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Rolling Stone Future of Music Recap: Meet the Artists Shaping The Music Scene Today
At SXSW 2024, Rolling Stone showcased some of the most exciting acts of the moment, including: Peso Pluma, Flo Milli, Faye Webster, and more.
It seems like there’s a new “emerging artist” every day. TikTok viral hits become international earworms overnight, propelling artists to instant, but fleeting, fame. It makes sense then, that artists with staying power have often toiled away for years before achieving mainstream success.
It’s easy to believe that, these days, the music industry values virality above all. But the artists shaping music as we know it rarely emerge from nowhere.
Just look at the 2024 Grammy Award Winner for Best New Artist, Victoria Monét. Monét released five EPs before her debut studio album, Jaguar II (2023), and its lead single, “On My Mama,” gave her commercial success. But before Monét’s solo career took off, she was a frequent collaborator of Ariana Grande. She’s also worked on songs and albums for artists like Nas, Travis Scott, Blackpink, Fifth Harmony, T.I., Lupe Fiasco, Chrisette Michele, Brandy, Coco Jones, Chloe x Halle, and more. Over a decade in the industry prepared her to become the verifiable star she is now.
Some of our other artists to watch for 2024 have experienced similar tenures in the industry before finally garnering long-term success. Sabrina Carpenter started her career with Disney and has finally become the popstar she was born to be with Emails I Can’t Send — her fifth studio album. Same with queer trailblazer Renee Rapp, who starred in Mean Girls: The Musical on Broadway before landing the role in the film adaptation and bursting onto the music scene with her debut album Snow Angel.
What sets these artists apart from the bright but brief flames sparked on TikTok is their dedication to their artistry and self-image. Years of learning how to perform, sharpen their sound, and crafting their public persona prime them for impact and longevity. It takes time to hone lasting talent. And time makes it more satisfying when a musician or a band finally punches through to the mainstream.
Many artists thrive in niche subcultures playing to curated crowds. Those are some of my favorites — there’s nothing like a basement show packed shoulder-to-shoulder with a small group of people who share your private music obsession. But the artists that shape music as we know it today are coming from all genres. They manage to transcend their niches and add to the collective conversation in a fresh way. But how do they do it? And how do we know which artists are changing music in real-time?
What is the Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase?
Everyone fancies themselves a music critic these days. I’m not immune to this. I watch deep dives on my favorite artists on TikTok, curate my Spotify playlists like they’re museums, and wax poetic about why my favorite albums deserved Grammys.
Here at Popdust, we know a thing or two about emerging artists. Which is why we went down South to Austin, Texas for SXSW to catch some of this year’s most exciting acts in person.
SXSW 2024 was bigger and better than ever. Its crowning jewel is the Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase, which brings together the buzziest and best music acts across genres. The four-night event caps off each evening at SX, bringing an array of artists and audiences together in Austin, Texas.
What an ideal compliment to the dive bar shows and daytime music showcases. But this high-octane event is more than just a flashy festival. It’s a great predictor of the artists who will prove themselves influential in the coming years. “Artists of tomorrow,” as Rolling Stone likes to call them.
Last year’s performers included artists like Coco Jones, Remi Wolf, Chlöe Bailey, Blondshell, and others who have only become even bigger stars over the past year.
After this year’s lineup, wiill Rolling Stone’s penchant for successful predictions be proven again? Given the record-level excitement for the event, all signs point to yes.
Emerging Artists to Watch From the Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase 2024
With 40,000 fans RSVP’ing for the ACL Live event, Austin’s iconic Moody Theater was packed. Each night, fans lined up for hours for a chance to make it into the venue — some for over 14 hours — with the line for Música Mexicana superstar Peso Pluma stretching for blocks and blocks. Sponsors like StockX, ~Pourri, and Bacardi also put on activations and events to celebrate the music and the fans.
With this much fan excitement, the lineup simply had to deliver. Genres included urbano, Southern rock, Afrobeats, hip-hop, amapiano, soul, funk, and good old indie-alt.
Here is each day’s lineup:
- Day 1 (Tuesday, March 12) — Teezo Touchdown, Veeze, Lola Brooke, and Chase Shakur
- Day 2 (Wednesday, March 13) — Peso Pluma, Young Miko, Kevin Kaarl, J Noa, and Pink Pablo
- Day 3 (Thursday, March 14) — Flo Milli, Pheelz, Preacher, Uncle Waffles, Black Sherif, and Flyana Boss
- Day 4 (Friday, March 15) — Faye Webster, Red Clay Strays, Scowl, Dylan Gossett, and Jackie Venson
Take note — you’ll be seeing these names everywhere soon.
Recap: Everything you missed at Rolling Stone’s SXSW Showcase
While all of the artists highlighted at this year’s Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase are sure to be somewhat influential, we’re most excited to see the trajectory of the headliners who are changing the game right now.
Here’s a recap of their performances and why, if you’re not already a fan, you will be soon.
Teezo Touchdown
Texas’s own Teezo Touchdown headlined opening night. You’ve probably heard him on "RunItUp" by Tyler, the Creator; "Modern Jam" by Travis Scott; or "Amen" by Drake. After years of high-level features, he finally released his debut album How Do You Sleep at Night? in September 2023. On stage at SXSW, it’s clear that Teezo’s experience opening for Tyler, the Creator in 2022, and Travis Scott last year has contributed mightily to his magnetic stage presence. Running across the stage brandishing a microphone wrapped in a flower bouquet, Teezo’s energy was infectious. And the crowd ate it up.
His blend of rock, rap, and pop music is telling of his generation — one who resists genres and embraces the fluidity of form. He also shared a heartwarming story about how he busked at SXSW in 2018. Look at him now! He recently announced a single “MASC” with Doja Cat and A$AP Rocky for Doja’s Scarlet 2 Claude Deluxe album. Touchdown’s only getting hotter and hotter.
Peso Pluma
Mexico’s favorite rockstar headlined Night 2. After earning the longest lines in SXSW history, his performance proved well worth the wait. Peso Pluma’s signature brand of “música mexicana,” took the crowd to exciting heights. His youthful energy filled the theater — especially when he joined the audience in the pit. It was a sight to behold.
Dubbed the “Mexican Mick Jagger,” the Gen Z star will release his new album this summer. His undeniable charisma is embedded in his music, earning him a fanatic base of loyal listeners and a chokehold on the music scene. Just wait, he’ll soon transcend boundaries beyond Latinx Pop and hit everyone’s speakers this summer.
Flo Milli
Flo Milli had a lot to celebrate as she headlined Night 3 literally as her second album dropped. Iconic behavior. She took the crowd through familiar favorites, her new songs, and premiered a new remix featuring Cardi B and SZA — not bad co-signs for an emerging artist.
I saw Flo Milli perform in 2020, and watching her on the giant Moody Theater stage was like watching her come alive on a whole new level. After her song “Never Lose Me” got massive attention last year, Flo Milli is poised to be one of music’s next It-Girls. Her versatility is thrilling and admirable, so is her personality and signature tag — if you know, you know.
Faye Webster
Like Flo Milli, I’ve seen Faye Webster before. Not once, not twice, but three times. The first was in 2017 — how can it be six and a half years ago? My penchant for “sad girl music” drew me to Webster’s artfully whiny voice and nostalgic yearning. But the Atlanta native is more than another girl whining about her breakups (even though, from Taylor Swift to Olivia Rodrigo, I eat them all up).
Webster was signed to a rap label and takes lyrical influence from hip-hop and blues artists. She has an energetic stage presence that matches her quirky sound that kept the crowd moving all throughout her set.
From the sultry sweetness of her TikTok viral hit “Kingston” to the high kicks and guitar riffs pulled off during songs like “I Think I’m Funny Ha Ha” and “In A Good Way,” Faye proves herself to be music’s ultimate cool girl. Rockstar and cry-inducing crooner in one? It’s giving Billie Eilish.
What to learn from the Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase 2024
The future of music, according to Rolling Stone, is genre-fluid, youthful, and packed with energy. It also has one important factor: the ability to connect to an audience. Whether it’s on stage of through headphones, all the emerging artists have managed to connect with their ideal audiences and stay there thanks to their dedicated artistry and unique perspectives.
I’m excited to see what all these acts have in store for us next. And for Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase at SXSW 2025!
I hate to say it, but all good people admit when they’re wrong. After attending Coachella in 2022, I saw a dying franchise desperately trying to retain its grasp on relevancy. With lackluster Californian crowds who only go for the festival name and not the names headlining, outsiders often wonder why artists treat this as a Mecca for music.
Long gone are the days when girls’ outfits were chosen with Tumblr shots in mind. The bohemian chic style that Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus, and other attendees made famous began as “Coachella style.”
And when I got a taste of the coveted festival, I was beyond underwhelmed. Sure, the rich and famous were within reach…but I couldn’t have felt further away from them. I ended up with dust in my lungs and a week’s worth of exhaustion.
Celebs stopped attending en masse, the non-festival influencer events like Revolve Festival rose in popularity, and it became abundantly clear that no one cared about the music…it was all about their Instagram posts.
But what I’ve learned from live-streaming Coachella 2024 — and pouring over my social media and consuming every single piece of Coachella content there is — is that Coachella is back in a major way.
Sure, the festival is designed to give you an intense bout of FOMO…but all I kept hearing was how bad everyone thought the lineup was. How no one of note would be in attendance this year. How Coachella was surely done for…until it wasn’t.
It’s been every bit as star-studded and shocking as earlier years. We’ve had earth-shattering performances, surprises left and right, and even reunions…not to mention the iconic American Royal Couple sighting.
We had 5-star performances from headliners like Tyler, The Creator and Doja Cat. Chris Lake and Chris Lorenzo via their supergroup, Anti Up, confirmed rumors of a joint album.
After spending the weekend across the country on the wrong coast sobbing to my friends that I opted not to go this year, I put together my must-see lineup.
Here are the five performances I would’ve attended at 2024 Coachella Weekend One.
Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan’s sheer star power has truly been surprising me. With a devout fanbase (just watch her set), you’ll immediately realize that we’re dealing with someone who is about to break through to a different level of stardom.
During her set, you’ll hear essential songs like “Good Luck, Babe!”, “HOT TO GO!”, and “My Kink is Karma.” But what’s more impressive is her stage presence, the way she commands the crowd in avant-garde makeup, big hair, and a bigger personality.
Songs like "Good Hurt" saw a 160% increase on Spotify...Don’t sleep on Chappell Roan. Before you know it, she’ll be performing at a much bigger stage.
Everything Always - John Summit & Dom Dolla
The boys are back in town @domdolla @johnsummit
Watch the 2024 livestream now at https://t.co/j5uIbSOgaa, presented by @nyxcosmetics pic.twitter.com/Ok14VdTygp
— Coachella (@coachella) April 13, 2024
Not enough is said about a house music set at a festival. Sure, the headliners are great and deliver us our fix of rock, pop, or soul. But it’s always been the DJ’s who have my heart at the end of the night. They know how to get you dancing, to feel the beat down to your soul, and forget for a while.
We saw a lot of technical difficulties and underwhelming sets from various artists this weekend…but John Summit and Dom Dolla delivered a borderline flawless collaboration that perfectly exhibited both their greatest hits and EDM essentials.
There’s nothing better than watching an artist truly having fun on stage…so when two friends, Dolla and Summit, come together to display some of the best techno house out there, they do not disappoint.
Soon to be the pregame track for many, Dom Dolla and John Summit are two of the biggest names in house for a reason.
No Doubt
Two words: jaw dropped. Coachella’s Main Stage has reunited long lost bands and supergroups like Blink-182 and Swedish House Mafia…but few have No Doubt’s impact.
After a year of music domination on TikTok, Gwen Stefani, Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal, and Adrian Young took the stage to bring punk rock back in all its glory. In their first performance since 2015, this band has the exact same 1995 energy when they released “Just a Girl.”
Bringing out Gen Z’s very own punk pop princess, Olivia Rodrigo, was a passing of the torch in many ways. Stefani and Rodrigo belted “Bathwater” side by side as Rodrigo sported low rise cargos and an “I <3 ND” tank. "Bathwater" saw a 430% increase in streams on Spotify following the performance.
Perhaps the most impressive performance comes from Stefani, who at 54 years of age pranced and throttled around the stage full force. Stefani embodied a whirlwind tornado that gave more stage presence and energy than a 19-year-old. She went full punk rocker mode, and it was gorgeous.
Sabrina Carpenter
I keep reminding my readers that Sabrina Carpenter is the one to watch this year. She’s got all the ingredients of your classic popstar: proven vocal talent (even a stint on Broadway with Renee Rapp in Mean Girls), the opener for Taylor Swift’s legendary Era’s Tour, a past love triangle scandal with aforementioned Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, and the latest It Boy, Barry Keoghan, falling over his feet for her.
Her Coachella performance only solidified that I’m right. Carpenter understands her audience, and knows how to bring in more fans. She’s candidly witty, overtly sexual in her euphemisms, and yet exudes an innocence and honesty in her music.
For the first time on a Coachella stage, Carpenter was able to belt out her emails i can’t send album. This tell-all set of songs details her relationship with Bassett, her perspective on the backlash, and shares refreshing insights into her life.
She had the cinema, the vocal ability, the wow-factor. No notes.
Lana Del Rey
And while many prominent publications and, most notably, the Recording Academy will continue to turn their noses towards the genius of Lana Del Rey, the world watched anyway. Del Rey’s music has inspired the careers of thousands of budding artists, and it’s rare that she gets such a massive platform to perform it.
Arriving via motorcade, Lana Del Rey took the stage to perform hits like “Summertime Sadness”, “Ride”, and “West Coast” while dancers twirled from poles and swirled around Del Rey.
With guests like Jack Antonoff, Jon Batiste, and the one-and-only Billie Eilish, Del Rey flawlessly integrated tracks like “Ocean Eyes” and her own “Video Games” into her set.
Many will criticize the microphone issues or the lack of energy from the crowd (all factors that were out of the headliner’s control)...but it’s overwhelmingly clear from Lana Del Rey’s performance that her star far outshines any technical difficulties.
Imagine a film about war. Then, imagine a film about journalists. Somehow, Ex Machina’s Alex Garland fashioned one of the most compelling stories of the year by marrying these unlikely premises. Even more unlikely? He convinced A24 to make an action film. Don’t worry, this is not a souped-up Marvel movie. It’s exactly what you’d expect from our favorite indie studio’s first venture into the action genre: subversive, thrilling, and intrepid.
After wowing audiences with films like Ex Machina and 28 Days Later, it’s no surprise that director Alex Garland’s latest dystopian effort is unsettling and awe-inspiring. The highly anticipated film is already rated 93% on Rotten Tomatoes after premiering at SXSW 2024.
At a SXSW panel, Garland gave some insights into what it means to make a movie about the dystopian future that feels so close to being real. While movies like Contagion and Garland’s own 28 Days Later felt prescient at the height of the pandemic, no one could have predicted that. But Civil War feels like a nightmare we’ve all been having for the past decade. It’s comforting, in a way, to know others are experiencing this nightmare too. But it’s dread-inducing to see it play out on screen and think: this is us. This will be us. Soon.
And that’s precisely the state of anxiety Garland wants us in.
“Cinema is inclined towards whatever it's presenting itself, and it’s inclined to not being anti-war,” Garland told the panel at SXSW. “To accurately present the action, it contains adrenaline. And if you add music to that, and you add a certain kind of imagery to that, essentially, it becomes seductive.”
Garland didn’t want to make a sexy war movie. He didn’t want to give us an easy watch.
His solution: making it as disorienting as possible. Unexpected musical moments, atrociously violent cuts of brutality, and gore abound.
“That De La Soul track [that plays during a pivotal scene] had a particular function which was to be jarring and aggressive and speak somehow to the perverse pleasure in what was happening,” Garland explained.
From the score to the cinematography, Garland has managed to make a war movie that does not, in any way, glamorize war. To do that, he had to keep the audience anxious and tense The product: the most stressful watching experience I’ve ever endured. But my god, it was worth it.
What is Civil War (2023) about?
@moviesaretherapy Civil War review #fyp #foryou #movies ♬ original sound - Kit Lazer
Civil War is set in a not-too-distant future when California and Texas have seceded, and the ensuing civil war has caused chaos across the United States. A team of war photographers and journalists make a dangerous journey to Washington DC with the goal of interviewing the President before American democracy falls.
It stars Kirsten Dunst in a career-best performance as jaded photojournalist Lee, alongside Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nick Offerman, and Jesse Plemons.
It’s a war movie. An action movie. A morbid road trip movie. But above all, it’s a nuanced ode to journalists. “I wanted to make journalists the hero,” said Garland. “In any kind of free country or, let's say, democracy, journalists are not a luxury, they're a necessity. They are absolutely as important as the judiciary, the executive, or the legislature, and they are literally as important as a free press that is respected and trusted. Now, journalists have done some of the work to be distrusted themselves. But a lot of other interested parties have been complicit in making them untrusted. And I think it's unhealthy. And I think it's wrong. So I wanted to put journalism at the heart of it.”
Though the characters are complex and flawed, we spend enough time with them in a van to cause us to not just love them, but respect them. We believe in them. We believe in their work. If the film’s action doesn’t manage to seduce us, we are seduced by the characters’ prevailing idealism in such dire times.
It’s prescient, too, to be celebrating war journalists — people with nothing to protect them but cameras and press vests — in the current global climate. Garland could not have anticipated Civil War would be released at a time when many of us are quite familiar with the names of press journalists across the world — Motaz, Bisan, Plestia. Outfitted with far less ego and equipment than the journalists in this film, the reality of journalists in Palestine is impossible not to recall while watching Civil War. It adds another thread of reality to the film that makes it all the more effective.
Is Civil War (2023) good?
Civil War pulls off Garland’s intended feat of creating an unequivocally anti-war war movie. But it’s by no means flat or didactic. The tapestry of scenes the characters encounter keeps the film moving. With each stop they make and each new character we meet, we learn something new about this world — and about ourselves.
This is perhaps the most impressive accomplishment of Civil War. It tells us about ourselves.
Garland shows us ourselves in the characters, in the polarized nation, and in the scenes of atrocity, the film never shies away from. “The first season of The Handmaid's Tale did something very interesting, which was it had bits of imagery that would seem shocking. But as you're watching them, you realize there was a real-world allegory or parallel. We basically did the same thing,” revealed Garland.
“The scenes are referencing moments from the real world. But not, it's important to say, exceptional moments. Moments that you would expect in any war. And in a way, that's part of the point. I think it was necessary to do that if one is going to be anti-war. Some of the sanitizing might pollute the message.”
The film is also tremendously evocative emotionally because it is so immersive. The film offers the audience the chance to feel like it’s behind the camera by following the photographers and revealing the shots the characters “take” during the film. And to get the shot, we go with them into the line of fire.
This is where I make my plea: you must watch Civil War in IMAX. Wrapped in the giant screen and surrounded by the full power of a fantastic soundtrack, this was the most immersive watching experience of my life — even more than any 3D film I’ve ever seen or Oppenheimer … sorry, Christopher Nolan. As if we needed the movie to feel more real, IMAX puts you right in the thick of it.
Ultimately, Civil War isn’t really a warning — it doesn’t make political moralizations. But it’s a call to action. Or a call to remembering. It urges us to appreciate, above all, perspective and truth.
Civil War has its wide release on April 12, 2024. Prepare your nerves. Watch the trailer here: