Hayden Pedigo
Genre: Instrumental
TBC Score: 61
Few experimental musicians have as much personality as Amarillo, Texas native Hayden Pedigo. He’s established himself as one of the country’s most boundary-pushing solo guitarists—but he’s won even more fans for his puckish pranks and sly sense of humor. Most famously, he launched a surreal campaign for a seat on Amarillo’s city council—captured with pathos in the critically acclaimed documentary Kid Candidate. But he’s also memed his way into a Gucci runway show and recently has been merging his music with his goofball persona. Thanks partly to a series of strange videos accompanying his latest album, The Happiest Times I Ever Ignored, his profile has risen dramatically in recent months. He’s earned placements on playlists like Acoustic Melodies, fall feels, and Cosmic Country. It’s a strange place for such an experimental artist to be, but his charisma speaks for itself.
yeule
Genre: Pop
TBC Score: 70
London-based, Singapore-born electronic pop artist yeule is a classically trained musician whose moniker references a character from Final Fantasy. Making art pop in the vein of Purity Ring and Grimes, yeule’s music is ethereal and digitally influenced. While they've been making music since 2014, they experienced breakout critical success with their 2022 sophomore album, Glitch Princess. Recently, yeule has been experimenting in more of an emo territory and stepped their toes into alt-rock with new singles “sulky baby” and “dazies.” But the pivot isn’t slowing their momentum: Within 10 days of the July 12 release of “dazies,” yeule shot to the top 2K dance, top 2K electronic, and top 5K pop artist rankings on Chartmetric and was featured in a number of Spotify playlists such as All New Indie, IRL ANGEL, and misfits 2.0.
berlioz
Genre: Jazz/Electronic
TBC Score: 84
Taking the name of a 19th-century French Romantic composer, UK jazz-electronic musician berlioz describes his sound as “If Matisse made house music.” Before self-releasing his debut EP, jazz is for ordinary people, on June 23, berlioz had only released three tracks. Despite this low output, at the time of this writing he has 1.4M monthly Spotify listeners, 298K followers on Instagram, and 6.6M likes across his TikTok posts. This might be due to his impressive social media strategy—his popularity on TikTok, for instance, comes from his posts, which often feature clips from well-known movies and animations with the caption “pov: you listen to berlioz.” While he’s only featured on three of Spotify’s editorial playlists, berlioz is placed at the top of each one and has even been on the playlist cover of Jazztronica since June.
Lola Amour
Genre: Pop
TBC Score: 68
Filipino funk-rock group Lola Amour are no newcomers to viral success: Their November 2022 single “Fallen” brought them huge success in the Philippines. Their breakthrough single, “Raining in Manila,” details the myriad emotions that arise when a loved one moves to another country. Since its June 14 release, the song has gained traction on TikTok (an uptick of 79K posts), where it has thrived in K-Pop AU (alternate universe) videos. After being featured in a popular AU about the K-Pop band ENHYPEN earlier this month, members Jungwon and Jake shared Lola Amour’s track during a Weverse Live to their fans. All the hype has paid off: The track now has 12.9M streams on Spotify, and Lola Amour’s Chartmetric score has increased 59.94% since July 7.
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