Every year, around this time, I am reminded that the Grammy Awards exist and that many people around the world (but mostly Americans) pay attention. These awards are given out by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science every year to commemorate the artists, bands, and performers that this august body deems most worthy that year. This year the big winners were Macklemore, Daft Punk, and Lorde. Many of the most fanatic music fans I know, however, have very little interest in what the American recording industry thinks is the best music of the year. Music is such a vast field that covers so much territory that it is truly impossible to say what The Best Album of 2013 was, and the Grammys are very limited in their scope.

   Popular music is a huge American cultural export, and folks all over the world know Jay Z, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Eminem, Jason Mraz, Britney Spears, and many others. These acts are heavily supported by large record companies and tour the world in order to spread their music and increase their fanbases. Their songs receive the most rotation on radio and internet streaming services, their faces are plastered across billboard advertisements, and their music videos are pushed online and on television. This support is key to their fame (say what you will about their own artistic qualities), and it is a major reason why these performers are known and are popular outside the US.

   Of course there are many other performers, artists, and bands that have not received the same degree of corporate support. Many are independent, and choose to carve their own paths to success. They value having more artistic freedom and enjoy less interference from a music industry interested mostly in sales.

   Since many American recording artists are already famous in Korea, I thought I would recommend four acts that have unique — if not always popular — voices in contemporary American music. You can search Youtube for their “key tracks” to get a feel for their music. With so much music from around the world available to us, it seems a shame not to investigate further!


Tom Waits
   Tom Waits began his career in the 1970s playing piano-based jazz and blues music with a slightly twisted bent. Heavily influenced by the Beat poets of the 1960s, his music got much stranger by the 1980s. This album marked his transition into one of American music’s most eclectic and irreverent mad scientist. His music became a strange amalgamation of showtunes, folk, blues, jazz, rock, pop, opera, noise, hip-hop, and experimental music. He voice is known for sounding gritty, gravelly, raspy, and growly, but he is capable of beautiful crooning as well as caustic barking. His songs are often stories, filled to the brim with haunted characters, strange imagery, deep longing, and wild humor. Truly an American original, but the sort of artist you may not like immediately with just a few listens.

Key Tracks: Hold On, Clap Hands, Top of the Hill, Old ’55, Innocent When You Dream

Janelle Monae
   It is a mystery to me why Kansas-born singer Janelle Monae is not the biggest star on planet Earth as she is clearly a great genius and what we might call in English “the complete package.” This lady writes, sings, and dances with the all time greatest. Monae has clear influences from James Brown, Grace Jones, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, and David Bowie among others, but has staked her own claim to originality by re-writing the R&B manual for the 21stcentury. A daring young artist, her music combines modern hip-hop and R&B with older sounds of disco, funk, synthpop, rock, swing, and many other styles that swirl together into a fascinating blend. Her ambition is matched only by her talent and drive.

Key Tracks: Come Alive (The War of the Roses), Tightrope, Q.U.E.E.N., Dance Apocalyptic

Deftones
   Although often lumped in with some less-appealing rock/metal bands that grew to popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Deftones have always been a band apart. The Sacramento, California quintet has been influenced as much by British alternative music, hip hop, and ambient electronic soundscapes as head-banging metal, and each Deftones album sounds at totally different from the last and yet always sounds just the Deftones, which is a rare feat in today’s rock landscape. Moody, challenging, and technically accomplished without being irritating, the band never repeats themselves and consistently delivers aggressive music with thoughtfulness.

Key Tracks: 7 Words, Be Quiet and Drive, Change (In The House of Flies), Swerve City

The Mountain Goats
   Singer-songwriter John Darnielle began his career by recording himself singing and playing his acoustic guitar on an old boombox tapedeck. Today he has a full band and records in traditional studios, but his years spent honing his craft as a songwriter has carried through into his more high-fidelity recordings. A sharp lyricist and a prolific writer with a dense back catalogue, his songs flows from the ridiculous to the sublime, sometimes within the same song. He is often talked about as one of America’s best living songwriters, one who can adroitly tackle such disparate subjects as love, addiction, faith, travel, and rebellion.

Key Tracks: Cubs in Five, Your Belgian Things, Sax Rohmer #1, Damn These Vampires

By Prof. Matthew Ross Dept. of English Language and Literature