Lesser-Known Musical Artists

There are thousands of artists out there in every genre, ensuring that there’s always something new to listen to. Unfortunately, most people tend to stick with the same few artists in the same few genres. It’s important to listen to new things and broaden your horizons, but branching out and finding new artists to listen to can be difficult when you don’t know what to listen to.

Luckily, everyone has different music tastes, and asking others can be a good way to find new things that interest you. However, it’s also annoying to hear the same few recommendations for the same few artists over and over again. I asked the students of Kenmore West for artists that they enjoyed listening to that weren’t as mainstream or popular as many other artist recommendations tend to be.

The agreed-upon definition of non-mainstream music was “Music that is not played on the radio or artists that are unknown by the general public.” On the other hand, mainstream music is defined as “Artists that are known by the general public and are heard on the radio often.”

According to the survey, the most popular genre is Pop, with artists like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, and Charli XCX being very popular. Each artist has a strong fan base of younger people and tackles tough topics within their music. The second most popular genre was a tie between Indie and Rock, with a huge variety of artists brought up as favorites. 

When looking at responses for artists that aren’t “mainstream” genres vary depending on the respondent. 

If you’re a fan of rock or metal, multiple students recommended artists like Andrew Stein, The All-American Rejects, and Mötorhead. These artists are known for writing songs with strong beats and are a great start to getting more into non-mainstream rock artists.

If you’re more of a country fan, quite a few students put in a recommendation for Megan Moroney, a new artist starting to come into popularity through her songwriting and guitar skills. Her most popular song, “Tennessee Orange,” has 300,400,105 streams on Spotify. However, her other songs have anywhere from 300,000 to 24,000,000 streams.

If you’re looking for a more unknown genre, there were a few people that listed Bardcore music and Nordic music as a great option to branch out into new genres. Bardcore, a genre of music that gained popularity in 2020, consists of medieval remakes of popular music. 

Remember that there’s always new music out there, and while it can be fun to stick to the same artists, it’s good to try something new. Reach out, ask your friends for recommendations, don’t hide your own interests from others, and don’t be embarrassed by what you listen to. Music is about having fun, so listen to what you want, but don’t forget that there’s always more out there.