Picking The Perfect Wedding Music: Through the History of Love Songs!

by Arthur Grainger July 17, 2022

Wedding Music

Picking the right music for your wedding can be hard, but today we are going to try and help by showing you some great love songs from the classical era of music right up until the modern day! You can choose a playlist to cater to a particular era or throw them all into a big pot of great music to make you feel the love on your special day!

Classic Music

Via:CMUSE

Classical music is great if you want to stick to the simple bread and butter of a simple or traditional wedding which will not take away from the main event, but add to it. There are soo many great pieces done of the centuries that we really would need a post just dedicated to listing them -and then we still would be several more volumes! So to make things easy we have listed just a few iconic songs you could consider adding to your wedding playlist.

Classical is particularly good for the reception and the bridal walk, and then you could consider modern music from the last 120 years for the after-party. It is also good if you want a romantic dance after you have tied the knot!

The 1900s

Via: Ars Technica

In the late 1890s, there was a change in the way love songs were written, gone were the days of grand love ballads as at the turn of the century there was a birth in new songs. The 1900s saw the rise of the Ragtime era was shorter lyrics that were punchier and explored different themes surrounding love. Here you might find the perfect love song to add to your wedding playlist!

The 1910s

Via: Platendraaier

Moving into the 1910s! Love songs are similar to those from the 1900s, but they started to shift towards less about the grand gestures and confessions of love. Their subject matter is more personal full of sentiment, bittersweet sadness, and a nostalgia for young love. It is about the couples themselves, learning to deal with their physical and gender differences in the budding relationships, or looking back at simpler times before marriage.

The 1920s

Via: liveabout.com

In the 1920s music broke into the recording industry and started to become more easily assessable than before. More and more people started to compose and sing songs and as a result many genres sprung up in the wake of wars end. Jazz, blues, swing, dance band, and Ragtime (just to name a few) were in popular demand! These types of love songs during this swinging era was a similar sentiment to the 1910s as songs celebrated love, although with a lot more light-hearted tone likely in response to the end of wartime.

1930s

Via: reddit.com

At the end of the 1920s and right through until the 1930s was a rebellious nature in music as society and in turn love and romance changed as well! Set to the backdrop of the Great Depression love songs helped people get through hard times and hope for something better in their future. Or, that the great love that they have survived. With the birth of Hollywood in this period and the invetion of home radios, music became a commertaised affair with some of the first big household names and heart throbs.

1940s

Via:goldbass.com.au

With the break of World War II in 1939 the world was thrown into a time of uncertainty and heartache and thus music reflected this. Big bands were a popular staple of this period and artists flocked to try and uplift the mood of their audiences to focus on the beauty of love, and celebrate the little moments lovers have before they might be torn appart by war. Of coruse there were also themes present in earlier periods involving love songs in the 1940s.

1950s

Via:Rolling Stone

With the end of war came a decade of peace, iconic cultural trends, and famous faces with the rise of visual and auidible technologies. Here is where some of the most amazing love songs were written and performed! There is the rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Rhythm and Blues, and recognition to ‘black’ singers who are finally starting to get more rights as the rigid systems of segregation in the US are breaking. The economy was great and it was a time of hope for everyone and this is reflected in the love songs of the age.

1960s

Via: slate.com

The more the years go by on this list the more songs I have to include. The 1960s saw perhaps the most drastic change in society by far up till this point, culture is thrown on its head and does away with the refined conservative traditions upheld until the late 1950s. The youth of the 1950s and late 1940s who had lived through the end of a war and into an era of peace listening to radically new music were not content with upholding tradtion. They were also particularly discontent with the older generations throwing away the peace with the Vietnam war and the assasination of JFK. Thus came the rise of new hairstyles, clothing, and music.

1970s

Via: Pitchfork

The 1970s is often regarded as an ease from a rough period of rebellion in the 1960s as culture was still ever changing, but this became the era of peace and disco music. Big hair styles, flayed trousers, glowing material, and some of the most memorable love songs come from this period. It bridged the hippies of the 1960s to the 1980s yuppie lifestyle.

1980s

Via: cleveland.com

The 1980s was truly a remarkable time, nothing was understated. In the music world it was about standing out from the crowd in both vocal performance, and the way the artist presented themselves. Thus, the types of love songs which came out at this time were a biprotuct of writers living in a time of great prosperity and through the development of new genres including Hip-hop and Hair Metal.

1990s

Via: udiscovermusic.com

Music of the 1990s was it most varied than it have ever been. Electronic music grew in popularity, but love songs were generally still sung as they were done in the previous decades before. Love songs had come a long way, but were still innately the same as they had been in the 1900s. Still a heartfelt declaration of love, a cry for love to find them, or to lament on nostalgia.

2000s - Now (Modern Bops!)

Via: Billboard

And we near the end of this list, with music of the last 22 years there has been a lot of rise and falls in the world of music styles. There are soo many beautiful love songs that I have listed just a snap shot of from each decade. This express the variety of genre, subject, and singer with no clear theme of trend as was observed a century ago. Love is still the same and it is beautiful.

2000s

2010s

2020s

Final Remarks

elle

Via: elle.com

God speed your journey to finding the greatest wedding music! This was just a very brief snapshot into the history of music and a hand-picked selection of some of the love songs of that era. You can throw these all into a single playlist if you want, or you could create certain themes and have several playlists. Eitherway, we hope you learnt something and that you are on your way to finding the magnum opus of your bridal walk, or that perfect banger to dance to at the after party.