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Culture > Entertainment

Discovering Other Music Artists Outside of My Comfort Ones

Kelly Danko
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Pace chapter.

When it comes to listening to music, I have a bad habit of only listening to my comfort artists such as Harry Styles and Taylor Swift. For someone who loves music as much as I do, I find listening to new music hard sometimes, because I always end up going back to what I know. It’s not that I don’t want to listen to new music, I do. I just feel like it’s always been easier for me to sit and listen to something I’m already comfortable with. However, I’ve had a change of heart recently. I’ve decided to start a new journey in my life and start listening to new artists, most of whom my friends have recommended to me. While these artists listed below aren’t new to music, their music is new to me, and I wanted to share them in case anyone is also interested in expanding their taste. Here are some of the artists that I’ve been listening to recently and my top three songs from each of them:

boygenius (Top 3 Songs: “Cool About It,”  “Souvenir,” “Afraid of Heights”)

I was told to start listening to boygenius back when the record came out in March of 2023, but I was stubborn and said, “It’s springtime and I didn’t want to be sad when it’s warm out.” It wasn’t until boygenius played at Madison Square Garden back in October that it finally clicked for me that I needed to start listening to them, and I regret not doing so sooner. If you don’t know who boygenius is, they are a supergroup of three solo artists: Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers. To start my boygenius journey, I started with listening to the record, then moved onto their first EP, boygenius, and finally listened to their most recent EP, the rest. It was a hard decision for me, but I was able to narrow down my favorite boygenius songs to my top three: “Cool About It,” from the record; “Souvenir,” which is off boygenius; and “Afraid of Heights,” on the rest. Unfortunately, by the time I really got into boygenius, they announced their hiatus. However, this gives me plenty of time to get into Baker and Dacus’ solo work, since I already listen to and love Phoebe Bridgers, so I take that as a win.

MUNA (Top 3 Songs: “Shooting Star,” “What I Want,” “Stayaway,”) (Bonus: “Motivation,” a cover of a Normani song)

If you attended the Eras Tour, you might’ve had MUNA as your opener. You might also know them from their song, “Silk Chiffon,” which features Phoebe Bridgers and gained popularity on TikTok. MUNA is an indie-pop band made up of three members: Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson. They released their first album, About U in 2017 followed by Saves The World (2019) and MUNA (2022). I had a friend make me a “MUNA Starter Pack” playlist of songs that I should listen to to start to get into MUNA which is where I fell in love with “Shooting Star” and their cover of “Motivation” by Normani. Then, I started to listen to their albums in their entirety and found songs like “What I Want” and “Stayaway” that I became obsessed with. Since starting to listen to MUNA, they have become my top artist on Spotify, and I don’t see them being dethroned anytime soon.

Reneé Rapp (Top 3 Songs: “Snow Angel,” “I Hate Boston,” “Messy”)

I have known of Reneé Rapp since Mean Girls the musical, and, no, I’m not talking about the 2024 movie. I’m talking about the Broadway musical where I was supposed to see her as Regina George until COVID-19 had other plans. I realized  I needed to start listening to her music more when I saw her performance of “Snow Angel” on Saturday Night Live (SNL). For some reason, even the best singers don’t sound good on SNL. It’s like SNL has a curse or something on music artists. However, this wasn’t the case for Rapp. Her performance gave me chills, and it was this exact performance that made “Snow Angel” one of my favorite songs by her. I then started to listen to the rest of her album  by the same name which gave me my other top two songs: “I Hate Boston” and “Messy.” Then, I transitioned to her EP, Everything to Everyone. I wish Gov Ball didn’t take place in June when I’m not in New York City. Otherwise, I would’ve definitely bought tickets just to see Rapp.

Chappell Roan (Top 3 Songs: “HOT TO GO!,” “Red Wine Supernova,” “Coffee”)

If your “For You” Page on TikTok is anything like mine, “Casual” by Chappell Roan is all over it. After listening to “Casual” in its entirety, I consulted a friend who I knew listened to Chappell Roan, and they gave me some other songs to listen to before I made my way to her album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. The mix between upbeat songs and gut-wrenching ballads was perfect, proving that Chappell Roan is here to single-handedly save pop music. My favorites from the album are “HOT TO GO!,” “Red Wine Supernova,” and “Coffee.” “HOT TO GO!” even has a fun dance that goes along with it that brought me back to my middle school cheerleader days. Chappell Roan is currently opening for Olivia Rodrigo on her GUTS World Tour, and I’m heartbroken that she isn’t the opener for my show when I see her at Madison Square Garden in April.

The Aces (Top 3 Songs: “Always Get This Way,” “Suburban Blues,” “Miserable”)

The Aces are the most recent addition to my new artist repertoire and were actually recommended to me by two other members of Her Campus at Pace. They are another indie-pop band composed of Katie Henderson, McKenna Petty, and sisters Alisa and Crystal Ramirez. I found out before even listening to them that they have a song called “Kelly,” which immediately won me over. They were easy to get into because their songs are all relatively short, a lot of them under three minutes. My top three songs are “Always Get This Way,” “Suburban Blues,” and “Miserable,” which are all off their album, I’ve Loved You For So Long. I’m still new to The Aces and need to listen to all of their albums in their entirety, but I have been enjoying my journey thus far. 

I still love my comfort artists and haven’t neglected them (I have three tattoos for Harry Styles, so I’m locked in for life.), but I have been loving exploring other artists and adding new names to my favorites list. My favorite thing in the whole world is going to concerts, and I’m excited to have other artists that I can go see live now. Although…my bank account isn’t too happy about this. If you’re like me and attached to one artist, I get it, and there isn’t anything wrong with that. But I hope this inspired you to branch out and check out some other artists, maybe even some of the ones that I listed above. 

Kelly Danko is the Vice President of Her Campus at Pace. She has been a member of Her Campus at Pace since her freshman year and contributes by writing articles for her Her Campus chapter. Beyond Her Campus, Kelly works for Jumpstart, a program that’s mission is to prepare preschool children for Kindergarten. She is currently a senior at Pace University's New York City campus, majoring in Early Childhood and Childhood Education with a concentration in English. She strives to teach in an elementary school when she graduates and hopes to pursue her master’s degree in Special Education. In her free time, Kelly enjoys listening to music, reading, and going to concerts. She has attended 52 concerts throughout her life and 20 of those concerts were Harry Styles concerts! She also loves Taylor Swift, the two of them being her favorite artists. If you aren't finding her at a concert, you can find her at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre seeing The Outsiders: her favorite Broadway musical!