Stuck in Isolation: Spiffy Up Your Spotify Part 2

I have been obsessed with indie-pop music recently. I love the unique blend of indie acoustic and pop elements, lo-fi vibes, and sometimes with a hint of a grunge/alternative sound. These artists show versatility in their voices by singing different genres and mixing together multiple styles. The music transports you into a whole other realm with a free-flowing feeling, like you’re floating on air. So, if you wanna chill vibe after an exhausting day, put on your headphones and turn up these jams to calm yourself down while bopping your head to the beat. Artists such as Alec Benjamin, Billie Eilish, Melanie Martinez, MARINA, Lana Del Rey, Halsey, and Lorde have grown their following over the past few years. Harry Styles’s solo music also has indie-pop, soft rock kind of vibes. Taylor Swift’s been dabbling with indie folk and dream pop with her newest album, folklore. Thanks to TikTok, singers like beabadoobee and mxmtoon have had their songs played and used to create short, entertaining videos on the app. You’ve most likely heard Powfu and beabadoobee’s “death bed (coffee for your head)” during sweet and cutesy TikTok videos. This kind of song is something I’d listen to while I’m calmly sipping a cup of coffee and watching the rain fall from the cloudy, colorless sky. beabadoobee’s vocals actually came from a song called “Coffee,” which you can listen to on Spotify and compare the differences. You have also probably heard mxmtoon’s “prom dress” on TikTok when girls were showing the prom dresses they would have worn this year before the Coronavirus pandemic caused a lot of the dances to cancel. Oopsie! I’m guilty of making one of these videos! I don’t know about you, but I also discovered Conan Gray on TikTok as well. Personally, my favorite solo male artists are definitely Alec Benjamin, Harry Styles, and Conan Gray. I’ve listened to literally every single one of their songs. If you haven’t already heard of their music, I highly recommend you check them out! With the spooky season already here, there’s quite a few songs with eerie vibes you can add to your Halloween party’s playlist. Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend” or “COPYCAT,” Ellise’s “911” or “Nightmares,” and Au/Ra’s “Panic Room” or “Dance in the Dark” are just some examples. Melanie Martinez, originally appearing on The Voice, has some creepy, cute songs with playful imagery but dark themes. Her albums, Cry Baby and K-12, include songs about childhood toys and youth, usually focused on twisted stories when you pay attention to the lyrics like, “Tag, You’re it, ” which is about a girl getting kidnapped and “Milk and Cookies,” which is about poisoning her significant other, making him cookies filled with “sugar and lots of poison too.” Many indie-pop artists were discovered on YouTube performing covers of songs or uploading their originals, plucking on their guitars in their bedrooms dressed up as home studios. That Poppy is an interesting internet personality that had left viewers curious about her robotic- like character she portrayed in her videos, where she creatively expressed what it is like being a controlled popstar. Her electro-pop and synthpop has evolved recently into nu metal where she just goes by Poppy. She gained popularity by singles such as “Lowlife” and “Money.” Benny, who more recently posts songs under the name Miss Benny, is most well-known for his song and music video on YouTube, “Little Game,” where he sings about society’s expectations of what it means to be a boy or a girl.

Delicate acoustic-indie, sometimes paired with soft pop, has a relaxing sound that touches the soul. Alec Benjamin, Anson Seabra, Faith Marie, and Nicole Dollanganger have some songs with deep lyrics that intensity your feels. One tear-jerker is Alec Benjamin’s “I Built A Friend,” a depressing song about leaving behind a close friend and finding a love, returning to find out that the friend was unstable on their own, deciding they couldn’t live life anymore. I do not cry often and this one had me nearly bawling because the sweet song suddenly had a bitter turn in the end. Faith Marie’s “Antidote,” is a song about the thoughts in your mind terrifying you and you desperately just want to feel okay. Anson Seabra’s “Robin Hood,” is about him giving all his love to someone who stole it from him like a Robin Hood and giving it to someone “worth much less than [him].” Nicole Dollanganger’s “Ugly” tells of someone who feels they are ugly, but the truth is “Anything that is beautiful people want to break.” These three songs pull at your heart’s strings. Also, Alec Bejamin’s “If I Killed Someone For You” tells an excellent story that has a twist in the end. But, I won’t spoil it for you. Give it a listen and find out! Another artist I’ve been listening to recently is Oliver Tree who has some mega bops like “Let Me Down” and “Alien Boy,” two of his most popularly listened to songs on Spotify. Chloe Adams describes her music as “acoustic driven, emotive & catchy pop songs with homehitting topics surrounding mental health & teenage scrutiny.” Some examples are “The Doctor Said” and “If You Don’t Like Me.” Cavetown, girl in red, dodie, spookyghostboy, and chloe moriondo all have catchy alternative sounding and indie music. Cavetown’s “Cut My Hair” incorporates a lo-fi kind of vibe like one of those songs you’d hear on those “1 hour lo-fi beats to study to” YouTube videos. This is another bop to vibe to on a chill rainy-day. Lo-fi, meaning “low fidelity” is purposefully produced with an imperfect sound quality, giving it that aesthetic we feel soothed by while also having beats we can groove to and be productive. Lo-fi also has that 90s nostalgic sort of hip-hop vibe we are all fairly familiar with, even if you’re a 2000s kid. “Absolutely Smitten” is a bright and upbeat indie song by dodie, featuring a ukulele. girl in red, spookyghostboy, and chloe moriondo all have some songs with teen angst vibes worth checking out too. Finally, I’d like to share some info about The Hot Pickups, a band with four generations of rock music on the Indy Southside. I watched their last gig from a livestream and they covered some great rock classics, as well as performed some newer music like Pink’s “Who Knew.” I personally know some of the members in the band, including the lead singer who was my art teacher from high school. You can check the band out on Facebook. There are a ton of small artists to discover on the internet. If you find a group or performer you like, remember that sharing is caring! Keep your eyes open and ears peeled for some new sounds to spiffy up your Spotify.