that she prefers the music of this decade and spends most of her time listening to the artists Juice WRLD and Kevin Creole. Along the lines of decades, I asked the students what the difference was between their music taste and that of their parents or older and younger siblings. Sophomore Samantha Chase, whose song of the decade was “American Teen” by Khalid, said that her parents like more older and country music whereas she likes more current pop songs. Senior Parker Seng, whose song of the decade was “really just any song by Kanye West,” said that his parents listen to a lot of 70s and 80s music but he likes current rap, preferably Kanye West. Spanish teacher Kelsey Early, whose favorite song is “Runaway” by the Jonas Brothers, said her music taste has not really changed since she was a kid and she actually really likes the music that teenagers listen to because that is the music she listens to as well. Substitute teacher Alfred Souma, disagreed saying, “I like listening to the older stuff, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the classics. I don’t really like the stuff teenagers are listening to now. It doesn’t give the same feeling.”

With last decade beginning in 2010, many people’s music taste has changed as more music has been produced and more artists have come to be. Palm said she used to listen to a lot of rap because that is what everyone else was listening to, but her music started to mellow out and she started listening to more indie alternative music. Pocinwong says the same in that he started with a lot of screaming rap but now he listens to more chill R&B.

Overall, the music taste of teenagers is a very diverse and interesting topic. It is amazing to see all the different music that students listen to and how they find new music. For that reason I combined a list of some of the favorite songs of the students and teachers at IHS in a “Last Playlist of the Decade.” The songs are listed below if you want to try out some new music or hear what your peers are listening to.

The Last Playlist of the Decade