Thursday: Creating Memories
By: Karla Aguilar
Hozier
Overall: Hozier’s alternative chill upbeat music makes me picture driving in my nonexistent car in the summer at sunset. Although I haven’t heard of his songs in general, he is a nice artist and I’m looking forward to seeing his performance in the future.
Details: Some things that I didn’t necessarily love are some of the sub genres that some of his songs have like “Damage Gets Done” (ft. Brandi Carlile).It doesn’t fit my music taste. A thing that I like about his music is how relaxing most of his music is.
Top song: “Take Me To Church”
Underrated song: “Movement”
Tyler, the Creator
Overall: Tyler, the Creator’s mix of hip-hop and rap over the years have proven to be interesting and shows his rise to just making music with his friends in the past and jumping to now, performing to thousands at not only Lollapalooza but at Coachella as well. Depending on which era of his music you catch yourself reminiscing about nostalgic summers or vibing to his questionable rap songs.
Details: Although I have frequently listened to his music in the past, I’m not a big fan of his older music. When I listened to “Domo23” for the first time, I didn’t really like it, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I do like his album “Flower Boy” the most. I just love listening to that album at any time of the day.
Top Song: “See You Again” (Ft. Kali Uchis)
Underrated: “Foreword” (Ft. Rex Orange County)
Friday: Straying Into New Genres
By: Zoe Clark
SZA
Overall: SZA’s chill music but still meaningful lyrics are in tune with the vibe of our age group, which is definitely a reason why she is so popular today. She could be placed into the alternative R&B genre of music with her smooth and low-key production and vocals with a reverberated sense.
Details: SZA has very catchy music overall, and it’s easy to find a song you like in her discography. She made herself a place in the music world by twisting genres and making songs her own, something very impressive and hard to pull off well. My only complaint is that I think SZA should expand more, a lot of her songs sound similar if you put lyrics aside.
Top Song: “Kill Bill”
Underrated: “Ghost in the Machine” (Ft. Phoebe Bridgers)
Stray Kids
Overall: Stray Kids has a very “in-your-face” kind of music style. As one of the more well-known male groups, their dances have gotten them a lot of attention. Being in the K-pop genre, they have made themselves known for mixing with a more electronic and hip hop kind of background to be their signature style.
Details: Their music is good and their choreography along with it is also great, but their type of music isn’t my favorite. It doesn’t grab my attention standing alone.
Top Song: “God’s Menu”
Underrated: “Mixtape : OH”
Saturday: A Boomin’ Weekend
By: Emma Starkey
The Killers
Overall: The Killers sports a varied discography that progresses from a more guitar based alt rock style to a more modern synthesized instrumental style that draws influences from disco. There is some level of uniqueness, but mostly fall into a more straightforward type of artist. They have cultivated a specific sound associated with them, and play around within that specific sandbox instead of branching out to try different styles.
Details: I found some songs incredibly well mixed and audibly interesting. I definitely prefer when they get creative with the instrumentals to the moments they seem to recede into a more straightforward song.
Top Song: “Mr. Brightside”
Underrated: “A Dustland Fairytale”
Future x Metro Boomin’
Overall: The duo act of Future and Metro Boomin’ is a blended genre of hip-hop and rap. Metro Boomin’ provides the instrumentals and mixing, while Future provides the vocals. They find a niche in their down-tempo style of production, which is relatively unique for their two genres.
Details: Some songs showed good use of sampling, drum kits and balance; others faltered from the loss of clear vocals leaving the words hard to understand. The slower pace, while original, also
left most songs feeling quite boring to listen to. It is great for background, but not something that would fall into any sort of conversation about liveliness.
Top Song: “Like That” (Ft. Kendrick Lamar)
Underrated: “Seen It All”
Sunday: Beaming Through Blink
By: Aaron Alvarez
Blink-182
Overall: Blink-182 gives what you might expect from your normal punk band: a rebellious, simple three or four chord progression, and your perfect trio of a drum set, bass and electric guitar. The clearness of the vocals and the memorable lines of lyrics are why Blink is so popular today.
Details: Blink has catchy music in the sense of it’s not just certain lyrics that are an ear worm for people, but certain intros or even guitar riffs are too. If you like punk rock then I would certainly suggest that you try to listen to Blink-182.
Top Song: “All the Small Things”
Underrated: “I’m Lost Without You”
Melanie Martinez
Overall: Melanie Martinez is a pop artist that has taken her own little spin on the genre when it comes to love songs. Her songs are not just simple and catchy in the sense that they use the same four chords as every other pop song out there.
Details: I focused more on Melanie’s instrumentals than her voice. The music and vocals aren’t competing to be heard and are just coexisting with each other which is what makes her music good.
Top Song: “Play Date”
Underrated: “Recess”
