By: Julia Yang

We all like music, and if you say you don’t, you’re a liar. Everyone has different tastes in music with bias to various genres like pop, rock, country, and rap. I’d tell you what my taste is, but I listen to anything that sounds good. That’s not the point though, the point is that I’m sharing the artists I listen to so that you may expand your horizons and they can gain more support. Who knows, you might even enjoy these artists more than I do.

These are not ranked in any specific order.

#1 AJR

A little bit of a controversial opinion, but I love AJR. I don’t know why people hate them so much.

AJR is a good artist to listen to if you enjoy songs that speak upon unspoken issues like the feeling of watching the world go by whilst you haven’t changed, or being a good person all of the time but never gaining anything out of doing so. They’re sad topics, but the songs are usually really upbeat.

AJR music is usually loud, uses unusual instruments, and odd structure— but I think that’s what really sets them apart from everyone else.

#2 Will Wood (And The Tapeworms)

Will Wood (And The Tapeworms), more artists that touch upon topics that other artists don’t. They talk about feeling conflicted with self identity and advocates for understanding and acceptance, wishing for some kind of connection with the increasingly fragmented world.

Will Wood (And The Tapeworms) are a band that blend elements of rock, jazz, and cabaret into all of their songs. I will say, the sound of these songs are extremely unusual. Not in a bad way, they’re just not your usual day-to-day songs. Again, something that makes them stand out.

#3 Dagames

Dagames is an artist known to make fan made songs for popular games, one of which being “Build Our Machine” based off of ‘Bendy and the Ink Machine’— his most popular and known song. Putting aside the game songs, he also makes his own songs without building off a game! But, if you don’t play or enjoy popular games for whatever reason, this isn’t really the artist for you, obviously. Even so, you can also just ignore the whole game aspect and just enjoy the songs.

He usually makes songs that consist of metal and electronic elements, they’re usually loud and aggressive— but in a good way. Most of his songs made for games are fueled from the possible anger that the characters feel, so as one would, they’re all loud and aggressive. Love him for that.

#4 Ricky Montgomery

Something about this guys voice is incredible, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Ricky Montgomery is an alternative and indie artist who is quite popular in a variety of communities around social media. His music tends to tell wonderfully emotional stories in such a way that people can connect to them on a variety of levels— kind of like how people can connect to drawings and paintings; they’re all forms of art after all.

Ricky’s music can really get you in the feels, that’s all I can say, really.