Music surrounds our daily lives. It’s become something that is important to contributing to our cultures, and essentially, the evolution of our cultures. Not only does music verbally communicate relatable moods and emotions, but it is also a way to express and characterize a person for who they are and what they are like.

Recently, there have been releases on top of releases of up-and-coming music coming from all spectrums of the music genre such as hip hop, r&b, pop, alternative/indie rock, and electronic. Here, I give you the recent releases of new albums and a little description of each:

01. The Life of Pablo by Kanye (Hip Hop)

Through little spurts of gospel choruses and features of multiple different artists who have a big influence on the modern music community, Yeezy presents an album of the idea of a working piece. He’s playing on the idea that his album isn’t perfect, but not everybody is perfect either. Much like an artist such as a painter, he is constantly making changes and improvements to the tracks.

02. Anti by Rihanna (Pop, R&B)

As always, Rihanna always gives her best efforts to producing such quality music featuring her spot-on vocals and confidence. In general, the rhythm and the beats are dynamic yet depressing at the same time. According to Wikipedia, the “producers incorporated dark, sparsely layered, minimalist song structures, while most of Anti‘s lyrics dealt with the complexities of romantic love and self-assurance.”

03. I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it by the 1975 (Indie Rock, Pop)

Relying on an 80’s vibe accompanied by the tunes of some funky beats, the 1975 is literally killing the music game with a reinvented sound to their being. The band’s sound transitioned from being grunge and electronic to funky and groovy. With some songs dedicated to the 80’s pop culture, there are a few also devoted to mostly serene and peaceful sounds with a couple of lyrics.

04. Not to Disappear by Daughter (Alternative Pop)

Dedicating her music to peaceful beats and an almost-lullaby voice, Tonra of Daughter branches on from the same themes in her first album, If You Leave. This time, she speaks for the universality of the emotional situations she sings about. She strives for relatability and sings of the truth, even if it sounds bleak and gloomy.

05. Long Way Home by Låpsley (Electronic)

“Long Way Home is not the most lyrically complex album — most of the songs find the singer sifting through the wreckage of young romance — so her ability to communicate a deeper range of emotions through her voice alone is a saving grace.” With her tracks composed with her laptop, Låpsley essentially explores her true meaning of self-expression through pairings of organic sounds with the “aggressively synthetic soundscapes normally associated with electronic music” (Consequence of Sound).
Although it is a varied range of music, all equally unique and different from each other, people are prone to listen to what they like and what they are familiar with. Justine Lee (12) includes that “Although some may say that music quality is deteriorating in reference to artists such as Rihanna or Kanye West, I believe that music is simply evolving the way the rest of our world is. I may not be a fan of all ew music, but if it’s truly inspiring and people can relate to it, I think that it should all be respected.” Perfectly said, Justine. And there you have it, the recent releases of up-and-coming music of 2016.