If one thing’s for certain, it’s that 2014 was a time to be alive and online. And as most intense feelings often do, nostalgia for this era often hits me in waves when I least expect it: when I see an Arizona Iced Tea bottle, a John Green book, or an Arctic Monkeys AM vinyl. A heavily filtered picture posted with any of these three items would have cemented you with a 2014 influencer status. I remember how much I wanted to be like the cool girls I saw online when I was twelve. My mom didn’t let me wear the crazy high socks and huge clompy shoes that the cool kids wore, but I immersed myself in their music and bought myself a couple flannels and band shirts. I still thought I was pretty cool (even though I most definitely wasn’t).
Trends change rapidly. We switch from using WeHeartIt to Pinterest and then to VSCO and then back to Pinterest again, and infinity scarves paired with Ramones shirts soon become baby tees and mom jeans. Most of what we did to seem cool in 2014 is funny now to us. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as we grow up and grow out of trends as our outer society evolves. Thinking about the fact that I was the only girl in my fifth grade class wearing black combat boots, a band shirt, and a flannel definitely does make me cringe. But, as we change to match what’s “in”, we often leave behind things that we genuinely love because we’re afraid of seeming out-of-tune. This is especially true with music.
Even though this era influenced our hobbies, our aesthetics, and guided us towards finding our “niche”, they fade. The things we once loved tend to lose their sparkle. You wouldn’t believe the amount of songs I forgot existed until I found a 2014-themed playlist, and I discovered something crazy: they still hit! Here are three songs that will transport you back to that crazy little era of Tumblr, Abercrombie and Fitch, knee socks, and boxed water:
“No. 1 Party Anthem” by Arctic Monkeys
Come on, come on, come on. Sometimes, you’re just waiting for your hype song to play in hopes that it will give you the confidence to talk to that one person. “No. 1 Party Anthem” isn’t necessarily that special hype song, but it is amazing nonetheless. It describes the inner monologue of someone waiting for the right moment to approach someone else at a party. There’s self-doubt, cynicism, second-guessing, and, in true Arctic Monkeys fashion, it doesn’t beat around the bush about what is really desired. This song is too good to not be in every single one of my playlists until I die. And as I write this, you have no idea how mad I am that I didn’t get tickets to their Philly show.
What makes this song so memorable to me is the fact that it is the slowest on the album, despite being called “No. 1 Party Anthem”. So ironic, sooo Arctic Monkeys.
“Everything is Embarrassing” by Sky Ferreira
There’s nothing more aggravating than having someone say they’re trying, but they’re only saying that they’re trying. This leaves the other person who is trying feeling embarrassed. If you’re that other person right now, I’m gonna need you to hop off this site and instead immediately put this song back on your playlist again. Sky Ferreira sees you and she hears you. She is the poster child for 2014 indie-sleaze, but I wouldn’t expect anything different from someone who had started her career on MySpace. She set the bar for soft-grunge looks a million feet in the air, and she’s the person who your favorite Wattpad fanfiction writers have always based their main characters on.
If you’re looking for a dance-pop funk song to ponder your failed relationships to, “Everything is Embarrassing” is totally that. I find it to be a huge comfort that even Sky Ferreira, fashion icon and “it” girl, can completely still embarrass herself in a relationship — we’re not alone!
“Tennis Court” by Lorde
The last time I was regularly streaming this song, I paid $1.29 for it on Apple Music. So yeah, a lot has changed, but Lorde really hasn’t – she won’t let fame change her. In 2013 when she rose to fame at 16, Lorde did not just fling herself into the culture and party scene; she was definitely flung into it, but she herself remained grounded and, most notably, highly critical. “Tennis Court” embodies her thrill-chasing spirit, paired with her strong sense of self-discipline (“Getting pumped up on the little bright things I bought / But I know they’ll never own me”). In the era in which she rose, everyone was trying to be the coolest person in the world by romanticizing everything, including the dangerous, the fleeting, or the more materialistic trends. Lorde discerns this as a new art form, in which she partakes in despite her criticisms. She is young and she is having fun, but this song likewise echoes her awareness of the fact that as she becomes more famous, she will be under an even larger microscope. All of that fun won’t last forever. Leave it to Lorde to write a song full of ambivalence.
What WAS the 2014 Tumblr era?
So, I just discerned the meanings of three pretty prominent – yet sadly forgotten – songs, and I bet you’re wondering what for. Well, there’s a remarkably similar theme visible in the three songs, as they were released around that same era that I keep going on about:
Everything was romanticized. Whether it was lurking around a dirty college basement searching for “the one”, feeling embarrassed after beating a dead horse of a relationship, or being plunged into the party scene, we viewed it as art. We even made our own art out of it. I also think this absolutely influenced the “messy girl” era that we joke about being in nowadays, where everything is romanticized, both the mundane and the crazy. That Tumblr girl is still there inside of us, compelling us to do something messy for the plot.
As I uncovered all of these artifacts from the past, I told myself that I would NEVER stop bumping these songs, even if someone hit me with a “no way, you’re still listening to that?” Be mad. Bops stay bops and I definitely wouldn’t be the person I am today if I didn’t hop on Tumblr when I did!
So, I’ll leave y’all with this: put these songs back on your playlists, dust off all your untouched records, and, most importantly, romanticize everything because it’s what Sky Ferreira would want you to do.