
Stefan Certic – The Abyss
Like it or not, the popularity of music styles, for the vast majority of the population, is tied to what’s going on in the world. That’s why nobody is calling out for mandatory disco parties in the street. That’s why classical music, outside of the schools that study it, is featured only as a timepiece. That’s why darker styles of music are making a comeback that may yet hold some momentum.
This isn’t about getting the artist to suffer for their work or to be a human representation of their art. This goes deeper than that. There was a time when disaster movies, those where planes fell out of the sky, and dinosaurs were brought back to life and wreaked havoc, were all the rage. The interest in them had nothing to do with planes or dinosaurs. It was about the way that people felt.
Gothic rock and the styles that diverge from it are just at the start of a grand comeback. Why? Just take a listen to Stefan Certic’s music. Yes, it expresses the doom and gloom that many in the world feel at this exact moment. But songs like “The Abyss” also make all these trials and tribulations sound grandiose and important, as if we’re all watching the hand of destiny move in front of our hands. Goth-rock is not about panicking in front of otherwise frightening events but about staring straight at them. Stefan Certic’s brand of danceable, dynamic captures that allure.
Motherhood – Bok Globule
There’s never been a better time to make alternative music designed in some extreme manner one of your prime concerns. There’s never been a greater chasm between the pop charts and alternative music.
That’s, frankly, the logical conclusion of the producers, labels and songwriters playing with the pop charts. You can only optimize songs and the public image of performers for so long before everything blends together and before an AI can just produce the same results in 30 seconds.
That’s precisely the reason why I suggest that you adopt a bizarre group or, even better, opt for an entire music genre populated by weirdos, eccentrics and well-trained musicians and forget what’s making the charts.
Motherhood’s “Bok Globule” sounds unhinged in the most entertaining kind of way. It sounds like American cowboy music played by punks who were first gifted keyboards on Christmas Day. The song is about some kind of abduction fantasy and escape, which would only make sense. Best of all, Motherhood’s music sounds like it could be played for kids lined up in a moshpit, and it would fit perfectly.