I listen to a shitload of new music/new artists every year and I guess I now technically qualify as “older”. I know that metal isn’t everyone’s cuppa AND I know that the kind of metal I like is prolly the least-accessible to the average person, so I’ll skip that and tell y’all about my favorite new-to-me music I found this year: hardbass.
Hardbass comes from Russia; it’s a kind of techno/EDM thatt features very fast BPM, squonky donk bass noises and a cheeky sense of ennui, hopefulness and self-deprecating humor. It is aggressively party music. Here’s some standout tunes:
I also discovered that there is a thriving rock/rap/nü metal? scene in Russia, and some of it is pretty freaking good. It’s heavy-testosterone-music for sure but most of it seems to have the same sort of self-awareness that permeates the hardbass scene, altho with more masks; here’s a few:
I think Chris Stapleton is an amazing talent. A few of my favorite songs in recent years were released by Aviici (RIP), one featured singer Aloe Blacc who is really great. I’m not sure Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande have redeemed themselves from their bratty stages but I love their voices. Billie Eilish has a beautiful voice too. Taylor Swift has made some songs I really enjoy, I admire her too as a person. There are many others that I can’t say I know their body of work to admire but they have had a song or two at least that I know and like. Lewis Capaldi (Someone You Loved), Ingrid Andress (More Hearts than Mine), The Weeknd (Can’t Feel My Face).
In my younger years when I spent a lot of time commuting to work, I kept up by scanning the radio for something that sounded good. Then I went through a long phase where I just wanted quiet, I think I was just too anxious and stressed a lot. But now that I’m not working (yay!) I have more mental bandwidth to notice, I guess. I’ve found some artists I like when they get covered on shows like American Idol or Masked Singer, and I go looking for the original. Or I hear them on a commercial or soundtrack, or see a mention on social media that catches my attention. I’m glad new music appeals to me again.
To be honest, I don’t know what I listen to most of the time these days. Probably 95% of my music listening is one of the streaming channels on YouTube (or multi-hour recorded sessions), such as:
It’s basically ambient, instrumental music that’s minimally distracting. The artists/albums are provided, but I don’t pay much attention. Without vocals it’s hard to even figure out which tracks are by the same artists.
I like Joey Alexander a lot. Also, Pentatonix and Postmodern Jukebox. I like that one song, S.O.B., by Nathaniel Rateliff, but can’t seem to find a second one by him that’s quite as good.
I occasionally discover “new” musical acts but in checking for this thread have discovered that most of them had already been around for ages before I discovered them - Jon Hopkins, Queens of the Stone Age (“Lullabies to Paralyze” remains one of my absolute favorite albums), The Seatbelts and so forth. I guess Postmodern Jukebox counts, as does Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (a bandname that’s always fun to say).
But most new pop/rock music remains decidedly unimpressive. I could probably also throw in Sheku Kanneh-Mason in the non-pop realm.
I like Monster Truck and The Beaches seem to produce some tasty pop sounds, but the group that really caught my interest was The Regrettes (as I said in my post - …clicking on links (and sometimes spending a few hours clicking on other links at those links and so on and so on…)).
I also stumbled on a very nice cover of Fleetwod Mac’sOh Well by Haim.
One way I like to find new music is to rely on others to sort through the chaff for me. At the end of every year plenty of places publish “best music of the year” lists. Out of 100 songs, I may find perhaps 10 that I like. But that’s due to the wide variety of genres these lists cover, so I don’t think 10% is bad, and I do get to listen to things I wouldn’t normally consider.
Amy Winehouse’s voice I can distinguish from some of the others. Adele, Pink, Norah Jones, Lady Gaga, Jewel, Gwen Stefani, Cardi B, Rihanna etc. all run together for me.
Also have been out of the loop since mid 90’s (didn’t even recognize ‘I believe I can fly’ ). Lately I’m getting to know newer music through by kids, and also a piano learning app (Dust Buster 2) that covers several songs from the likes of Taylor Swift, Kate Perry, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran. My children tend to listen to EDM, artists that compose game music (for example Marshmello, NightKilla, TheFatRat, Realistik).
Besides that my newer listens are fairly limited, although sttreaming services (Tidal) help to discover more. I like Adele, Zaza, Regina Spector. I still have trouble keeping newer artists apart: the music all seems the same, there is very little that stands out. That may simply be the effect of age, though.
Age 47 here. I like to start off my week with what I affectionately call “Shitty Music Mondays” – Spotify refreshes their weekly recommendations, I listen to them on my commute and think “WTF does Spotify think I even enjoy?” twenty-eight times and “Hey, this ain’t bad” maybe twice.
A number of people I liked have already been mentioned: The Regrettes, Phantogram, Best Coast, Bleached, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and others. I’d add Marggaret Glaspy, Alice Merton, Kitten, Thelma Plum and probably a small army of artists where I have one track Liked but haven’t actually delved into their whole catalog. I saw this thread and didn’t answer at first because sometimes I just don’t know. I might think “Hey, this is good” and see it was from 2007 and once I got some year end Spotify “Award” for being among the first 500 people to like a new song.
I notice that every artist I listed was a woman or woman-fronted band. I do have some male singers in there but they mainly fall into the “random tracks” category. I’ll call out Brendan Maclean as someone I picked up a couple tracks by and hope he falls into the post-2010 range.
I forgot to mention how much I like Jain. She is French and spent a considerable amount of her youth in Africa (more than one country, I believe). Her rhythms are wonderful and got me interested in looking for African artists. Here is her ode to **Miriam Makeba**.
Even most of the stuff I consider “new” isn’t really new, sadly. As far as newer artists, I really like Billie Eilish. Was going to say Birthday Massacre, but they formed in 1999 so they don’t count. I like some of Adele’s and Lady Gaga’s stuff. Can’t really think of much else–most of my musical tastes run to older stuff.
Mine is obsessed with game music and songs about games (e.g. Random Encounters, JT Music). I have to admit that I like some of those but I’m not sure I’d seek them out.
On Facebook I posted a link on a “what are you listening to” thread to a new song by progressive metal/fusion band Thank You Scientist (who apparently formed in 2009 so don’t technically count), and several people replied that it sounded like a game song, which I totally couldn’t see, but I guess if you listen to game music all the time that might make sense.
That also reminded me that while I like new bands and new genres of music, I had thought that my friends tastes in genre had ossified in the early 2000s with nu metal being the last genre they took a liking to. But some of them do like game music now that you mention it, even putting it on as background music to play board games/RPGs to.
Here’s some standout tunes:
