This edition of our bi-weekly column highlighting five artists that you’ll be hearing from in the future features a Matisse-inspired electronic artist from the U.K., a Filipino funk-rock band that K-Pop fans can’t get enough of, an ethereal pop artist moving into a new sound, an emerging Hip-Hop artist with major collaborations under his belt, and a humorous solo guitarist from Texas.

berlioz

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 8,389

Genre: Jazz/Electronic

Country: U.K.

Taking the name of a 19th-century French Romantic composer, UK jazz-electronic musician berlioz makes a sonic blend the artist himself describes 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—the first one, "nyc in 1940," came out just last year. Despite this low output, berlioz currently has 1.4 million monthly Spotify listeners, 298k followers on Instagram, and 6.6 million likes across his TikTok posts. 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. He also has an appearance on 18k Spotify playlists and is showing traction on Apple Music’s global editorial curation, placed on playlists in Honduras, Jamaica, Japan, Uganda, Montenegro, and Turks and Caicos. This might be due to his impressive social media strategy—his popularity on TikTok, for instance, comes from his own posts, which often feature clips from well-known movies and animations with the caption “pov: you listen to berlioz.”

Lola Amour

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 3,180

Genre: Pop

Country: Philippines

Filipino funk-rock group Lola Amour have been making music for seven years and are no newcomer to virality: their 2021 single “Fallen” brought them huge success late last year in the Philippines, where the band is based. But their most recent single, “Raining in Manila,” has the band experiencing a major career breakthrough. The track, which details the myriad of emotions that arise when a loved one moves to another country, has gained traction on TikTok, where it is being used to soundtrack videos of rain and floods in the Philippines, as well as in K-Pop AU (alternate universe) videos. It was used in a popular AU about the K-Pop band ENHYPEN, causing that band’s fans to support the track. This led to Jake, a member of ENHYPEN, spotlighting it during a live video broadcast to the excitement of his fans. All the hype has paid off: the track now has 12.9 million streams on Spotify and Lola Amour’s Chartmetric score has increased by 246.8% since the song was released on June 14.

yeule

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 11,171

Genre: Pop

Country: U.K.

London-based, Singapore-born electronic pop artist yeule is a classically trained musician whose moniker is a reference to 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 recently stepped their toes into alt-rock with new singles “sulky baby” and “dazies.” But the musical change 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.

Fridayy

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 1,788

Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B

Country: U.S.

Known for his sonorous tone, layered harmonizations, and lyrics about faith, rap&B artist Fridayy made a name for himself by collaborating with some of the biggest names in hip-hop last year. His features with Lil Baby (“Forever”) and DJ Khaled (“God Did,” which was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2023 Grammys) both reached the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and currently have millions of streams on Spotify and YouTube. Fridayy’s collaborations extend beyond features: this year, he’s also produced for respected rappers like OhGeesy (“Games”) and Tink (“Trust Issues”). All of that, in addition to releasing his debut project, Lost In Melody, last October on Def Jam, has led to 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, playlist placements on Most Necessary and Hot Rhythmic, and collaborations with even more heavy hitters like Moneybagg Yo (“Lies”) and Chris Brown (“Don’t Give It Away”).

Hayden Pedigo

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 44,790

Genre: Instrumental

Country: U.S.

Few experimental musicians have as much personality as Amarillo, Texas native Hayden Pedigo. For the better part of the last decade, 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 that was captured with pathos in the critically acclaimed documentary Kid Candidate. He’s also memed his way into a Gucci runway show and recently has been merging his music with his goofball persona. Thanks in part 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 fall feels, Cosmic Country, and Indie Twang as well as praise from outlets like Pitchfork and The Fader. Most visibly, he’s taken his slow, methodical tracks on the road, garnering opening slots for the likes of Jenny Lewis and Devendra Banhart. It’s a strange place for such an experimental artist to be, but his charisma speaks for itself.

The Methodology: Comparing Tracks on Chartmetric

How does an artist with only eight tracks out gain a massive listener base on Spotify and TikTok over the course of a few months? Follow the songs. We mentioned a number of reasons as to why the suave jazztronica artist berlioz might have quickly risen to the top of a number of notable playlists. But, if you’re interested in taking an even deeper dive into the data, using Chartmetric’s Compare Track tool can provide some valuable insights as to which of an artist’s songs are performing the best, and in which areas. Examining tracks based on their most recent data provides a current snapshot of what’s most popular, but you can also look at how songs stack up based on their respective release dates, which can give an even clearer comparison.

For example, looking at the Spotify playlist count graph for berlioz’s top five performing tracks off of his debut EP based on Most Recent Data shows that his March 10 single, “deep in it,” has been added to the most Spotify playlists. But, changing the graph to view the data from the release date shows that his April 7 single “jazz is for ordinary people” had a higher playlist count ten days after its release, a sign that more meaningful growth might be in its future.

Graphics by Nicki Camberg and cover image by Crasianne Tirado; data as of July 26, 2023

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