Alternative Woman Power | The Next Wave of Music

    In 2020 we experienced one of the first years where music really started to have an obvious bend. Music wasn't being written the same, the format of a song was changing. We have grown so used to a  song formatted with verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge and ending of a song, that it comes across as a bit of a shock when an artist doesn’t follow this formula. Last year created what I called a year of genre-blending, specifically in popular music. Artists have been bending the rules for quite some time if you get to the technicality of it all. However last year it became extremely public. Some might say last year was a terrible year for music however artists had in store quite an impressive rollout. Popular music quickly all became very different things and artists have never felt more confident, in their craft and their artistry. 

 Dua Lipa set a massive wave using disco pop, an attempt we have seen in the past before but not quite

so recently successful till now. Future nostalgia was an exact embodiment of its name throughout the entire record, with sounds feeling nostalgic and equally futuristic in their originality. Nothing felt stolen or easily compatible. Artists quickly not necessary following the trend but definitely influenced such as Zara Larson with poster girl tracks, Jessie Ware with her record what’s your pleasure and up to more recently with Charli xcx’s release of good ones. But what did that leave for the following year? What’s next for music that is as big and impactful as a year like 2020 for music.

This year in particular had felt seemingly hopeless and dull. Artists are not quite as impressively creating sounds that generate emotion. This year in the beginning continued this attempt at blending sounds with productions that either sound to EDM reminiscent of 2016’s summer dance trend or too compatible with other artists work previous to them. 

Let’s try a different era of nostalgia? Where you have artist’s like St Vincent with her most recent record daddy’s home. A record meant to have this 70’s nostalgia, in which it succeeds but overall is dulled down by Jacks Antonof's seemingly similar techniques from his most recent records. Not allowing Vincent’s voice come across as highlighted to be her own. We have Zella Day, an artist who is the most successful at this 70’s nostalgia since 2020. But whose paying attention to that aside from her long awaited fans. The point here is what is the next best sound for popular music? What will be the next memorable time for us. As a culture. 

Well it kind of goes back to Dua Lipa once more, thankfully Dua collaborated with a trailblazing artist on her own path to setting a new wave of music. One of last years best collaborations was Prisoner ft Miley Cyrus. A complete moment of perfect disco grunge energy that fit right into the theme being set into the standard. Miley released one of her most anticipated albums since the bangers era after the single midnight sky was released and felt very standalone. She created this insane record inspired by rock and disco pop reminiscent of legends like Joan Jett Cyndi Lauper and all star female led bands like The Cranberries. Miley is an artist in her current prime and seeing a very long and successful career. She’s an artist with a voice perfectly suited for lead singing in front of, not behind the sounds of an electric guitar heavy bass and insane instrumentals from a drum set. Plastic hearts introduced us to covers from older bands with a heavier sound on Zombie that included performances and really allowed Miley’s new presence to shine and thrive in a time where live music was shut down. 

This created a genuine feeling of nostalgia like we were witnessing older performances but with this new artist we’ve known for years. The sound perfectly fits her and we received heavier productions on her album with original music that featured Billy Joel and Joan Jett herself, reminiscent and fresh in a necessary time. So while Dua lipa set last years modern wave of tracks. Miley was simmering a new wave ready to be unleashed. And that is the alternative wave of popular music. It’s been a slow burn. And to be honest it’s because alternative music is such a large umbrella of a genre that the single focus on it is hard to popularize. And yes we have had stand out moments in our culture and time where alternative has been a moment. Avril Lavigne, the entire emo scene era, was influenced by music. But I mean some serious dominant chart topping female energy.

Miley has since continued performing her new era live at lollapalooza with new tracks like what the fuck do I know. And releasing new collaborations with the new Metallica blacklist and she sounds amazing. It could be her song if you weren’t aware of who Metallica was. But the world is angry. We’ve reached a time where our patience has been so tested that it feels okay to be angry and what better way than to scream your heart out with women who are angry, who have been through it all and have real emotion to be let out. Well I’m right there with them. It hasn’t felt like a more appropriate sound than the time there is now. 

We are already seeing this shift happen. With Rina Sawayama's cover of another Metallica song which was Absolutely suburb there is not a single complaint about it. Heavier tracks making appearances on these artists albums, Rina’s album has tracks like STFU, Dynasty and XS. Along with PVRIS’s recent project starting with Monster the heaviest track they’ve released in quite some time. Which displays their new direction. There’s also extremely influential artists like Olivia Rodrigo with her angst teen persona amplifying a generations energy, her recent song brutal makes a loud statement ready to be heart sung for quite awhile. Most recently Billie Eilish’s career defining “Happier than ever”, which fully amplified and embraces every use of guitar, drums and aggressive energy including screaming towards the end of the track. Lastly we have Halsey a prominent artist in the media for the past few years who just released her fourth studio album completely rock inspired. With powerful women such as these leading the charge for this generations next wave of music we are sure to see a much larger light of this kind of music. And we are absolutely 2000% here for it. I am ready to blast this music for ages. 

Of course these aren’t the first women to create songs with this energy, there have been countless tracks. We just live in a time where this moment in existence is almost made for this kind of music and everyone if not all will be on board for this direction. As a massive fan and genuine appreciation for this kind of music you can all check out the Apple and Spotify playlist link below to enjoy this hopeful and most likely next wave of music. The playlist was curated by me including an all star roster of women leading the charge of this wave along with past tracks equally as good with existing energy. 

A special thank you if you got this far and read all of this. This is the first in depth Rockwell Review and they may not come often but do feel necessary to me. I am excited about these in depth conversations.  I appreciate the time and any feedback will be helpful to allow me to grow as well. 

Apple Playlist

Spotify Playlist