I’m sure every Gen Zer wants to believe their music taste is the most niche ever. I know for my friends and I pride ourselves on how unique our music tastes are, almost like a silent status symbol.
I look forward to the end of each year, knowing my Spotify Wrapped will affirm that my discography is full of amazing feminine artists whose lyrics I can heart wrenchingly relate to on a deeply emotional level, especially when they critiques society and explore identity.
If your music taste includes angsty, feminine-identifying artists with a knack for singing about love, relationships and the world around them, this is the article for you.
Deyyess
Deyyess is an emerging queer indie-pop artist from Canterbury, England, who creates music exploring what it means to be a girl who falls in love with other girls. Her songs uniquely capture the women-loving-women (WLW) experience, and she is an artist devoted to creating your new queer anthem.
Her music is incredibly relatable in the gut-wrenching way, as she describes tales of unrequited love kept hidden from the world with her song “love u (from afar)” and the experience of getting blown off by someone you thought you had something with in her song “every time.”
Her songs also explore falling fast and hard in love through her song “claire” and the intimate experiences of a summer relationship through “Lips Like Sugar.”
Not only does Deyyess create beautiful music, she also has many visualizers of her songs up on her YouTube channel, perfectly encapsulating the vibe of her songs through soft-girl retro aesthetics.
Deyyess is one of my favorite artists of the past couple years and is exactly your vibe if you love yearning and queer representation.
Kristiane
Kristiane’s music encapsulates precisely what it feels like to grow up and experience immense change during a pivotal period of life. Growing up in a family that moved around many times throughout her childhood, writing music was her way to cope with all the changes that this lifestyle brought upon her.
My favorite album of Kristiane’s, “Not Anything, Just Everything,” includes songs that describe feelings of self-loathing and deep reflection while it coincides with the inevitable growth that must come sooner rather than later. It is an honest album that describes exactly what the mind wants to overcome.
My favorite songs of hers include “Not Anything, Just Everything,” which describes the feeling of self-sacrifice and wanting more from another person, and “Beacon,” which depicts a toxic relationship and being in a continued cycle of not seeing the warning signs before it’s too late.
Babygirl
Babygirl is a pop-rock duo with a knack for creating songs that can only be described as melancholic, warm hugs. After making music for about 10 years, the duo has mastered the art of capturing yearning, feeling heartache and love throughout its entire discography.
In their most recent album, “Stay Here Where It’s Warm,” Babygirl expands on its soft musical style with songs that touch on the human experience with such care.
One of my favorite songs within this album include “Dancing With Her,” a song about unrequited love and attempting to be nonchalant in the face of subliminal rejection. Another song I enjoy is “You Don’t Need A Reason To Call,” a song about the unsure feelings that come with falling in love and knowing you’ll always pick up when that special someone calls.
If you enjoy soft vocals and a strong pop style of song, you’d love Babygirl.
Annabelle Dinda
Annabelle Dinda’s songs are perfect for those that love thought-provoking indie folk music. Her most popular song, “The Hand,” tackles the heaviness and the complexity of the female experience through intricate metaphors and descriptive storytelling.
What I find the most fascinating about her music is how well-defined her fast-paced lyrics are in describing such unique experiences. Annabelle Dinda’s songs are ones that stick with you. With each read-through of the skillfully crafted lyrics, there is no doubt you can find some verse that cuts deeper the more times you think about it afterwards.
One of my favorite songs include “Pleaser,” which includes lyrics full of rhetorical questions about being conditioned to bring yourself down to please others and the aching feeling of just wanting to prioritize yourself. Another song I love is called “Blunt Force and Bomb Dog,” where she undertakes the complex experience of hyper-vigilance in toxic relationships through the comparison of a partner being an explosion that can go off at any moment despite showing the narrator frequent intense kindness.
Lastly, another reason why I love Annabelle Dinda’s music so much is she is able to showcase the extensive scope of the topics she is able to tackle. Her song, “Whatever You Wanna,” a recent release, is quite different from her other songs in the sense that it is a feel-good song that makes you feel giddy with the warmth of friendship and attachment through her lyrics and up-beat vibe. This is the kind of song you’d want to sing and dance in the shower to.
So, if you’re looking for someone that can tackle intense subjects with a unique style and poetic writing, Annabelle Dinda is exactly the kind of artist for you.
Tommy Lefroy
Tommy Lefroy is an indie-rock duo from London who aim to put the experiences of womanhood, queerness and living in our current society at the forefront of their music.
Their songs inspire me because they openly and honestly touch on subjects that many of us notice but may have a hard time putting to words. The song “Girlhood, Girlhood” encapsulates this understanding that women in our society have always been put on a pedestal with their words rarely taken seriously.
Tommy Lefroy songs feel like cries and screams for those who care to listen. For listeners, their songs can feel very cathartic. One of my favorite songs, “Slush Puppy,” feels like an existential anthem to describe my developing adolescent years. This song touches upon societal issues, like being forced to live in a surveillance state and the irony of attempting to have a normal girlhood experience while being so blatantly aware of the social concerns that scream in our faces.
Tommy Lefroy validates the troubling feeling of growing up into early adulthood and experiencing society’s ever-present flaws. But, I feel that this duo’s songs give hope that there’s a community out there, as much aware as us, and hungry for change.
All in all, the power of music that one can truly relate to can be so powerful in processing the complex emotions that growing up can come with.
What better way to understand how one is feeling than by some new music recommendations? If any of these artists and their song’s messaging resonate with you, let us know @HerCampusSJSU!