The moody bassline delivers a melody to curl up in and brood, while the uptempo beat towards the end is a reminder that even loneliness ends. The unrelenting drums are a perfect match for the field recordings of glacial melt that Owens sprinkles in for ambience and texture, her shuffling hi-hats pinging across the tundra.
Thundercat has Dragon Ball Z tattoos all over his body. On the track, the L. The goal is out of sight, the means absurd. With the touring industry stalled in , it seemed like every rapper on Earth tried to make up for the loss with their very own digital deluxe reissue, padding out recent albums with extra tracks.
For the most part, though, quality lacked. Only one artist made his album better with its deluxe edition: Lil Baby, who added a number of great songs to My Turn. Baby plays the elder statesman on the quietly menacing track, rapping more ferociously than usual while letting Dugg take the lead.
Take chances, live life, and dance as much as possible. Earl Sweatshirt and Maxo have both made their homes in the rain-blurred realm where raps feel like unspoken thoughts, where beats resemble humming machinery a block away—a world of smudged loops, two or three notes long, punctured by diaristic jottings that flash like lightning.
In another year, its layered guitar work and massive drums would have prompted massive pits and reckless stage dives at outdoor music festivals. Hopefully, for Dogleg, that future involves kids doing literal backflips into much bigger crowds. All you can do is bask in the power of Flo Milli shit. She has a rare ability to connect the fragmented images passing by the window to what she feels inside: She shows us funnel clouds dropping from the sky, a slaughterhouse, and a shopping mall, and turns each into a signpost for her own confusion.
As the song builds, despair is tempered by a burst of energy that hints at survival. Pop music loves to memorialize doomed romances and terrible exes; the genre offers considerably less for failed friendships. It serves as the grand finale to an especially intimate folk song, hinting at the virtuosic talent he often keeps behind the scenes. Set to walls of guitar and synth hooks, his lyrics contain a nod to the music that inspired him as a Black teenager interested in punk and indie, and to the unfulfilling jobs he worked for years to pay the bills before quitting to focus on performing and producing.
Not any more than someone who manages to make jeans and a T-shirt look beautiful. And it only takes her a minute. One thing nine months more or less alone reveals is whom to miss and whom to let go. Always ahead of his time, Shamir wrote an anthem for figuring this out before lockdown; lucky for us, he released it just as the loneliness really set in. In a year defined by dancing on your own, Shamir made it sound like self-actualization. The real magic is the winking humility of the image in the mirror: a woman criticized endlessly for being too rich and too gauche who knows that living well is still the best revenge.
So too will she. Like a gentle river, time passing slowly is better than it not passing at all. Lil Uzi Vert just beamed down in a pair of Balenciaga jeans that cost more than your biweekly paycheck before taxes , and he is ready to rap. But time and time again, his efforts to rendezvous with his digital paramour are interrupted by real-life obstacles, from locked hotel rooms to the awkwardness of online intimacy.
Over beachy guitar riffs and bouncy hand claps, singer-bassist Emily Kempf expresses a desire to detach herself from the limitations of relationships, painting separation as a bittersweet opportunity for growth. The difference between independence and loneliness, Dehd suggest, is your relationship with yourself. Even this stylish opportunist has still got some charisma left. Lil Durk]. You might consider this as kind of like one of those pop-punk covers of turn-of-the-millennium hits gone spectacularly right.
But as the barbed guitar riffs and methodical bass plucks give way to a chorus made for a hot-pink dressing room montage scene played at 1. Tamara Lindeman sketches out a villain—the titular thief, silent and cool—before lifting the veil on larger forces at work: laws, banks, a rotten system that forces people to act in their own self-interest.
By the time "Robber" reaches its urgent climax, Lindeman has transformed a personal reckoning with societal failures into a reflective prompt for the listener. Can you blame yourself for ruthlessness if you were never given a choice?
While she luxuriates in the heady, horny stuff of the verses—of perfect symmetry and blown candles—the beat throbs with lockstep control, less feeling love than meaning business.
Curtis Waters's active promotion of his song "Stunnin" ft. Herm Franklin 1. The bedroom pop riser built a large audience k followers by engaging with his fans and debuting snippets of new music , including his viral single " Dancing In My Room " 1. A rising pop star whose hit "Figure It Out" has over k video creations and 20 million Spotify streams, Blu DeTiger moonlights as TikTok's favorite bassist, shredding to songs of all genres.
Written in , Taylor's emotional ballad "Surrender" became one of TikTok's most popular songs of over 5 million video creations , offering a poignant soundtrack to emotional stories. It's important to point out that these artists are just a small fraction of the emerging artists who made a major impact on the platform.
A meme, trend, or song created on TikTok can quickly morph from an in-joke to a nationwide phenomenon. As the pandemic forced the live music industry inside for , TikTok offered a wide variety of at-home entertainment to give artists an opportunity to showcase their talents, execute their vision, and interact with fans.
Throughout , TikTok took steps to honor the subcultures that make the community special, with music playing a major role. Below, take a look at some of the ways music helped shape TikTok's cultural initiatives. BlackMusicMonth : Throughout the month of June, TikTok celebrated BlackMusicMonth by special programming to celebrate and highlight Black artists' contribution to music on the platform.
TikTok partnered with some of music's most legendary acts to bring their music to the platform, recontextualizing their artistic legacies with short-form videos and kickstarting new trends with classic songs. Artists like Prince and Queen made their mark on the platform with dramatic entrances and others like John Lennon "Beautiful Boy" and Oasis "Wonderwall" scored viral hits from their catalog. Below, check out some TikTok accounts that help bolster the legacy of icons.
Elton John. John Lennon. George Michael. It's become almost frightening to listen to Grimes ' end of the world masterpiece Miss Anthropocene since it was released in February, considering it dropped just a month out from when the pandemic hit the US, which has at times eerily feel like the end. Songs like "My Name is Dark," which play into the album's concept of succumbing to AI technology and letting the world go up in flames, feel especially dark—but it's just that much more potent.
Drawing from nu metal, the screams and screeches in the song's production sound like the final moments of an annihilation, and Grimes' girlish voice tricks you into thinking this is a fun pop song when she's really relaying snarky remarks from our new overlords or whatever. There's a part where she hisses, "The angel of death, she said to God, 'Un-fuck the world, un-fuck the world, you stupid girl," and Grimes and her AI persona WarNymph make that rallying cry in the song pretty damn convincing.
On the track, the sister trio exchanges funk for dance to create one of their most electronica-heavy songs ever. The production is spritely and scattered, bouncing manically in opposition to the lyrics that delicately detail an all-consuming loneliness "I know alone like no one else does".
It may seem dismal, but the hushed way Danielle relays her words paired with the playful production invites one to think that the song could also be about finding comfort in how we each cope—because, in truth, we all "know alone" in one way or another. As many of us are isolated right now, dealing with the current crisis on our own, it's the perfect song to illuminate some sort of goodness that's to come.
When Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams announced her debut solo album Petals for Armor , it was highly anticipated enough as is. Then she announced it included a collaboration with boygenius , the supergroup from Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus, and the buzz grew even louder.
The result might not be what you'd expect from either artist, but is somehow even more beautiful. The gentle song uses a garden as a metaphor for femininity—both how lovely it can be and the way it can be picked apart—and through gorgeous harmonies and the way its strings crescendo, it manages to capture the understated strength of something that's soft. This number from Spanish four-piece Hinds may be about "bad times," but it's a swaying pop song that actually sounds like a lovely time.
It's a dichotomy the extremely charismatic indie rock band has mastered, making loud, buoyant garage music that's often about loneliness and anxiety. It slips in between English and Spanish, like how the song itself is a back-and-forth in a relationship that might not be as ideal as it seems. It's the kind of glistening number you should twirl around to once you take off those rose-colored shades yourself and need a little pick-me-up. It may be less rock influenced than the indie group's past releases, but it's got a razor-sharp edge in its vulnerability.
Few fans are as faithful as Jay Electronica 's. It makes sense that fans would hold out for Electronica since he's proven to be one of rap's most overlooked greats, but it's funny that they kept their faith considering much of his record is powered by rhymes about his own religion. One of the album's most impeccable songs, "Ghosts of Soulja Slim," is a joint with JAY and explores the relationship between Electronica's identity and Islam. The fantasy of being dressed to the nines, making eyes at a a beautiful strangers across a disco-ball lit club, and meeting them at the center of the dance floor—it lives in British singer-songwriter Jessie Ware 's "Soul Control" where it transcends fantasy to feel like an exciting possibility.
Ware sings about having a connection so strong with someone that it takes over their soul, which sounds about right, since this beat is irresistible. Like some sort of disco sorceress, one listen and Ware could put you in a trance to get glammed up and ready to boogie, if only for the thrill of it all. This song from beloved pop-punk mainstays Joyce Manor isn't necessarily new.
It's actually quite old, being a more than year-old fan favorite that the group sometimes roars out at live gigs to open up the pit. The oldie had yet to be officially released until this year, though, on a compilation of old recordings made new.
It just passes the one-minute mark typical for the band , but bursting with the energy of the group when they were young punks still playing house shows across Southern California. Even as the band and their fanbase ages, we could all use that unrestrained energy. There's a meme on the sad-core spaces of the internet that contrasts "the rewards of being loved" with "the mortifying ordeal of being known"—which is to say that being vulnerable is terrifying, but so is letting somebody love all of the parts of you, and that comes with a whole lot of beauty.
On "Darkness," a song re-released on Australian experimentalist Katie Dey 's album Mydata , Dey is the one yearning to know everything there is to know of her lover, even the darkest parts.
Otherworldly strings and synths offset the lyrics sung in Dey's signature crackled voice "If I could just reflect all of your self destruction and complacence" , and resemble heavenly bodies she presumably passes as a "far out satellite" listening for her loved one's "brain waves" before they blast off into the darkness together.
It's unique and earnest, but ultimately we all crave somebody to fight through the black holes in the galaxies of our lives with. The opener of her star-making record It Was Good Until It Wasn't is called "Toxic," a word people tend to throw around when talking about both truly unhealthy circumstances and relationships gone sour that might've benefited from a little self-reflection.
It's something Kehlani recognizes, bringing heaps of vulnerability to this stripped-back song, looking to herself and her lover's manipulation as to why she needs to sober up from a relationship that was clouded by Don Julio and sex. The transparency of her lyrics are so potent, she'll have you grieving too. Lomelda 's "Hannah Sun" is seeped in a blue reflection, the kind that comes when you're still mourning a relationship.
But just when you think the song is bound to wrap up as a somber indie ballad, a glimmer of a synthesizer introduces its final act: Read's directive to herself, "Hannah, do no harm. Could there be a more perfect pop pairing than Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande? Their collab, "Rain On Me," for Gaga's long-awaited return to dance pop Chromatica , is almost reason for any duets in the works to be scrapped because no one will be able to top this.
While the two occupy different lanes of pop, they're longtime admirers of each other's work, two of the biggest divas in the game, and known forces of good—meaning, the result is obviously a delightful rhapsody about persevering through personal hardship "I'd rather be dry, but at least I'm alive".
Gaga collaborator and major producer BloodPop sprinkles down a dance track that eventually hits like lightning, and their two voices are the claps of thunder. There's no way Ari and Gaga's joy won't wash over you too. The lyric could take you out with the punch of its vigor. The succinct line encapsulates something all too familiar for women, and on the transfixing song that pulls from indigenous elements, the rising Latin star couldn't have articulated these feelings better. Backed by the layered production, it's as if generations that came before her support her as she confidently iterates how fearless she is.
There's a beauty in her confrontation. Lil Uzi Vert 's spaceship officially blasted off this year. The hardcore-influenced, anime-loving rapper's sci-fi-themed sophomore album Eternal Atake arrived as a surprise release in March—dodging meteorites of label disputes and personal delays to finally satellite this bizarro rap to patient fans down on Earth.
One of the muted numbers on the record, "I'm Sorry," runs in a different lane than usual, but it's a sweet rap ballad that sees the hip-hop artist as a boy band heartthrob worth falling for. His typically quick bars are turned into a sing-song rasp as he sincerely apologizes to all the pain he's caused a lover; so figure it's destined to become a sad boy anthem. Utilizing scattered but subtle video game music-inspired production, it's a song that sounds like it was meant to soundtrack a fan-made compilation of clips from a romance anime, and that's a very good thing.
Late indie rap champion Mac Mille r's first posthumous release "Good News" arrived early in , about a year and a half since the recording artist unexpectedly died of a drug overdose at years-old in Off his record Circles , the song is a quieted pondering of trying to relieve himself of negativity, delivered in the flavor of his early discography's lo-fi sound.
It feels particularly somber now, knowing the artist was continually searching for a remedy to his sadness. With its minimal but gentle qualities and Miller's familiar sing-song rasp, the song sounds like the goodness he was looking for.
Is it or ? This song from Machine Gun Kelly would have you believe it's the latter, considering it sounds like it should've been the biggest song on TRL's music video countdown for weeks and the song blasting on every scene kid's Myspace page—which is the highest of compliments!
MGK's been playing with hardcore aesthetics for years, but all the former? Sounding like a teenaged fantasy, the song's only flaw is the impossibility of getting to rock out to it after seeing your name on your crush's Top 8.
While Queen Bey may not be a rapper first and foremost, she is Queen Bey and can definitely spit some bars whenever she sees fit—like on the remix of Megan Thee Stallion 's hit "Savage. The simple piano beat remains the same, but the result of the two Houston icons joining forces is pure bliss as Bey hops back on the rap saddle to deliver some confident, streamlined verses. At once point she touts, "I'm a bad bitch, she's a savage, no comparison here," and it's true—together they sound free to be feeling themselves, and invite you to do the same.
The shock value and persona was always there—the music just had to catch up, and it did on this year's Plastic Hearts with great results. Her collaboration with punk hero Billy Idol is an utter pop-rock blast. It resembles an '80s hit that would have gone on to become a go-to sing-along at seedy bars everywhere.
In the synths and powerhouse of a chorus, there's danger at every turn—but the kind that's seductive enough that you'd follow it down whatever dark alley it takes you. We should be forever grateful these two icons teamed up. Falling for someone is terrifying. It's called falling for a reason: opening yourself up to someone else and the fear of what could or could not be can feel like pummelling through space without the security of a safe landing.
They earnestly ask, "Am I loveless? For the years corresponding with MRC Data tabulation, onward, the rankings are based on accumulated radio and sales points, and points from other data sets, including streaming, included in the Hot during those years. B feat. Kanye West. Search term. Billboard Pro Subscribe Sign In. Top Artists.
0コメント