Written by Peter A. Berry of Third Bridge Creative This is the fifth installment of our monthly column that looks back at key new releases from artists across the spectrum, from superstars to upstarts. We’ll break down what happened and why it mattered. In this edition, we highlight releases from Billie Eilish, Yaya Bey, Tommy Richman, Chief Keef, and Knocked Loose. Billie Eilish Dominates Again With HIT ME HARD AND SOFT With her whispery vocals and idiosyncratic musicality, Billie Eilish is a few years into superstar status, and she proves why with her new album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT ..read more

Written by Peter A. Berry, a Third Bridge Creative contributor. It’s not quite an established adage, but it’s true: drama sells, and since the beginning of the year, hip-hop has had a lot of it. Since January, artists like Megan Thee Stallion, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and others have leaned into their hostility to serve up vicious diss tracks, and the results have usually been receiving huge numbers on streaming platforms.  Megan Thee Stallion kicked things off in January with her scathing diss song, “HISS,” which took aim at adversaries like Tory Lanez, Nicki Minaj, and Drake, a ..read more

This is the first in a two-part series exploring the state of hip-hop/rap in collaboration with the UK ticketing platform Shoobs. Stay tuned for part two coming next Friday (5/31). If you’ve been following music news in the past year, there’s a likely chance you’ve seen the words “hip-hop” and “decline” sharing the same headline. Throughout 2023, the fall of the music industry’s genre-giant became a widely discussed and hotly debated topic. While many argued that the genre’s fall in market share is something of a concern, others noted that its lack of chart preeminence is due to a variety of ..read more

By Colin Joyce, Michelle Hyun Kim, Jaelani Turner-Williams, and Brandon Ousley of Third Bridge Creative This week’s edition of emerging artists are making noise in the Dominican Republic’s growing dembow market, TikTok’s shoegaze revival, Australia’s rousing alternative R&B scene, and making a bid for Atlanta’s new generation of rap stars. Lomiiel Chartmetric Artist Rank: 3,605 Genre: Latin Country: Dominican Republic In the wake of the global crossover of El Alfa and other stars from the Dominican Republic in the last few years, dembow has ascended to a place in the worldwide spotlight ..read more

The weird and wonderful world of Eurovision is no longer a one-night-only affair. Since the inaugural contest way back in 1956, the musical feast has launched the careers of ABBA, Celine Dion, and, more recently, Måneskin. It used to enter the European consciousness for only one Saturday evening each May, but since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, the four-hour extravaganza has turned into a week-long spectacle. Even more significantly, the internet age has allowed fans across the world to familiarize themselves with every bombastic key change, shoehorned-in dance break, and lost ..read more

With nearly 80% of artists on Spotify never even hitting 1,000 monthly listeners in 2023, visibility is an increasingly essential topic for many musicians in the industry today. When a 2023 study asked musicians about the biggest challenges they currently face in their music, over two-thirds responded that breaking through the noise was one of their three most significant challenges — with notable runners-up being joining the dots between social activity and streaming, lack of time to create, and lack of financial resources. While the lower barrier to entry resulting from streaming has provid ..read more

By Michelle Hyun Kim, Kemet High, Leah Mandel, and Brandon Ousley of Third Bridge Creative This week’s column of rising artists are making their mark in experimental hip-hop, a Japanese-Chinese amalgamation of pop-leaning R&B, Atlanta rap’s next storyteller, indie-pop from Brooklyn’s latest duo, and the songstress leading Barbados’ sultry R&B. FearDorian Chartmetric Artist Rank: 34,049 Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap Country: U.S. At 17, Atlanta-based producer/rapper FearDorian has already established himself as a tastemaker through crafting beats picked by young internet rap experimentalists lik ..read more

Last month, our team at Chartmetric proudly launched our tool Onesheet out of beta. This site revolutionizes one of the most essential tasks of anyone working in music, enabling users to create beautiful onesheets in just one click. To celebrate, we caught up with an Onesheet user to learn how they are wielding the platform! In 2023, Antoine Rousseau founded Memento, an agency focused on supporting creatives by providing them with tools, spaces, and opportunities. He’s no stranger to Chartmetric: he was introduced to the platform while getting his master’s degree in music business at Berklee ..read more

Written by Peter A. Berry of Third Bridge Creative This is the fourth installment of our monthly column that looks back at key new releases from artists across the spectrum, from superstars to upstarts. We’ll break down what happened and why it mattered. In this edition, we look at releases from Taylor Swift, Drake, GloRilla, BbyMutha, and Doja Cat. Taylor Swift's historic debut with THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT Whoever said, “nothing exceeds like excess” clearly never met Taylor Swift. Last week, the singer released her latest album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, only to drop an addit ..read more

 By Colin Joyce, Jaelani Turner-Williams, Kemet High, Peter A. Berry, and Vrinda Jagota of Third Bridge Creative This week’s column of rising artists shines a spotlight on the campy pop princess everyone is talking about, SoundCloud’s next generation of rage rap, the maturation of a Midwest R&B singer, Caribbean hip-hop fusion, and a stellar Jersey Club mix. Chappell Roan Chartmetric Artist Rank: 246 Genre: Pop Country: U.S. Clad in hot pink, feathers, and rhinestones, and wielding a voice that cascades octaves and relays yearning via a slight country twang, Chappell Roan is here to ..read more