young friend – ENDLESS
Genre: Bedroom / Lo-fi Pop, Alt Pop
Similar artists: Dominic Fike, bennytheghost, KALI, remy
Pop stars aren’t made like you and me. That is, at least, what the reps of the actual pop stars would want you to believe. Start thinking about anything else, and the whole magic fades. Many people are able to provide entertainment under a Summer night sky. It takes a particular kind of reverence for the people on stage to make it all feel like an event.
This is why, it is quite special when ordinary folk begins realizing that they too could be rock stars. The punk-rockers figured out that only three power chords separated them from the musicians playing arenas. The 2000s indie-rock kids bought skinny jeans, got a good haircut, and were ready to impersonate The Strokes. And, modern DYI kids know that they just need a laptop and a hook to start their ascent as pop stars.
young friend’s ENDLESS is a pop song made for the hordes of kids who will be visiting summer festivals in search of a highly eclectic roster of performers. It’s music from an era where neither genre delimitations nor production values make much sense. It’s modern pop music brought to you by the power of the internet. And, it’s enough to create pop stars.
Josh Raimonde – Broken Pieces
Genre: Pop Rock, Garage Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Weezer, Oasis, Jimmy Eat World
You’ll find endless pieces of musical criticism, including on this website, that praise punk-rock, extreme metal, or avant-garde music. Essentially, everything that strays from the mainstream norms is something that critics tend to embrace. These are examples of artists acting bravely and daringly.
Still, regardless of how much you may enjoy the concept of those styles of music, if you are like most people, your ears will eventually begin looking for parts that you can hum, for musical ideas that repeat themselves, for something to hang your music fan’s hat on. As great as Merzbow might be in theory, he hasn’t written a great chorus just yet.
Oasis or Weezer have, however, and this has allowed them to play their music to stadiums filled with people. Josh Raimonde’s Broken Pieces is a guitar-pop built around the basic idea that people want and need music that they can hum on their way to work. Some rock stars think that this is beneath them. But, the best of them know that memorable bits of music are what truly build a great catalog.
