While “25 Songs That Matter Now” was published before the coronavirus pandemic reached many communities in the United States, we imagine you might be thinking about how this current moment has changed how you interact with music. What do you think? Have the ways that your community has been affected by the pandemic changed the music that you are seeking out and listening to? What kind of music do you find yourself gravitating toward or sharing now? How do you think music can affect how we experience painful or difficult moments in life?

Although the pandemic has affected my community in Singapore in several ways such as school cancellation, no longer being able to dine at food/beverage outlets, laws forcing people to stay at home unless for essential needs and more, All this being said, the music I am listening to has stayed constant. Overall, i find music with meaning and music that has a well developed melody and harmony gravitating, because I use music as a way to relax. Furthermore while listening to music, it enables me to think deep. Music has always been humanity way to convey meaning and experience of painful and difficult moments in life. A prime example of this is during the brutal reign Stalin, food was scare and the media was tightly controlled to silence the voices of the public. However several Soviet composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky used music as a way to express the hardships during those times. This is evident even today, their music are often sad, chilling and convey a vivid image of that time.

Music can help us through these difficulties time as it relaxes our minds, and let us know that someone else from a different time period also experience the same pain and we are not alone in this fight.