Harry Styles blew our minds by releasing his new single, As It Was, on 1 April 2022. This new song is Styles’ lead single and music video for his highly anticipated third solo album; Harry’s House, which is set to release 20 May 2022. The song seems like an embodiment of his public persona while giving us a glimpse of his life not in the public eye. There is so much to unpack from this new release from Styles. It is highly recommended that you watch the As It Was Music Video!

It seems that after listening to As It Was, Styles has branched off from his usual sound. From exciting pop songs with beautiful harmonies, to slow piano ballads, As It Was is an upbeat 80s ESC song. Styles is not afraid to try new genres within his music. He started off doing bubblegum pop songs with One Direction, now look at where he’s at! We’re beaming with joy waiting to see what the rest of Harry’s House has to offer and let’s just say, hopes are high.

Leading up to the release of the song, Styles created an online campaign called, You Are Home, that hints at what’s to come next for the artist. Behind a series of doors or just posting a sentence that is always posted on their website: youarehome.com, they give the hints. For example, on March 21. 2022, You Are Home’s Twitter account, @youarehome posted the sentence, “In this world, it’s just us, you know it’s not the same as it was.” What people were yet to know was that this would be As It Was’ main lyrics in the chorus.

Instagram has also been a big platform that they use to promote the You Are Home campaign. On their Instagram account, @youarehome they release all of the photos of the doors from past days that the website posts. Six Instagram posts were hinting at the music video for As It Was. Just like the photo on the right, it’s showing one of the scenes of the music video where Styles is singing the second verse.

If you watch the music video, you can figure out where everything behind the six doors is from. After the reveal, you can tell what everything is behind the doors, but before that, they are out of context and so it’s hard to find their meaning to Styles’ career and music. Styles’ fanbase, who call themselves “Harries”, were very clever with figuring out what plans Styles had up his sleeve, but even some of the You Are Home hints were a struggle to figure out.

As It Was, the shortest song Styles has written, starts off with a young child’s voice saying, “Come on Harry, we want to say good night to you!” You’re never going to believe it when I tell you that this voice is Harry’s goddaughter, Ruby Winston. Ruby Winston is the 5-year-old daughter of Meredith and Ben Winston. While Styles was still in the boy-band sensation, One Direction, Styles lived in Ben Winston’s house for 18 months! Winston has previously directed a few of One Direction’s music videos along with directing their documentary This Is Us which came out in 2013. You also might not have known that Winston is an executive producer for The Late Late Night Show With James Corden, and is the youngest late-night show producer in America.

Styles couldn’t have written this massive hit without his usual collaborators, Tyler Johnson and Kid Harpoon. In Sep. 2021, Styles and Harpoon won an Ivor Novello award for Songwriter Of The Year.

The director of the music video, Tanu Muino, is from Ukraine. “It was a two-day shoot, and on the second day it was kind of the start of everything in Ukraine.” Styles mentioned in an interview with Heart, “She was absolutely incredible.” This music video was Muino’s dream project. In the same interview, Styles stated, “I have to say a massive thank you to them for their strength, and kind of all the love put into the video.”

Masha Reva is an artist from Odesa, Ukraine who created a piece of art for the music video of As It Was. Almost as adorable as Styles is, according to Reva’s Instagram account, @mashareva, he kept the painted set from the music video, and took it home!
Styles debuted playing As It Was live at Coachella, on Friday, April 15, 2022. It was his opening song, and he got the crowd screaming for the rest of his setlist. The crowd already knew all the lyrics to the song, as everyone was singing along.

We can see that Styles’ outfit themes might be flamboyant jumpsuits, given that he wore one in the music video and at Coachella. In the music video, Styles wore a red, diagonal strapped jumpsuit, while the woman wore the same, but in royal blue. Well, he wore this until he stripped down into red underwear. For Coachella, Styles entered the stage in a large, black feather coat, with a rainbow sequin, chest showing jumpsuit. These jumpsuits that Styles is wearing seem very reminiscent of David Bowie.

As It Was broke the records for many music services and charts. After the song was released, his fans, the Harries, rapidly streamed As It Was. Styles’ As It Was broke the Guinness World Record of most Spotify streams for a track in 24 hours for a male. This was not only a record for Guinness World Records but for Spotify too. As It Was became the most streamed song in a day in 2022, and the most-streamed song in a single day in the US. To add, Styles is the first British solo artist to get #1 on Global 200. He also got the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. And, these were only two of many charts he has become #1 on!

Many fans have theories about what the lyrics of the song mean. Styles has stated in many interviews that he writes from personal experiences, so fans’ immediate thoughts are his love life. Styles is currently dating Olivia Wilde, so people think that As It Was is about their relationship, and how it’s constantly changing, and that “it’s not the same as it was,” due to all of their life commitments.

After listening to and watching the song, there are so many highlights to look back on. There’s the vulnerable second verse, the addictive bridge that sounds like nothing that Styles has done before, or the adorable ending with bells and Styles’ amazing dancing. He looked like he was bursting with happiness and felt free within his body. Make sure to put in the comments your favorite part of Styles’ new single, As It Was!
Links to the articles that gave me information to use in the article that you just read:
rollingstone.com
gq.com
gq-magazine.co.uk
billboard.com