*LISTEN TO THE SONG TO GET THE FULL EXPERIENCE*
Fine Line by Harry Styles was released on December 13, 2019, and can be classified in the pop genre, although this song is slower much slower than some of his other songs on this album. This song has nearly two billion streams on Spotify, but it still is not the highest of all his releases but still a great song nonetheless. This song is a work of art, demonstrating the fine line between happiness and sadness as the song has many highs and lows to paint this picture. The album cover perfectly represents that fine line between light and dark as a hand reaches out to invite him to the darkness, but Harry stays in the light.
Harry Styles has been in the music industry starting with his debut at 16 years old on X-Factor UK, later joining the boy band One Direction, and now as a solo artist absolutely excelling in his career. He most recently won album of the year at the 2023 Grammys for his 2022 album, Harry’s House, with 8.3 million streams on release day.
I remember my first meaningful interaction with Fine Line like it was yesterday. My friends and I went on a trip for spring break, right before we left for college, and my friend had begun feeling the sadness of college even prior to her commitment. This was a very overwhelming feeling for her, being unsure of the future course of her life. In order to calm these nerves, she elected to lie down on the pavement just staring at the stars above. I elected to lay right next to her to remind her that we have not gone our separate ways just yet and no matter what she will still have me to rely on. This slowly transformed into our song. We’d listen to it when we were sad about college to remind ourselves that we would always still be here for one another. Unfortunately, plans did not play out the way I had intended where I am no longer as close to her, but the calming ability of this song still remains.
I play this song to calm myself for bed, after receiving unfortunate news, or just when I want to listen to an amazing song. This song will be here for me even when others aren’t and that’s part of why I love it.
In the video of the dog on the beach, I was extremely overwhelmed with emotions and was having a minor anxiety attack, to calm myself down I took a walk to the beach, simply watched the dog playing with his toy, listening to Fine Line, Harry reminding myself that “We’ll be alright”. The melody puts me in an extreme state of relaxation that I encourage others to find as well.
Fine Line is the song that played as my friends as I said our final goodbyes before heading to college. In this video, you can see me comforting the friend who first introduced this song to me. This was a full-circle moment due to my first associated memory and the next most prominent one. Despite the fact that we have gone our separate paths and ended up in different schools, in different states, we know “We’ll be alright” and we will see each other again. My friends and I have Fine Line, but I challenge you to find yours.
I am not a Harry Styles stan, but still appreciate some of his music. I like the way you emotively describe your passion for his discography, and how it relates to your personal life. I have never actually heard of Fine Line in particular until this blog post, but I listened to it and it isn’t half bad!
This was such a sweet blog post! One of my best friend’s is absolutely OBSESSED with Harry Styles, so I’m forced to listen to a lot of his music, though this is a song I don’t think I’ve heard yet. I definitely will give it a listen and will probably think of this blog post, and see how the song could be special to me. Goodbyes aren’t easy, and going to college can be hard on friendships and relationships, though I think that there’s something about friends that you grew up with during your teenage years that holds a very special place, and I’m sure that if you’d ever like to rekindle your friendship with your “Fine Line” friend, it will work out!
Thank you so much for sharing this story, and for adding the video of the dog! It brought me much needed joy on this gloomy day.
Leah, I loved reading about your association with this song! I am not sure what my friends and I’s farewell song is, but it might be Photo ID by Remi Wolf, not because of any particular lyrics but just because I associate that song with our girl’s trip to Puerto Rico. It’s nice to think about how music can bring people together and how much a simple song can mean to each of us.
I had never listened to this song before, but I couldn’t agree more about the calming and relaxing nature of it. I have had a bit of a rough week, and this song was actually very good at clearing my head. While not this exact song, I personally do have songs that capture a similar emotion from the time of saying goodbye to my high school friends before leaving for college. Such a large change was a bit of an emotional time, but having good music to get through it with was very helpful.
I think everybody has songs that remind them of tender times in their lives. People who aren’t musicians or don’t consider themselves huge “music people” still form deep connections to songs written by people they don’t even know. I completely understand the feeling of a song coming on and having nearly automatic feelings consume you. I saw that you wrote a blog on Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” and funny enough, that is a song that has immediate meaning and feelings for me. I’m personally not a huge Harry Styles fan, but I love having insight into why other people love the artists that they do. Certain songs have the ability to remind me of specific moments of my life whether they are happy, sad, shocking, or scary, but that is one of the reasons why I love music too. Sometimes music reminds me of what is important to me.