"I forgot that you existed" and other tropical house songs
"I forgot that you existed" deep dive is streaming now!
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This week’s episode: “I forgot that you existed”
“It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference.” In this Deep Dive, we look at “I Forgot That You Existed,” a deceptively breezy track that becomes more interesting the longer you sit with it. We unpack the tonal misreadings this song often gets, the power of the shrug as both emotional and poetic posture, and why this opening song may be one of Taylor’s most sophisticated declarations of agency.
🎧 Listen above and ⬇️ scroll below to read Maansi’s exploration of other Tropical House songs.
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📜 This Week’s Extra Credit by Maansi
On this week’s episode, we talked a bit about how one of the genres that this song falls into is post tropical house music. As a novice to the world of music production and musical genres, I don’t often know what genres our favorite pop songs fall into, but I can appreciate when a song is a bop. So I thought, why not use this week’s extra credit to explore what other familiar songs may fall into this genre.
Through my research, I learned that tropical house became popular in the 2010s. I never considered myself to be very into house music or EDM, but as a millennial who was in my 20s in the 2010s, I immediately appreciate why I am drawn to this light and bouncy music — it’s nostalgic and carefree to me. I assume Taylor’s song “I forgot that you existed” is considered post tropical house because it came out in 2019, towards the end or after the era when this genre was most popular.
Four prominent artists who are known for their tropical house music are: Jonas Blue, JP Cooper, Sam Feldt, and Kygo, though many other artists have dabbled with the genre over the years. There’s an extensive list of the many songs that fall squarely in this genre, often by these artists, that include titles like: “Summer on you” (Sam Feldt), “Undeniable” (Kygo), and “Perfect Strangers” (Jonas Blue). So if you, like me, are drawn to “I forgot that you existed,” and like me, haven’t gone after this genre specifically, you may want to give these songs and this genre a listen!
But even if you, like me, were not familiar with this genre, you may find that you are already a fan without knowing it. I was excited to find that some of my other favorite songs happen to also have some tropical house. A few tropical house songs that you may have heard include:
Shape of you, by Ed Sheeran (2017) - opening beats should have been a dead giveaway
Fast car, by Jonas Blue (2015) - which btw is my favorite version of this song and was my anthem in 2017
What do you mean, by Justin Bieber (2015)
Waves, by Mr. Probz (2013)
Paying attention to which genre each Taylor Swift song is has been a fun way to acquaint myself with a new language to better understanding music. While she’s definitely our Pop Queen, I find “pop” to often be a reductive, catch-all genre, when in reality, the full anthology of music that makes up this genre can be so versatile. I’m specifically blown away by how many different genres Taylor Swift experiments with and am really loving using her music as a gateway to discovering more music I love.