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Harry Styles – As It Was (Video)
Page Contents
Song by Harry Styles: As It Was
As It Was – YouTube extracted comments for the song
As It Was: The symbolism in this music video is so beautiful. The lyrics are so personal and touching. What a great way to start the era.
This is the first time I’ve checked out Harry Styles’ music and I’m honestly floored. I love how unapologetically expressive he is and how hauntingly beautiful his vocals are. What a song.
Song, Album and Artist’s Facts
As It Was single by Harry Styles
“As It Was” is a song by English singer Harry Styles, released through Erskine and Columbia on 2022-04-01 as the lead single from his third studio album, Harry’s House (2022) released on 2022-05-20. The song was written by Styles alongside the song’s producers Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson.
Browse our post on the Harry’s House Album or buy the album Harry’s House now!
The music genre is Synth-pop. Length 2:47. Label Erskine, Columbia. Songwriter(s) Harry Styles, Thomas Hull, Tyler Johnson. Producer(s) Kid Harpoon, Tyler Johnson.
Harry Styles singles chronology: “Fine Line” (2021), “As It Was” (2022).
Music video on YouTube: “As It Was”
Buy Harry Style’s Albums
| Buy the latest album Harry’s House with the hit single “As It Was” or all 3 albums from Harry Styles on Amazon. | ||||
As It Was: Second Number one for Styles
“As It Was” entered at the top of the UK Singles Chart, becoming Styles’s second number-one single on the chart after “Sign of the Times” in April 2017 and it has so far spent seven weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart (2022-05-23). Also, it charted at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 where it currently spends three non-consecutive weeks. Other than the United Kingdom and the United States, “As It Was” topped the charts in countries such as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden.
Background to the song As It Was
Harry Styles announced the title of his third studio album as Harry’s House on 23 March 2022, unveiling its artwork, a 40-second trailer and the album’s release date as 2022-05-20.[4][5] Five days later, he announced the title of its lead single as “As It Was”, along with pictures of him in a “sequined, sleeveless red outfit” and its release date as 2022-04-01.[6][7][8] Simultaneously, posters bearing the lyrics “It’s not the same as it was” and a picture of Styles sitting on a big ball popped up in various cities.[9] He released a teaser of the music video on 30 March, which included an “energetic drum beat” and a “sunny electric guitar riff“, and depicted him in a red jumpsuit spinning in circles atop a motorised turntable.[10]
Lyrics and composition
“As It Was” opens with Styles’s goddaughter saying, “Come on Harry, we wanna say goodnight to you.”[11] Music critics described the song as a guitar-driven synth-pop track, a noticeable shift from Styles’s rock-oriented sounds.[2][12] Chris Willman of Variety noted that it takes heavy inspiration from Depeche Mode and A-ha, while also suggesting that it adopted a style similar to the Weeknd‘s 2019 single “Blinding Lights“.[2] Lyrically, “As It Was” is rooted in personal transitions and depicts a feeling of loss and loneliness.[13]
As It Was: Critical reception
NME‘s Rhian Daly gave “As It Was” five out of five stars, describing it as “not a million miles away from where Fine Line left off, but hardly retreading old ground.” According to Daly, the track suggests Harry’s House will solidify Styles “as one of the current pop landscapes’ greats”.[15] Beau Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian also rated the song five stars and called it “one of his very best”, writing, “Many will pore over the gossipy, self-referential lyrics, but Styles’s song is for everyone: an effervescent, high-tempo hit to have you clicking your heels.”[14] In his review for Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield regarded “As It Was” as one of Styles’s most “emotionally powerful” songs, calling it a “daring change-up” and a “straight-from-the-heart cry that’s also an irresistible dance-floor challenge.”[1] Sahar Ghadirian of Clash magazine deemed it a “powerhouse” and Styles “at his most vulnerable”. Ghadirian appreciated the “dream fusion” of synth-pop with electro rock and commented that the bells end the song on “a euphoric high”.[16]
Evening Standard reviewer Jochan Embley meanwhile found the track inferior to the singer’s previous singles “Watermelon Sugar” and “Adore You“, but wrote that Styles and his collaborators “still know how to make an instantly enjoyable tune”.[17] Olivia Horn of Pitchfork was less impressed and bemoaned that the song “winds down without any real payoff”, citing the circuitousness of the lyrics as “a frequent shortcoming in Styles’ songwriting.”[18]
Commercial performance
“As It Was” was an immediate success; it earned the Guinness World Records title for the most streamed track on Spotify within 24 hours by a male artist, and broke the Apple Music streaming record for most first-day streams for a 2022 release.[19][20] The song also opened atop the Billboard Global 200 with the greatest global streaming week of 2022, becoming Styles’s first number-one on the tally.[21]
In the United Kingdom, “As It Was” entered at the top of the UK Singles Chart on 8 April 2022 – for the week ending dated 14 April 2022 – with the biggest sales and streaming weeks of any single in 2022 and becoming Styles’s second solo number one on the chart after “Sign of the Times” in April 2017.[22] The song garnered the most single-day streams on Spotify in the United States, ever, surpassing Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Drivers License” (2021).[23] It entered at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the first song of 2022 to debut atop, and became Styles’ second number-one after “Watermelon Sugar” (2019), simultaneously charting atop Streaming Songs. With this achievement, One Direction became the first group to debut two members at number one on the Hot 100 with solo songs, as Styles joined Zayn Malik.[24] The track peaked at number one on the Canadian Hot 100.[25]
“As It Was” charted at number one in Australia.[26] The song debuted at number one in New Zealand.[27] Elsewhere, it peaked at number one in Austria,[28] Belgium,[29] Denmark,[30] Germany,[31] Greece,[32] Ireland,[33] Israel,[34] Lithuania,[35] the Netherlands,[36] Slovakia,[37] Sweden,[38] and Switzerland.[39]
Music video
The music video for “As It Was” was released alongside the song.[40] In the clip, Styles joins dancer Mathilde Lin on a turning platform and performs choreography in the Barbican to release negative emotions.[12] The video was filmed in London and was directed by Tanu Muino, who stated that directing for Styles was “a bucket list dream come true” but, on the second day of shooting, Muino’s home country of Ukraine was invaded by Russia, rendering the process a “bittersweet” experience; nevertheless, Muino and her team from Ukraine “poured so much love into this video and you can see it on screen. It will be a music video I will never forget and now I can happily retire.”[40] On YouTube, the video has received over 100 million views as of May 2022.[41]
Live performance
Styles performed “As It Was” for the first time at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 15 April and 22 April.[42]
Credits and personnel
- Harry Styles – vocals, songwriting, bells
- Kid Harpoon – songwriting, production, bass, guitar, drum machine, drums, electric guitar, synthesizer
- Tyler Johnson – songwriting, production, drum machine, piano, synthesizer
- Doug Showalter – electric guitar, percussion
- Mitch Rowland – drums
- Jeremy Hatcher – programming, recording
- Randy Merrill – mastering
- Spike Stent – mixing
- Katie May – assistant engineering
- Luke Gibbs – assistant engineering
- Adele Phillips – assistant engineering
- Josh Caulder – assistant engineering
- Joe Dougherty – assistant engineering
- Matt Wolach – assistant engineering
As It Was – Chart Positioning
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[107] | Platinum | 70,000 |
| Italy (FIMI)[108] | Gold | 50,000 |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[109] | Gold | 15,000 |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[110] | Gold | 30,000 |
| Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[111] | Gold | 10,000 |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[112] | Gold | 400,000 |
| United States (RIAA)[113] | Platinum | 1,000,000 |
| Streaming | ||
| Greece (IFPI Greece)[114] | Gold | 1,000,000 |
| Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
||
Release history
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Label(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | 1 April 2022 |
|
[115] | |
| Italy | Contemporary hit radio | Sony | [116] | |
| United States | 4 April 2022 | Adult contemporary radio | Columbia | [117] |
| 5 April 2022 | Contemporary hit radio | [118] | ||
| United Kingdom | 15 April 2022 | CD single |
|
[119] |
Who is Harry Edward Styles?
Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. His musical career began in 2010 as a solo contestant on the British music competition series The X Factor. Following his elimination, he was brought back to join the boy band One Direction, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time before going on an indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Styles released his self-titled debut solo album through Columbia Records in 2017. It debuted at number one in the UK and the US and was one of the world’s top-ten best-selling albums of the year, while its lead single, “Sign of the Times“, topped the UK Singles Chart. Styles’ second album, Fine Line (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with the biggest ever first-week sales by an English male artist, and was the most recent album to be included in Rolling Stone‘s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” in 2020. Its fourth single, “Watermelon Sugar“, topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Styles will follow it with his third album, Harry’s House (2022), which spawned the chart-topping single “As It Was”.
Throughout his career, Styles has received several accolades, including two Brit Awards, a Grammy Award, an Ivor Novello Award, and an American Music Award. Styles made his acting debut in Christopher Nolan‘s 2017 war film Dunkirk. Aside from music and acting, he is known for his flamboyant fashion. He is the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue magazine.
Early life
Harry Edward Styles was born on 1 February 1994 in Redditch, Worcestershire, England,[c][2] the son of landlady Anne Twist (née Selley, formerly Cox) and finance worker Desmond “Des” Styles.[3][4][5][6] When he was a child, he moved with his parents and older sister, Gemma, to the village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire.[3] His parents divorced when he was seven years old, and his mother later remarried business partner John Cox,[7] although they divorced years later. Through her subsequent marriage in 2013 to Robin Twist,[8] who died of cancer in 2017,[9] Styles has an older stepbrother named Mike and a stepsister named Amy.[9]
Styles said he had a “great childhood” and was always supported by his parents.[5] As a child, he sang covers on a karaoke machine he was given by his grandfather, and the first song he recorded was Elvis Presley‘s “The Girl of My Best Friend“.[10] Styles attended the Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School,[11] where he was the lead singer for the band White Eskimo, which won a local Battle of the Bands competition.[11][12] At the age of 16, he worked part-time at the W. Mandeville Bakery in Holmes Chapel.[12]
Career
2010–2015: The X Factor and One Direction
Following a suggestion from his mother, on 11 April 2010, Styles auditioned as a solo contestant for the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor, singing a rendition of Stevie Wonder‘s “Isn’t She Lovely“.[5] He advanced to bootcamp but failed to progress further. Four others in his age group who were also eliminated were put together to form a band in July 2010 to compete in the “Groups” category, mentored by Simon Cowell.[13] The group consisting of Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik practiced for two weeks;[14][15] Styles suggested the name One Direction to his bandmates, and they agreed to keep it.[16] They began to gain considerable popularity in the UK,[17] and within the first four weeks of the live shows, were Cowell’s last act in the competition.[18] The group eventually reached the final of The X Factor and finished in third place.[19]
Albums with Cowell’s label Syco Records
In January 2011, One Direction signed a recording contract with Cowell’s label Syco Records.[20][21] Their UK number one debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful“, and their debut studio album, Up All Night (Buy at Amazon), were released later that year.[22][23] The album, which contained three songs co-written by Styles, made One Direction the first British group to have their debut album reach number one in the United States.[24][25] Their four succeeding studio albums—Take Me Home (2012) (Buy at Amazon), Midnight Memories (2013) (Buy at Amazon), Four (2014) (Buy at Amazon) and Made in the A.M. (2015) (Buy at Amazon)—all debuted at number one in the UK.[26] Midnight Memories was the world’s best-selling album of 2013,[27] and its accompanying Where We Are Tour was the highest-grossing tour of 2014 and remains the highest-grossing tour of all time by a vocal group.[28] After the release of Four, One Direction became the only group in the 58-year history of the Billboard 200 albums chart to have their first four albums debut at number one.[29] The albums spawned a string of successful singles, including “Live While We’re Young“, “Little Things“, “Best Song Ever“, “Story of My Life“, “Drag Me Down” and “History“.[30][31][32] Styles also co-wrote the song “Just a Little Bit of Your Heart” for Ariana Grande‘s 2014 album My Everything.[33]
Not wanting to “exhaust” the fan base, upon Styles’ suggestion, the band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016, after completing promotional activities related to Made in the A.M.[5][34][35] Since their debut, One Direction have sold 70 million records worldwide, including 7.6 million albums and 26 million singles in the US, becoming one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.[31][36][37] The group amassed numerous accolades, including seven Brit Awards,[38] seven American Music Awards,[39] six Billboard Music Awards,[40] and four MTV Video Music Awards.[41]
2016–2018: Harry Styles and Dunkirk
As a solo artist, Styles joined Jeffrey Azoff’s Full Stop Management and talent agency CAA, signing a recording contract with Columbia Records in the first half of 2016.[42][43] Around this time, he also launched his own record label, Erskine Records.[42] Recording for Styles’s debut album occurred throughout 2016 in Los Angeles, London and Port Antonio, Jamaica, where Styles and his collaborators had a two-month writing retreat in the autumn.[5] In March 2017, he announced that his first solo single, “Sign of the Times“, would be released on 7 April.[44] The song peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart and number four on the Billboard Hot 100.[45][46] A glam rock-influenced soft rock power ballad,[47][48] it drew comparisons to the work of David Bowie.[49] Rolling Stone ranked “Sign of the Times” as the best song of 2017.[50] Its music video featured Styles flying and walking on water[51][52] and won the Brit Award for British Video of the Year.[53] In April, Styles was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in the US and made his debut televised solo performance in the UK on The Graham Norton Show.[54][55]
His self-titled debut album was released in May 2017,[56] whereupon it debuted at number one in several countries, including Australia, the UK and the US.[57] The record was influenced by 1970s soft rock and was described by Variety as a “classic cocktail of psychedelia, Britpop, and balladry”.[58][59] It received generally favourable reviews from critics[60][61] and was included in several publications’ lists of the best albums of 2017.[62][63][64] Harry Styles yielded two more singles, “Two Ghosts” and “Kiwi“.[65][66] The film Harry Styles: Behind the Album, which documented the writing and recording process for the album, was released in May exclusively on Apple Music.[67] Styles embarked on his first headlining concert tour, Harry Styles: Live on Tour, from September 2017 through to July 2018, performing in North and South Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia.[68][69]
Styles made his feature film debut in Christopher Nolan‘s war film Dunkirk, in July 2017, playing a British soldier named Alex in the Dunkirk evacuation during World War II.[70] He appeared alongside an ensemble cast which included Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, and Tom Hardy.[71] Styles won the part over “thousands of young men”;[72] Nolan later admitted he was unaware of the extent of Styles’ fame and that he was
cast “because he fit the part wonderfully and truly earned a seat at the table”.[73][74] The Daily Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin praised Styles for his “bright, convicted, and unexpectedly not-at-all-jarring performance”.[75]
In November 2017, BBC One broadcast Harry Styles at the BBC, a one-hour television special presented by Nick Grimshaw.[76] At 2017 ARIA Music Awards, Styles received the Best International Artist award.[77] He guest-hosted The Late Late Show with James Corden in December.[78] Together with Jack Antonoff and Ilsey Juber, Styles co-wrote “Alfie’s Song (Not So Typical Love Song)”, performed by the band Bleachers, for the soundtrack of the film Love, Simon (2018).[79] He also served as an executive producer on the CBS sitcom Happy Together, which premiered in October 2018 and was inspired by his time living with television producer Ben Winston.[80] In 2018, Styles began modelling for the Italian fashion house Gucci, appearing in several campaigns for the brand.[81][82]
2019–2021: Fine Line
“Lights Up“, the lead single from Styles’s second album, Fine Line (Buy from Amazon), was released in October 2019, debuting at number three in the UK.[83][84] The song featured a “soft-touch re-entry into the pop slipstream”, according to music writer Jon Caramanica.[85] Styles served as both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live in November.[86] The second single preceding Fine Line, “Adore You“, was released in December, peaking at number seven in the UK and at number six in the US.[87][88][89] That month, Styles again guest-hosted The Late Late Show with James Corden.[90]
Fine Line was released on 13 December. The album was recorded at the Shangri-La studio in Malibu, California with the same production team behind Styles’s debut album and featured a similar sound to Harry Styles while also incorporating elements of funk and soul.[91][92] It received generally positive reviews from critics.[93] The album peaked at number two in the UK[94] and topped the US charts, breaking the record as the biggest sales debut from an English male artist in the US since Nielsen SoundScan began electronically tracking sales data in 1991.[95] Singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks, who referred to Styles as “the son [she] never had”,[96] likened Fine Line to Fleetwood Mac’s album Rumours (Buy at Amazon) and commented that it inspired her to write new music.[97] Rolling Stone ranked it at number 491 in their 2020 list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time“.[98] Five other singles, “Falling“, “Watermelon Sugar“, “Golden“, “Treat People with Kindness” and the title track, were released from the album.[99] “Watermelon Sugar” became Styles’s fourth UK top-ten single, peaking at number four,[100] as well as his first number-one single in the US.[101] A tour to support Fine Line, entitled Love On Tour, which was originally set to take place throughout 2020,[102] was postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[103][104]
At the 2020 Brit Awards, Styles was nominated for British Male Solo Artist and British Album of the Year.[105] In March 2020, he performed an NPR Tiny Desk concert,[106] and in July, he narrated a bedtime story titled Dream with Me for the relaxation app Calm.[107] Later that year, Styles won the Favorite Pop/Rock Album award for Fine Line at the 48th American Music Awards,[108] the Best International Artist award at the 34th ARIA Music Awards,[109] and the Chart Achievement Award at the 27th Billboard Music Awards.[110] He was also named Variety‘s Hitmaker of the Year.[111] At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in March 2021, he received three nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album (Fine Line), Best Pop Solo Performance (“Watermelon Sugar”) and Best Music Video (“Adore You”), winning for Best Pop Solo Performance.[112][113] “Watermelon Sugar” also earned Styles his second Brit Award for British Single of the Year during the 2021 ceremony.[114] At the 2021 Ivor Novello Awards, “Adore You” won the award for Most Performed Work.[115] Styles made a cameo appearance as Eros / Starfox, brother of Thanos, in the mid-credits scene of the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Eternals, which was released in November 2021.[116] He launched his cosmetics brand, Pleasing, that month.[117]
2022: Harry’s House and further acting roles
The lead single from Styles’ third studio album Harry’s House (Buy at Amazon), titled “As It Was“, was released on 1 April 2022.[118] It debuted atop the UK and US charts, becoming his second solo number one single in both countries.[119][120] Styles headlined the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival later that month,[121] ahead of the release of Harry’s House on 20 May.[122] He is also set to star as Jack in the upcoming psychological thriller film Don’t Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde,[123] and will portray the titular character in My Policeman, a film adaptation of the 2012 novel of the same name.[124]
Artistry
Styles’s music has been described as soft rock, pop, and rock, with elements of folk and Britpop.[125][126][127][128] The musical style on his debut solo album was called a “mish-mash of Los Angeles’ style classic rock and ballads” by NME,[125] invoking an “intimately emotional Seventies soft-rock vibe” by Rolling Stone, and “synthesis[ing] influences from the last half-century of rock” by Time magazine.[129][130] His debut album was influenced by the artists he grew up listening to, such as Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, as well as the songwriting of Harry Nilsson.[131][132] Styles praised Nilsson’s lyrics as being “honest, and so good, and I think it’s because he’s never trying to sound clever.”[132] Upon listening to Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon as a child, he said he “couldn’t really get it, but I just remember being like—this is really fucking cool.”[5] He has also cited Freddie Mercury, Elvis Presley, and Paul McCartney (including his side project Wings) as influences, while mentioning Shania Twain as his main inspiration both musically and in fashion.[133][134][135]
Styles’s favourite album is Astral Weeks by Northern Irish musician Van Morrison, which he called “completely perfect”; he also considers Etta James’s album At Last! to be “perfect”. Joni Mitchell‘s 1971 album Blue inspired Styles to contact the album’s dulcimer instrumentalist, with whom he worked on Fine Line.[134]
Lyrics: As It Was – Harry Styles
Holdin’ me back
Gravity’s holdin’ me back
I want you to hold out the palm of your hand
Why don’t we leave it at that?
Nothin’ to say
When everything gets in the way
Seems you cannot be replaced
And I’m the one who will stay, oh-oh-oh
Gravity’s holdin’ me back
I want you to hold out the palm of your hand
Why don’t we leave it at that?
Nothin’ to say
When everything gets in the way
Seems you cannot be replaced
And I’m the one who will stay, oh-oh-oh
In this world, it’s just us
You know it’s not the same as it was
In this world, it’s just us
You know it’s not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
You know it’s not the same
You know it’s not the same as it was
In this world, it’s just us
You know it’s not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
You know it’s not the same
Answer the phone
“Harry, you’re no good alone
Why are you sitting at home on the floor?
What kind of pills are you on?”
Ringin’ the bell
And nobody’s coming to help
Your daddy lives by himself
He just wants to know that you’re well, oh-oh-oh
“Harry, you’re no good alone
Why are you sitting at home on the floor?
What kind of pills are you on?”
Ringin’ the bell
And nobody’s coming to help
Your daddy lives by himself
He just wants to know that you’re well, oh-oh-oh
In this world, it’s just us
You know it’s not the same as it was
In this world, it’s just us
You know it’s not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
You know it’s not the same
You know it’s not the same as it was
In this world, it’s just us
You know it’s not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
You know it’s not the same
Go home, get ahead, light-speed internet
I don’t wanna talk about the way that it was
Leave America, two kids follow her
I don’t wanna talk about who’s doin’ it first
I don’t wanna talk about the way that it was
Leave America, two kids follow her
I don’t wanna talk about who’s doin’ it first
As it was
You know it’s not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
You know it’s not the same as it was
As it was, as it was
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