I know we know Rina, Bree, Hannah and Charli are basically leading the British underground pop girls rn but I wanna talk about some smaller(?) ones rn too for a bit idk why I do but just hear me out lol

We’re seeing some younger singer-songwriters like Raissa, L Devine, and Sarah Close start to emerge in those weirder areas of pop, and L Devine (like Charli XCX) is responsible for writing many songs by other artists as well. They’ve all had fairly organic rises from different-

beginnings. Sarah Close started as a YouTuber posting covers, L Devine saved up money to move to London to pursue a music career, and Raissa (who seemingly just began releasing music this year?) was noticed by Mark Ronson among others for her debut single (& self directed video).

many of you probably know this but the UK singles chart is calculated significantly differently than the Billboard Hot 100. While the Hot 100 (archaically) takes radio airplay into account, the UK singles chart is based purely on streams and sales.

As someone who analyzes the charts quite a lot, I genuinely don’t understand if that means it’s harder or easier to break through commercially in the UK because there are lots of moving factors. Artists seem to have more longevity in the spotlight there rather than the US

which can make it harder for newer artists to break through, but currently, radio in the US is far behind. It either plays music by already successful artists or songs that are already commercially successful through streaming/purchasing.

I do not know why I went on that tangent. Back to the subject at hand!! There are other artists in the UK who make music on the edges of pop but with significant influence of other genres, like Georgia and Tirzah. This could also arguably apply to Shygirl’s more recent material.

Siren and Tasty are specific examples of this, with her unique personality shining through dance-pop music while still maintaining the experimental electronic and hip-hop/grime influence of much of her other material.

you’ve got many women and non-binary artists working as producers as well, often combining avant-grade elements with pop sensibilities - both in their own music (felicita, FKA twigs, and Nabihah Iqbal for example) or in their production for others’ (e.g. Mica Levi & SOPHIE).

twigs is arguably the most famous artist I’ve talked about here so far, with SOPHIE and Mica also enjoying quite a large fanbase and collaborating with some of the singer-songwriters mentioned earlier in the thread). But that’s what brings me to a main point here:

There’s generally a camaraderie between most of these artists. They tend to collaborate or at the very least support each other, no matter their size. There’s almost a notion that if one blows up, they’ll take some of the others with them. I just think that’s beautiful.