Why did ambient music become so popular in 2023?
Music has always been reactive. When something in the world happens, regardless of how big or small that thing is, music comes afterwards, never before. Some music might predict an event, but even then, that prediction is the reaction to past events that make the writer consider said prediction. Essentially, the people who make music do so due to what has happened in their lives, and the same rule applies to those who listen to it.
What a musician reacts to when they create doesn’t have to be the end of the world. If someone falls in love, they write about that feeling. If they go through a breakup, the song reacts to the event again. Music can also be political; a considerable amount of great music has been born out of the observation of injustice. The fact of the matter is there is cause and effect. The cause is the event, and the art is the effect; it is always that way.
The mindset of people who want to listen to music mirrors that of the people who make it. If people are in love, they will listen to happy and upbeat music that reflects their feelings. If they go through a breakup, they will opt for sad music. If they feel like there is injustice in the world, they will listen to something political that discusses that injustice or at least mimics their feelings sonically.
Of course, this is a very black-and-white view of how people process emotions. The human mind is much more complicated than 2 + 2 = 4. When some people are sad, they revel in that sadness, and their best way of getting over it is to immerse themselves in it fully. Therefore, if they are going through a tough time, rather than opting for music that could make them feel better, they might go for something that makes them feel worse. Alternatively, they might want to perk themselves up, so upon receiving the worst news of their lives, they will put on something happy that takes them to a better time, away from the present. Again, the musician’s mind mirrors the listeners in this sense, as just because the sound is a reaction to an event, it doesn’t mean we all perceive it in the same way.
Take the Second World War as an example. They were incredibly bleak times for everyone, and that is reflected in some of the music which came out. While some people opted for optimistic songs such as ‘We’ll Meet Again,’ other composers of the time made bleak soundscapes that better reflected the world around them.
So, with the above in mind, why is it that 2023 was the year of ambient music? It is simple: everything is out of control. 2020 brought with it the pandemic, arguably one of the most challenging times many people have ever lived through. That being said, there also came a sense of unity through that turbulent time. Granted, there were debates about masks and the cause that were speedbumps somewhat, but generally, everyone had the same enemy. In that sense, the situation was more digestible.
With 2023, there is no common bad guy. Instead, there is a lot of chaos going on around people, whether on home soil thanks to inflation, the cost of living crisis and uncertainty in the future thanks to AI, or overseas in the multiple conflicts we hear about daily; people have less and less control over different aspects of their lives. In applying the psychology above, there are two ways that people can deal with such chaos.
The first is to embrace it. Many composers will embark on the mission of making protest music, which discusses the issues at hand or sonically portrays the chaos around them through instrumentation. This reflects why noise music and free jazz first came about, as musicians attempted to personify turmoil without using words.
Alternatively, people can notice they lack control and attempt to regain it. It is this mindset which leads to ambient music. Ambient music, at its core, is calm and peaceful. It plays in the background during meditation sessions and can help people regain control when they feel like it is spiralling.
For these reasons, in 2023, more people both made and listened to ambient sounds. It acts as a way out of what many considered inescapable, and when the dark times of the world felt suffocating, it gave people room to breathe.
