SONG.REVIEWSStage name of John Anthony Rodriguez, born 2000 in Bloomfield, New Jersey, to a Puerto Rican father and Dominican mother -- a nod to Studio 54 and Frank Ocean's Nostalgia, Ultra. Broke out with 2023's "Where Are You?" and the 2025 debut EP First Works, signed to Interscope Records in April 2026 shortly after "Talk to You" broke wide.
Queens, New York hip hop group formed in 1985 by Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi White, central to the Native Tongues collective and to jazz-influenced "golden age" hip hop. Their 1990 debut People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm included "Can I Kick It?"
Norwegian trio of Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen, and Pal Waaktaar-Savoy, formed in Oslo in 1982 and broken internationally from London with 1985's Hunting High and Low. One of the few acts of the MTV synth-pop wave to convert a single defining video into a career that outlasted the format by decades.
Slovak pop singer whose 2026 debut album Prima, led by the viral single "Nicole Kidman," made her the first Slovak artist to reach the Billboard Hot 100 (with the earlier single "Ain't in LA") and then to crack its top 20.
American soul singer, songwriter, and pastor, best known for his early-1970s hits with Hi Records. He founded the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976 and, after injuring himself in a 1979 fall from a stage in Cincinnati, concentrated on pastoring and gospel music. His 1982 album Precious Lord topped Billboard's Top Gospel Albums chart, and its title track won the 1983 Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Performance, Traditional.
American country singer-songwriter with a run of No. 1 hits from the late 1980s onward. His 2006 album Precious Memories, his first gospel record, grew out of a hymn he sang at his father-in-law's funeral; released without a single push behind it, it went on to earn a platinum certification.
Nashville-born singer-songwriter widely credited with bringing contemporary Christian music into the pop mainstream in the 1980s and 90s. Her 2005 hymns album Rock of Ages... Hymns and Faith, produced with her husband Vince Gill, won a Grammy for Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album.
Christian and country singer-songwriter and Grammy nominee. Her breakthrough single "My Jesus" reached No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart, and her third album, Stars, was released October 17, 2025. A reimagined duet of its song "Still Do" with Cole Swindell followed on March 6, 2026.
Amsterdam house duo Jesse van der Heijden and Oguzhan "Oz" Guney, running their own label and events brand No Art since 2015. Built a reputation through Circoloco and Solid Grooves bookings, a 2022 sold-out debut headline show at NDSM-Werf, and 2023's debut album The Reset, before "Talk to You" (2026) became their biggest crossover hit.
Washington, D.C. project of Max Wood, the sole writer and performer, making what its own Bandcamp bio calls glitchy screamy mostly electronic pop music. The project's debut album Uhhh Sort Of came out in 2005; Wood revived it in 2024. Applied Communications Bites the Big One, released September 25, 2026 on the project's own Bandcamp page, was named a Bandcamp Daily Album of the Day.
Detroit-raised singer, the daughter of a prominent Baptist preacher, who brought the gospel church she grew up singing in directly into secular soul music and became its defining voice — 18 Grammys, the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a catalog that never fully left the church even at its most secular. In January 1972, at the height of her pop and R&B fame, she went back: two nights at a Los Angeles church, backed by a gospel choir, recorded as *Amazing Grace* — still the best-selling live gospel album ever made.
Florida-born pop and R&B vocalist known for a four-octave range and a run of 2010s-2020s hits built around Max Martin's production. "Hate That I Made You Love Me," the lead single from her eighth album Petal, debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 — her tenth chart-topper — before cooling on the chart in the months after release.
Illinois-born, New York City-based singer, songwriter, and multi- instrumentalist who has self-recorded and self-released indie rock for roughly a decade, writing, playing, and producing almost everything herself across dozens of Bandcamp releases. She broke through more widely with 2024's Home Constellation Study and 2025's Joyful Noise debut 8 Tips for Full Catastrophe Living, and released two albums in 2026 alone: a full cover version of Jessica Pratt's self-titled debut in February, and Love Aggregates in August.
American singer-songwriter of Syrian descent whose music moved from contemporary worship into a more liturgical, hymn-centered songbook, including 2016's Inheritance, a collection of traditional church hymns released on her own Fortunate Fall Records.
Mississippi-born blues guitarist and singer (Riley B. King), known as "The King of the Blues" for a six-decade career built around his guitar "Lucille" and a vocal and lead-guitar style that shaped modern blues and rock guitar playing. "The Thrill Is Gone," released in 1969, became his signature pop crossover hit.
Australian-British trio of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, who moved from 1960s pop-rock harmonies into the sound that would define disco. "You Should Be Dancing," from 1976's Children of the World, was the group's first version of the four-on-the-floor disco style they'd ride to Saturday Night Fever a year later.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina piano-rock trio -- Ben Folds on piano and vocals, Robert Sledge on bass, Darren Jessee on drums -- formed in 1994 and built a guitar-free sound around Folds' aggressive, percussive piano playing. Their self-titled 1995 debut, led by the alt-rock radio single "Underground," established the template the band expanded on with 1997's breakout *Whatever and Ever Amen*.
Worship collective based out of Bethel Church in Redding, California, releasing live worship albums since the early 2000s with a rotating cast of singer-songwriters drawn from the church's congregation and worship team. "It Is Well," from 2014's You Make Me Brave, reworks the 1876 hymn's refrain around new verses written by vocalist Kristene DiMarco.
Houston-born singer, songwriter, and producer whose eighth studio album Cowboy Carter (2024) -- billed as the second act of a planned trilogy following 2022's Renaissance -- won Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammys and made her the first Black woman to win Best Country Album, reclaiming a genre she has said made her feel unwelcome after an earlier rejection from the country music establishment.
Kentucky-born mandolinist and bandleader known as the father of bluegrass, who led the Blue Grass Boys through the genre's founding lineup years. His 1946 recording of "Blue Moon of Kentucky," cut for Columbia with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs both still in his band, became the music's foundational waltz -- and, eight years later, the song Elvis Presley converted into a 4/4 blues-rock B-side that helped invent rockabilly.
Los Angeles singer-songwriter who broke through as a teenager with 2019's whisper-close bedroom pop and has resisted repeating herself on every record since. Hit Me Hard and Soft (2024), written and produced entirely with brother Finneas O'Connell, traded the earlier albums' horror-movie theatrics for something plainer, warmer, and more emotionally direct.
British-born rock singer who moved from the punk scene to MTV stardom. "White Wedding," from his 1982 self-titled debut, needed a 1983 US re- release and a 1985 UK reissue to reach its chart peaks, with Steve Stevens on guitar and Keith Forsey producing. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductee.
Long Island-born singer-songwriter and classically trained pianist, one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. "This Night," from 1983's An Innocent Man, sets an original lyric to the melody of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 ("Pathetique") -- close enough to the source that Beethoven is credited as a co-writer on the album sleeve.
English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 as Earth, renamed in 1969 after a Boris Karloff horror film playing at a cinema across from their rehearsal space. The title track of their self-titled 1970 debut album, built on a tritone riff Tony Iommi called "the devil's interval," is widely credited as the first heavy metal song.
Ever-changing musical collective based in Falmouth, Cornwall (UK), co-founded by singer/guitarist Will Greenham and vocalist/synthesist Anoushka Helm and built around a residency at the Falmouth venue The Cornish Bank. The lineup on their debut album adds Greenham's son Henry Greenham (synths), Phyllida Bluemel (cello), Phil Self (guitar), and Sam Pert (drums), with outside producer Sam Jones. Debut LP The Lemoine Point, recorded on a disused airfield near St Agnes, Cornwall, was released August 28, 2026 on the independent Geneva label Bongo Joe Records.
Minnesota-born singer-songwriter whose mid-1960s turn from acoustic folk to electric folk-rock reshaped popular songwriting. "Like a Rolling Stone," recorded in June 1965 and released that July, became the defining single of that turn, built in part around an organ part played by a musician who had talked his way into the session without ever having played the instrument before.
Jamaican group that grew out of the 1963 Kingston vocal trio of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer, and became reggae's first genuinely international act after Tosh and Wailer departed in 1974 and the I Threes took over the harmonies. Marley died of cancer in 1981 at 36.
American singer, songwriter, and actor whose lifelong fascination with horror star Boris Karloff led him to co-write and record "Monster Mash" with Leonard Capizzi and the Crypt-Kickers in 1962. The novelty single hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became a perennial Halloween standard, despite an 11-year BBC ban for being "too morbid" for broadcast.
Contemporary worship artist and Maverick City Music collaborator whose solo career has produced repeated Christian radio No. 1s. His 2025 collaboration with Jelly Roll, "Hard Fought Hallelujah," won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song at the 68th Grammy Awards -- his sixth Grammy overall.
American vocalist, composer, and producer working out of Exteran Studios. Known for a dramatic, text-forward delivery and a "push-pull" dynamic style that swings from intimate phrasing to full-throated power, across Country, Americana, Singer Songwriter, Hard Rock, R&B, Holiday, and Christian/Gospel. Flagship project: the dark Americana album *This Long Broken Road* (February 6, 2026), since reinterpreted in a hard-rock edition and covered by his own catalog of rock and pop reworks.
Hawaii-born singer, songwriter, and producer known for genre-hopping hit records spanning funk, soul, R&B, and pop across a career that includes eleven Grammy wins. "Risk It All," the opening track and second single from his fourth solo album The Romantic (2026), started as an uptempo idea before becoming a bolero built around his Latin heritage.
Seven-member South Korean group — RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook — that debuted under Big Hit Entertainment in 2013 and became one of the best-selling acts in the world across the 2010s. The group paused new releases while every member completed South Korea's mandatory military service, a process that closed out in June 2025. Arirang (2026), their sixth Korean-language studio album, is the first full group release since the hiatus began.
Toronto hardcore/hard rock band formed in 2004, known for unpolished, road-worn records and a JUNO-nominated run with Psychic Jailbreak. Released their eighth studio album, Give Me Dirt, August 7, 2026.
American Idol winner turned one of country music's biggest crossover stars. Her 2011 televised duet with Vince Gill on "How Great Thou Art" went viral within days of airing; a decade later she recorded the hymn again as a solo studio track for her Grammy-winning 2021 gospel album My Savior.
Veteran gospel singer, part of the Winans family gospel dynasty, with a recording career stretching back to the 1980s. Her 2021 single "Believe for It" won both a GMA Dove Award and the Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, and she later collaborated with Carrie Underwood on Underwood's gospel album My Savior.
Cuban-born salsa singer. "La Vida Es un Carnaval," written by Argentine composer Victor Daniel and released in 1998 from Mi Vida Es Cantar, became one of her signature songs. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Early Influence honoree.
Gospel and worship vocalist, formerly a lead voice of Maverick City Music, who announced his departure from the collective in October 2025 and subsequently filed a fraud lawsuit alleging a former manager and Maverick City CEO misused his position to take royalties, commissions, and publishing rights without consent -- allegations the organization has denied. "God I'm Just Grateful," with Elevation Worship, was his first major release after the split.
Missouri-born pop singer (Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) whose 2023 debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess became a slow-building phenomenon through 2024, built on a drag-indebted visual style and a string of queer-anthem singles. Her October 2026 remix verse on Olivia Rodrigo's "expectations" is her first official recorded feature.
English pop experimentalist who spent over a decade half-inside the mainstream and half-inside its underground fringes -- writing hits for other artists, releasing PC Music-adjacent mixtapes -- before 2024's Brat turned that split personality into a genuine cultural moment: a lime-green, deliberately unglamorous alternative to pop polish that spawned its own meme economy and won three Grammys.
American singer and actress whose recording career spans six decades, from 1965's "I Got You Babe" with Sonny Bono through a series of pop reinventions, including 1998's "Believe," which pushed Auto-Tune to an extreme setting and helped popularize what's still called the "Cher effect."
AI-assisted music project of Margaret Bynum, a self-released artist from Mississippi who builds songs using the Suno platform and distributes them independently rather than through a label. Her single "I Love Me, LOUD" peaked at No. 2 on Billboard's R&B Digital Song Sales chart in March 2026.
Toledo, Ohio band fronted by Mat Kerekes since 2009, blurring emo, post-hardcore, and grunge into a sound that resists any one genre tag. Released Halcyon Blues on Run For Cover Records, August 7, 2026.
Virginia Beach rap duo Pusha T and Malice (Gene Thornton), coke-rap originators who built their reputation on Neptunes-produced menace in the 2000s before going their separate ways for 16 years. Reunited for 2025's *Let God Sort Em Out*, produced entirely by Pharrell Williams, after paying to exit their Def Jam deal over a censorship dispute.
French duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who spent most of a 28-year career inside robot helmets and released only four studio albums — from 1997's Homework, which helped define French house, to 2013's Random Access Memories, which spent its budget on session musicians instead of samples. Announced their split in February 2021.
Sydney alt-rock/indie rock trio — Tommy O'Dell, Johnny Took, and Matt Mason — formed in 2012, known for anthemic singles like "Delete" and "Silver." "My Baby's Place" is their first fully self-produced song, tracked with Lach Bostock in their own Glebe studio.
Tampa, Florida rapper and singer signed to Top Dawg Entertainment and Capitol Records. Her 2024 mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal made her only the third woman to win the Grammy for Best Rap Album, after Lauryn Hill and Cardi B -- a genre-blurring, confessional record built on rapid character and style shifts within single songs.
Tennessee-born country singer-songwriter, actress, and philanthropist, among the most successful songwriters in American popular music, with a catalog including "Jolene," "9 to 5," and "I Will Always Love You." Died August 25, 2026, at age 80; her catalog surged back onto the Billboard Hot 100 in the weeks after, with "9 to 5" overtaking "Jolene" as her highest-charting hit on the September 12, 2026 chart.
American singer-songwriter and actor from Naples, Florida, who wrote his 2018 breakthrough tracks while confined to house arrest. Known for genre- blurring work across alternative rock, hip hop, and reggae-inflected pop, and for acting roles including HBO's Euphoria. His third studio album, How To Quit Smoking, arrived October 30, 2026.
Houston singer and rapper, born Caleb Toliver, who emerged from Travis Scott's Cactus Jack label with a melodic, Auto-Tune-indebted style drawing on trap, psychedelic rock, and R&B falsetto. His 2026 feature on Drake's "Solar Eclipse" became his highest-charting Hot 100 entry.
American singer known as the "Queen of Disco," whose collaborations with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte defined the sound of late-1970s disco. "I Feel Love," released in 1977, was built on an entirely synthesized backing track and became a foundational record for electronic dance music.
Toronto rapper and singer, born Aubrey Drake Graham, who broke through as an actor on Degrassi: The Next Generation before his 2009 mixtape So Far Gone launched a recording career built on blending rap with sung R&B hooks. Holds the record for most Billboard Hot 100 top-10 hits of any artist. His eighth studio album, Habibti (FOMO), and its deluxe "Encore" edition arrived in 2026.
Los Angeles country-rock band formed in 1971 around Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner, later adding guitarists Don Felder and Joe Walsh as the sound hardened toward rock. Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 and 1976's Hotel California remain two of the best-selling albums ever released in the United States. Frey died in 2016.
Worship collective out of Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, led by pastor Steven Furtick, that has produced a long run of Christian radio No. 1s across the 2010s and 2020s. "God I'm Just Grateful," featuring Chandler Moore and released November 7, 2025, was Moore's first major release after leaving Maverick City Music that October.
Country singer-songwriter from Hope Hull, Alabama, who taught herself guitar at 14 and started in Nashville's songwriting rooms in 2019 after leaving Auburn. Her 2024 debut album Hungover produced two Country Airplay No. 1s, including the Riley Green duet "You Look Like You Love Me." Her 2026 follow-up Dandelion, led by "Choosin' Texas," made her the first female artist to simultaneously top the Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts.
American singer and one of the most commercially successful artists of the 20th century. Alongside his rock and roll and pop hits, Presley recorded three gospel albums across his career; 1967's How Great Thou Art earned him the first of his three competitive Grammy wins, all in gospel/sacred categories.
British easy-listening balladeer (born Arnold George Dorsey, 1936) whose run of orchestral pop hits -- "Release Me," "The Last Waltz," "After the Lovin'" -- made him a fixture of adult-contemporary radio from the late 1960s onward. At 90, he released Faithfully (2026), a full album of rock classics reworked with orchestra and strings, several of them featuring the original songwriters and session players as guests.
American singer-songwriter, formerly of power-pop band the Raspberries, who went solo in the mid-1970s. His signature hit, "All by Myself" (1975), built its melody directly on Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 -- closely enough that Carmen ended up splitting the song's publishing royalties with the composer's estate.
American singer and actress whose career spanned blues, jazz, and gospel from the 1920s through the 1970s. "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" became her signature song and the title of her 1951 autobiography; she performed it at Billy Graham's crusades for two decades, including his first New York crusade at Madison Square Garden in 1957.
Seven-piece band from South London -- Joe Love, Chris Hughes, Morgan Wallace, Ellis Dickson, Michael Dunlop, Dillon Harrison, and Jed Bevington -- known for splicing electro-punk, klezmer, rave, and spaghetti-western alt-pop into a single, deliberately uncategorizable sound. Their second album, Cancel Me (I'm Tired), arrived October 2, 2026, on Domino.
Nigerian bandleader who led Africa 70 and lived in the Kalakuta Republic compound in Lagos, which was attacked and burned by soldiers on February 18, 1977. His 1976 album Zombie satirized the Nigerian military and in 2025 became the first Nigerian album inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Early Influence honoree.
Los Angeles rapper and longtime member of the Shoreline Mafia collective, built a name on laid-back, gang-affiliated South Central hip-hop before pivoting into synth-pop and dance-pop territory as a solo act. Recording for Flexxd Up Ent via Empire Distribution.
American singer-songwriter and pianist known for sparse, hymn-literate Christian folk recordings since the early 1990s. His 2024 EP For All The Saints, his first new collection in four years, reimagines five congregational hymns -- including the title track -- in stripped-down arrangements for a new generation.
British-American rock band formed in London in 1967, reaching its commercial peak with the 1975 addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and the 1977 album Rumours, one of the best-selling albums of all time. "Dreams," its sole Hot 100 No. 1, found an unexpected second life on streaming charts in 2020.
British R&B trio — Stella Quaresma, Jorja Douglas, and Renée Downer — formed in London in 2019, built on 2000s-style girl-group harmonies and production. Grammy-nominated for Best New Artist off debut album Access All Areas; signed to Island Records/EMI. Second studio album, Therapy At The Club, released August 7, 2026.
Christian singer-songwriter and former member of the duo Surfaces, now recording solo Christian pop through his own River House Records. His 2024 single "Your Way's Better" became an organic 2025 TikTok breakout, crossing onto the Hot 100 nearly seven months after release with no radio push behind the surge.
Canadian-American gospel singer known as the "beloved gospel singer of America," a fixture of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for more than five decades. His performances of "How Great Thou Art" during the 1957 Madison Square Garden crusade -- sung dozens of times across the 16-week campaign -- helped turn the hymn into a standard. Died in 2013 at age 104.
Memphis rapper, born Gloria Woods, who broke out with 2022's "F.N.F. (Let's Go)" and has since built a recurring collaborative relationship with gospel artist Kirk Franklin, including 2026's "This Time."
American country-rock singer-songwriter who worked with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He died in September 1973; his album Grievous Angel, with Emmylou Harris, was released on Reprise in January 1974. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Early Influence honoree.
Chicago-born jazz pianist and composer, a member of Miles Davis's second great quintet in the 1960s before a solo career that repeatedly crossed into funk, electro, and hip-hop production, most visibly on 1983's "Rockit."
Contemporary Christian worship leader and songwriter. "Mighty Name of Jesus," her 2025 collaboration with Josh Baldwin, was nominated for Worship Recorded Song of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2026 GMA Dove Awards.
Los Angeles hard rock/industrial metal band fronted by Maria Brink since 2005, built on operatic, confrontational songwriting across albums like Blood and Mother. Signed to Better Noise Music for its ninth studio album, Witch, due August 28, 2026.
Hymn-revival collective that grew out of Reformed University Fellowship campus ministry at Belmont University, led by RUF minister Kevin Twit and built around songwriters including Sandra McCracken, Derek Webb, and Andrew Osenga. Their mission pairs centuries-old hymn texts with newly written melodies -- including a 1997 Christopher Miner setting of "For All the Saints" that replaces Ralph Vaughan Williams' famous tune entirely.
An AI-generated R&B and soul act with no real-life performer behind the voice, built on the Suno platform and released through Myers Music. Journalists have attributed the project to Greenville, South Carolina producer Dallas Little, who is also linked to the AI act Eddie Dalton. Active since early 2026.
British heavy metal band. "The Trooper," written by bassist Steve Harris and drawn from Tennyson's poem about the Charge of the Light Brigade, was the second single from 1983's Piece of Mind, the first album with drummer Nicko McBrain. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductee.
American singer and winner of "American Idol" Season 23 (2025). Jonathan McReynolds has said he first noticed Roberts during that run before inviting him to co-record "Still (Live)," a genuine reality-TV-to-gospel crossover nominated for the 2026 Grammy for Best Gospel Performance/Song.
Christian pop singer-songwriter from Caro, Michigan, signed to Capitol Christian Music Group. Her debut album Jamie MacDonald arrived January 23, 2026, and "Ain't No Way" became her third consecutive No. 1 on Billboard's Christian Airplay chart. "Left It In The River" earned her the K-LOVE Fan Awards Song of the Year and 2026 GMA Dove Award nominations for Song of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year.
British acid jazz and funk group fronted by Jay Kay, built around a rotating lineup with Kay and keyboardist/co-writer Toby Smith as the creative core through the group's 1990s run. "Virtual Insanity," the second single from 1996's Travelling Without Moving, won four MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year for its Jonathan Glazer-directed moving-floor illusion.
Nashville rapper-turned-country singer (born Jason DeFord) whose public history with addiction and incarceration has become central to his music. His 2025 collaboration with Brandon Lake, "Hard Fought Hallelujah," won him his first Grammy, one of three he took home at the 68th Grammy Awards.
Seoul-born singer, rapper, and songwriter Jennie Kim, main rapper and lead vocalist of BLACKPINK since 2016 and, since 2018's "SOLO," a solo act in her own right through her label ODD ATELIER. Her verse on the "Dracula" remix with Tame Impala gave her a Hot 100 top-10 hit as a soloist — only the second BLACKPINK member, after Rosé, to reach one.
American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and producer, and one of a small number of EGOT winners. His 2025 collaboration with gospel singer Tasha Cobbs Leonard, "Church," paired his mainstream R&B profile with a traditional gospel arrangement of piano, choir, and two lead vocals.
Arkansas-born singer whose career ran from Sun Records rockabilly in 1955 through the Folsom and San Quentin prison albums to the American Recordings series with Rick Rubin that reintroduced him to a rock audience in his sixties. Died in 2003, four months after his wife and frequent collaborator June Carter Cash.
Christian worship artist on Gotee Records. "No Fear," the title track of his 2025 sophomore album, written with Jeff Pardo and Matthew West, became his first Christian Airplay No. 1 and a 2026 GMA Dove Award nominee for Song of the Year.
American gospel singer-songwriter. His 2025 collaboration with Jamal Roberts, "Still (Live)," is nominated for the 2026 Grammy for Best Gospel Performance/Song. McReynolds has said he first noticed Roberts during Roberts' run on "American Idol" before bringing him into the recording.
Bethel Music worship leader and songwriter, known for "Stand in Your Love" and "Way Maker" co-writes. Joined Hope Darst on "Mighty Name of Jesus" (2025), a 2026 GMA Dove Award nominee for Worship Recorded Song of the Year and Song of the Year.
Christian indie-folk singer-songwriter. "Dusty Bibles" (2025), written with Dylan Thomas, John Michael Howell, and Zac Lawson, gave Queen his first Billboard Hot 100 entry and a 2026 GMA Dove Award nomination for Song of the Year.
San Francisco arena-rock band whose classic lineup, fronted by Steve Perry with Jonathan Cain on keyboards, produced a run of soft-rock radio staples in the early-to-mid 1980s. Cain wrote "Faithfully," from 1983's Frontiers, about the strain touring puts on a relationship -- reportedly inspired by a note he wrote his own wife on a tour bus.
Spanish singer-songwriter who co-wrote and sang on "BbY WOW" and contributed to four songs on KAROL G's No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto (2026). The song gave her a first Hot 100 top 10 and a first No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart.
American folk singer who broke through in the 1960s Greenwich Village scene, known for her clear soprano and for turning other songwriters' work — Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Stephen Sondheim — into some of the era's best-known recordings. Her a cappella "Amazing Grace" (1970) became an unlikely transatlantic hit and a Library of Congress National Recording Registry selection.
Texas country singer-songwriter known for plainspoken, detail-driven lyrics and a genre-agnostic ear — 2018's disco-pop *Golden Hour* won Album of the Year at the Grammys. Sixth album *Deeper Well* (2024) pulled back toward folk and Americana, self-produced with longtime collaborators Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk.
Colombian singer-songwriter and one of the biggest Latin stadium headliners working. "BbY WOW," with Judeline and rusowsky, comes from her sixth studio album No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto (2026), her first on her own Bichota Records imprint. It became her second Hot 100 top 10, tying "TQG" as her highest-charting entry there, and her first multi-week No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200.
English singer-songwriter and producer known for an idiosyncratic, theatrical art-pop style, from 1978's "Wuthering Heights" through 1985's Hounds of Love. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)," a modest hit on release, became her biggest-ever U.S. single 37 years later after its use in Stranger Things.
Six-member global girl group — Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Manon Bannerman, Megan Skiendiel, Sophia Laforteza, and Yoonchae Jeung — formed through HYBE and Geffen Records' 2023 competition series Dream Academy, pairing K-pop training methodology with a US/international label structure. Debuted in 2024 with "Debut" and "Touch."
Christian pop and worship singer-songwriter from North Carolina whose 2022 debut single "In Jesus Name (God of Possible)" became a multi-week Christian Airplay No. 1. Her sophomore album, Honest Conversations, followed her 2023 debut full-length Jesus Changed My Life.
Northern Irish husband-and-wife modern hymn-writing duo behind "In Christ Alone," whose 2021 album Confessio: Irish American Roots traced Irish and Scottish musical heritage through the American church, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Roots Gospel Album.
Atlanta rapper, one half of Run the Jewels, who guests alongside T.I. on Lecrae's 2025 Grammy-nominated grief song "Headphones" -- a rare pairing of mainstream secular rap veterans on a contemporary Christian record.
Ghanaian musician and kologo player born in 1974 in Bolgatanga, in Ghana's rural north, and descended from a Fra Fra hunting tribe. He plays the kologo, a homemade two-string lute made from a calabash and covered in goatskin, and sings in three distinct voices, one of which he says belongs to his grandfather, a spiritual healer. His 2006 debut Modern Ghanaians earned him three Ghana Music Awards in 2007; later albums include 1000 Can Die (2017) and Work Hard (2023) on Glitterbeat Records. His seventh album, Pure Confusion (September 4, 2026), was recorded live in one afternoon at producer Adrian Sherwood's Ramsgate studio and finished with dub production.
Texas-born gospel artist and choir director who spent the 1990s pushing gospel toward hip-hop and funk production, over loud objection from traditionalists. God's Property, the youth-choir ensemble he formed and directed, carried lead single "Stomp" — built on a Funkadelic sample — into mainstream R&B radio and MTV rotation, a rare gospel crossover on that scale.
Düsseldorf electronic group formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, operating out of their own Kling Klang Studio and building much of their own gear rather than relying on off-the-shelf instruments. Widely credited as a foundational influence on synth-pop, hip-hop, and techno.
Worship singer-songwriter and longtime Bethel Music vocalist. She wrote "It Is Well," released in 2015, after a difficult period searching for housing for her young family -- interpolating the refrain of the 1876 hymn "It Is Well with My Soul" around new verses of her own.
American country singer-songwriter and multiple CMA and ACM Award winner known for a self-described "bell bottom country" sound. Her 2026 duet with worship artist Brandon Lake, "The Jesus I Know Now," crosses her mainstream country profile with contemporary Christian radio.
American singer-songwriter (Elizabeth Grant) known since 2012's Born to Die for a cinematic, melancholic persona spanning sad-pop, baroque orchestration, and, more recently, a country-leaning turn. "Lies," an October 2026 duet with Zach Bryan, continues that country pivot, which began in earnest with her 2024 album Lasso.
Louisiana-born Christian and pop singer whose 2018 single "You Say" crossed onto mainstream pop radio and whose self-titled 2021 album debuted at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200. Her 2015 debut album, How Can It Be, produced the genre-defining "Look Up Child"-era sound she revisited for its tenth anniversary in 2025.
American singer, rapper, and songwriter, later of the Fugees and a Grammy-winning solo career, who appeared pre-fame in 1993's "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit," duetting with Tanya Blount on "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" in a performance widely cited as one of the definitive modern recordings of the hymn.
American Christian hip-hop artist. "Headphones," a promotional single from his 2025 album "Reconstruction" featuring Killer Mike and T.I., is a song of grief imagining deceased loved ones "with headphones in Heaven" -- nominated for the 2026 Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song, alongside a Best CCM Album nomination for the parent record.
American R&B and jazz singer-songwriter and actress. She portrayed Mahalia Jackson in Ava DuVernay's 2014 film Selma and sang "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" for its soundtrack, released digitally in December 2014.
New York-born R&B singer, songwriter, and producer (former child actor) who spent years writing hits for other artists before his second album, *Mutt* (2024), became his commercial and critical breakthrough — a Billboard Hot 100 top-10 title track and the Grammy for Best R&B Album, plus an Album of the Year nomination.
Singer-songwriter and the first non-Spencer Krug artist signed to Krug's label Pronounced Kroog. She opened for Krug's solo shows starting in June 2024, and her debut album, In Your Long Shadow (October 24, 2026), was written in the aftermath of her father Neil King Jr.'s death.
New York-born singer, songwriter and producer (1951-2005). After years as a session and background vocalist -- including vocal arrangements on David Bowie's Young Americans -- he released his debut album Never Too Much on Epic in August 1981. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductee.
American gospel singer (1911-1972) widely called the "Queen of Gospel," and a prominent voice in the civil rights movement who performed at the 1963 March on Washington shortly before Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Her recording of "It Is Well with My Soul" appeared on 1968's A Mighty Fortress.
American pop and R&B singer-songwriter. "Jesus I Do," her collaboration with The Clark Sisters from the 2025 album Here for It All, gave her her first Gospel Airplay entry and reached No. 1 on that chart in May 2026, the fourth Gospel Airplay No. 1 for The Clark Sisters.
Los Angeles pop-rock band fronted by Adam Levine, active since the late 1990s and one of the 2000s-2010s' most consistent hitmakers. "Memories" (2019), from Jordi, sets a eulogy for the band's late manager to a chord progression and melodic shape borrowed from Pachelbel's Canon in D.
Washington, D.C.-born singer, songwriter, and producer who spent the 1960s as Motown's most adaptable asset — session drummer, duet partner, and solo hitmaker — before seizing control of his own records with 1971's What's Going On and 1973's Let's Get It On. Died in 1984, one day before his 45th birthday.
Brooklyn-born rapper (b. Lana Michelle Moorer) who released her debut single at 16 in 1987 and became the first woman to release a solo full-length rap album, 1988's Lyte as a Rock. "Ruffneck," a 1993 single from Ain't No Other, earned her the first-ever Grammy nomination for a solo female rapper. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Early Influence honoree.
Illinois-born trumpeter and bandleader who reinvented jazz roughly once a decade: bebop sideman to Charlie Parker, architect of cool, modal pioneer on 1959's Kind of Blue, and electric provocateur on 1970's Bitches Brew. Ran bands that turned into other people's careers — Coltrane, Evans, Hancock, Shorter. Died in 1991.
Tennessee country singer-songwriter and the genre's dominant commercial force of the 2020s, off records like Dangerous and One Thing at a Time. "Been by Now" is the lead single from his fifth studio album, debuted live on the Still the Problem tour.
Mississippi-born, Chicago-based blues singer and guitarist whose Chess Records sides defined postwar electric blues. "Hoochie Coochie Man," cut in January 1954 with Willie Dixon on bass and Little Walter on harmonica, became his biggest American hit and one of the most covered blues songs ever recorded -- despite being written not by Waters but by Dixon, who received no label credit on the original single.
English rock trio from Teignmouth, Devon -- Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard -- known for pairing arena-scale classical-influenced arrangements with lyrics fixated on surveillance, control, and technological dystopia across albums like Origin of Symmetry, Black Holes and Revelations, and Simulation Theory. In September 2026, the band lost its longstanding "muse" handle on Instagram and X to Meta's newly launched AI agent of the same name.
Queens, New York rapper widely regarded as one of hip-hop's greatest lyricists, breaking through with 1994's Illmatic. "I Can" (2003), from God's Son, built its entire beat around a loop of Beethoven's "Fur Elise," turning a piano-lesson standard into a hit single aimed at children.
American jazz pianist and vocalist who started the 1940s fronting the King Cole Trio before becoming one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century as a solo singer. The trio's 1946 recording of "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" was one of the first versions of a song that went on to become a jazz and pop standard, covered by dozens of artists across the decades that followed.
Australian singer and former actress whose 1997 debut single, "Torn," became a global alt-pop standard and launched her debut album Left of the Middle.
British band on Factory Records. "Blue Monday" (March 1983) is described as the best-selling 12-inch single in history; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts the group as Joy Division/New Order in its 2026 Performer class.
Australian rock band fronted by singer and novelist Nick Cave, formed in London in 1983 out of the ashes of the Birthday Party. Their 1994 single "Red Right Hand," drawn from Milton's Paradise Lost, became the band's most widely recognized song decades after release through its use as the Peaky Blinders theme and in the Scream film franchise.
Canadian post-grunge/hard rock band formed in Hanna, Alberta in 1995, led by singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger, and one of the best-selling rock acts of the 2000s off records like Silver Side Up and All the Right Reasons. Returned with new original material in 2026 for the first time since 2022's Get Rollin'.
Manchester band led by songwriter Noel Gallagher and singer Liam Gallagher. Their debut album Definitely Maybe (August 1994) went straight to No. 1 in the UK, preceded by "Live Forever," their first UK top-ten single. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductee.
Recording name of Ruairi O'Brien, a multi-instrumentalist and producer from Huntsville, Texas, working in abstract, post-internet indie pop built from guitars, drum machines, and heavily processed electronics. Broke through with 2019's Ataraxic and has since produced for several other Bandcamp Album of the Day artists. MOIREMOIREMOIRE, self-released September 11, 2026, is his first album in years.
American singer-songwriter Oliver Tree Nickell (June 29, 1993 - June 14, 2026), a genre-crossing artist working between alternative rock, indie pop, hip-hop, and dance music and known for a signature bowl cut, an eccentric public persona, and a comedy-and-filmmaking approach to his releases. His breakout came with the 2020 debut album Ugly Is Beautiful. He died on June 14, 2026, at age 32, when two helicopters collided over Rio de Janeiro during a world tour; his 2021 single "Life Goes On" re-entered Spotify's global chart the day after and later became the soundtrack to the September 2026 "Remember November 2026" polar bear meme.
East London singer-songwriter, trained at the BRIT School, who writes in a warm, retro-leaning soul and R&B register shaped by Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill, and her father's Al Green records. Her second album, The Art of Loving (2025), made her the first British solo woman since Adele to top the UK albums and singles charts simultaneously, and won her the Grammy for Best New Artist.
California-born singer-songwriter who broke out in 2021 with "Drivers License" and the album SOUR, following it with 2023's GUTS. Her 2026 album You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love is her third studio record, released on Geffen Records.
Georgia-born soul singer and Stax Records' defining star, known for a raw, church-rooted vocal style on songs like "Try a Little Tenderness" and "Respect." Died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967, at age 26, three days after recording "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay."
Birmingham-born singer who fronted Black Sabbath from 1968, was fired in 1979, and rebuilt immediately as a solo act around a succession of young guitarists — starting with Randy Rhoads on 1980's Blizzard of Ozz. Died in July 2025, weeks after a farewell Black Sabbath reunion show in his home city.
Virginia-born country and pop crossover vocalist whose smooth, torch-song phrasing on hits like "Crazy," "I Fall to Pieces," and "Walkin' After Midnight" defined the early-1960s Nashville Sound before her death in a 1963 plane crash at age 30.
English guitarist who spent the early 1970s as a journeyman solo act before 1976's Frampton Comes Alive! turned him into one of the best-selling live-album artists of the decade, built in large part around his talk-box guitar sound. Diagnosed in 2019 with inclusion body myositis, a degenerative muscle disorder, which ended his ability to tour.
Drummer and singer, also of Genesis. "In the Air Tonight," released in January 1981 as the lead single from his debut solo album Face Value, features a gated-reverb drum sound that engineer Hugh Padgham found by running a talkback microphone through a heavy compressor. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductee.
American contemporary worship artist. His 2025 single "What An Awesome God," which reworks the chorus of Rich Mullins' 1988 "Awesome God" with new verses co-written with Jonathan Smith, set the record for longest-running No. 1 in Mediabase Christian Audience chart history and crossed onto the Billboard Hot 100.
Indie rock band -- Chris Jones (guitar, vocals), Devin Gilbert (guitar, vocals), Jeb Polstein (drums), and Josh Govier (bass) -- who formed as teenagers in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York and are now based in Brooklyn. Began tracking a sophomore full-length in 2016, went on indefinite hiatus around 2017, and finally finished it as the self-titled Primate House, self-released and engineered by Govier, on August 21, 2026 -- a decade after the sessions began.
Long Island hip-hop group led by Chuck D and Flavor Flav, known for explicitly political lyrics and dense, layered production from the Bomb Squad that stacked dozens of samples into a single track rather than looping one or two. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
Rapper and actress whose real name is Dana Owens. "U.N.I.T.Y." (1993), from Black Reign, reached No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Early Influence honoree.
New York punk band -- Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone -- whose stripped-down, two-minute songs helped invent punk rock's template. Their debut single, "Blitzkrieg Bop," written mainly by drummer Tommy Ramone with a title assist from Dee Dee Ramone, opened their self-titled 1976 debut album and its "Hey Ho, Let's Go" chant became one of rock's most recognizable openings, despite not charting on first release.
Chicago jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis's crossover trio, popular through the 1960s for taking soul-jazz instrumentals into pop chart territory. By the 1966 "Wade in the Water" sessions the rhythm section was bassist Cleveland Eaton and drummer Maurice White — White left in 1970 to found Earth, Wind & Fire. Lewis died in 2022.
Worship collective based at Redemption Church in San Jose, California, led in part by Jonathan Stamper and Lizzie Morgan. Their single "Yeshua," released August 14, 2026, preceded the live album WITNESS, released September 25, 2026.
Buffalo-born singer, bassist, and producer who built the "punk-funk" sound of his late-1970s and early-1980s Motown records. "Super Freak," from 1981's Street Songs, became his signature hit and, nine years later, the source of the sampled bassline underneath MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" -- a sample that netted James a songwriting credit and a share of Hammer's 1991 Grammy.
Barbadian singer and businesswoman who broke through in 2005 and became one of the best-selling music artists in history, with "Umbrella" (2007) serving as the lead single from her third album, Good Girl Gone Bad.
A fully fabricated AI country act: no real performer exists behind the name, name-checking a nonexistent label ("Storm Records") and fake America's Got Talent audition footage that racked up tens of millions of views before anyone flagged it as invented. Exposed by Showbiz411's Roger Friedman on August 16, 2026, who raised -- without confirming -- a possible link to Dallas Little, the Greenville, South Carolina operator already behind the AI acts Eddie Dalton and IngaRose. Unlike those two, River Cain's own social bios do disclose the AI origin; what's alleged as fraudulent is the fake AGT credit and a chart run that spiked well after the songs' original release.
American singer born Kennedy William Gordy, son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, whose paranoid 1984 debut single "Somebody's Watching Me" became an international hit on the strength of uncredited guest vocals from his childhood friend Michael Jackson -- a feature Motown chose not to promote despite it being, in his own words, the worst-kept secret in music.
Hollis, Queens hip-hop trio -- Joseph "Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, and Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell -- whose 1986 album Raising Hell, produced with Rick Rubin, pushed rap into the rock mainstream. Their cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," recorded with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, is credited with both reviving Aerosmith's career and opening MTV and rock radio to hip-hop for the first time.
Spanish singer-songwriter who co-wrote and sang on KAROL G and Judeline's "BbY WOW" (2026), recording his verse remotely within a day of KAROL G's request. The song gave him a first Hot 100 top 10 and a first No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart.
Pop singer-songwriter whose 2024 breakthrough *Short n' Sweet* made her a top-tier pop headliner; 2025 follow-up *Man's Best Friend* debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, her second straight chart-topper, built on the same wink-heavy, innuendo-forward persona that made the first record a hit.
British group fronted by singer Sade Adu, with Stuart Matthewman (guitar and saxophone), Andrew Hale (keyboards) and Paul Denman (bass). Their 1984 debut Diamond Life opens with "Smooth Operator," which became their biggest US hit when released there in 1985. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductee.
English singer-songwriter from North Shields, known for heartland-rock influenced guitar records including 2021's Seventeen Going Under and 2025's People Watching. "Rein Me In," a track from People Watching, became a duet with Olivia Dean after the two performed it live together in June 2025 and went on to break the record for the longest-running No. 1 single in UK Official Singles Chart history.
American singer and songwriter born Jalacy Hawkins, best known for his 1956 recording of "I Put a Spell on You," cut during a drunken session that transformed his intended ballad into a guttural, screamed performance he could not remember making. His theatrical, horror-tinged stage persona -- complete with a coffin and a skull on a stick named Henry -- made him a foundational influence on shock rock.
South African-formed, Los Angeles-based post-grunge band fronted by singer/guitarist Shaun Morgan since 1999, known for singles including "Broken," "Remedy," and "Fake It." Currently touring behind the Beneath the Surface EP era with bassist Dale Stewart, drummer John Humphrey, and guitarist Corey Lowery.
Texas-born Tejano singer whose 1992 hit "Como La Flor," written by A.B. Quintanilla and Pete Astudillo, became her signature song and a foundational record for Tejano's commercial breakthrough. She died in March 1995, twelve days after performing the song, for the final time, in Bryan, Texas -- the same city where its melody was written.
Texas contemporary-worship duo, Shane Barnard and Shane Everett, active since the late 1990s and known for setting hymn texts to guitar-driven modern arrangements through their long-running Hymns and Worship Initiative series. Their 2014 recording of "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" reworks the 1923 hymn for a congregational, radio-friendly worship-band arrangement.
Osinachi Kalu Okoro Egbu, a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and senior worship leader who writes and records contemporary worship music independent of the major US Christian labels. Her 2015 song "Way Maker" became a global congregational standard by 2020 — translated into roughly 50 languages and covered by dozens of Western artists — making her the first Nigerian gospel artist to win a Dove Award.
Irish singer-songwriter known for her shaved head, raw emotional delivery, and 1990 breakthrough album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, which contained her signature hit "Nothing Compares 2 U." A lifelong, outspoken critic of institutional power, she died in 2023.
Memphis-formed Christian hard rock band led by John Cooper since 1996, crossing over into mainstream rock radio with albums like Awake and Comatose. Releasing the After the Storm EP on October 9, 2026.
Ontario sibling duo Mercedes Arn-Horn (she/her) and Phoenix Arn-Horn (they/them), writing, playing, engineering, and producing entirely out of their own home studio. Debut full-length When a Flower Doesn't Grow arrived January 30, 2026 on Easy Life Records.
Vancouver electronic-pop artist born Sophia Johanna Stel, the third of 11 children in a religious family, who worked gardening, house-painting, and bartending jobs before releasing her 2024 debut EP Object Permanence on the small label Pack Records. Named one of NME's 100 Essential Emerging Artists for 2025, she has opened for A.G. Cook and Lorde. Her debut album, the greatest album of all time, arrived October 16, 2026, on A24 Music.
Seattle band formed in 1984 by Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, and Hiro Yamamoto, later completed by drummer Matt Cameron and bassist Ben Shepherd. Heavier and odder than the grunge label implied — drop tunings, lopsided meters, and a singer with close to a four-octave range. Cornell died in 2017.
Melbourne, Australia singer-songwriter who signed to the small Brooklyn label Sacred Bones Records for her long-anticipated debut album, evidence, written and recorded in three months with producer Adam Hyde (Keli Holiday).
Born Stella Lefkofsky in the Chicago suburbs, now based in Los Angeles, Stella Lefty writes in the blurred country/indie-folk/pop space alongside artists like Gracie Abrams and Jessie Murph. "Boston" turned her from unknown to a sustained Hot 100 fixture in 2026.
Christian hip-hop artist. His 2025 single "Yes," with KB and for KING + COUNTRY, is nominated for Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year at the 57th GMA Dove Awards; Malcolm has said the song grew out of growing up fatherless and feeling unworthy.
Eight-member South Korean boy group under JYP Entertainment, debuted 2018, known for maximalist, high-intensity lead singles like "MANIAC" and "Chk Chk Boom." "This & That" is the title track from their 10th mini-album, THIS & THAT, released August 7, 2026.
American indie-folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for the 2003 album Michigan and the 2005 album Illinois. Between 2001 and 2006 he recorded five volumes of Christmas EPs that were collected as Songs for Christmas (November 21, 2006); his version of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" is on the second volume, Hark!.
Atlanta rapper who guests alongside Killer Mike on Lecrae's 2025 Grammy-nominated grief song "Headphones," pairing mainstream secular hip-hop veterans with a contemporary Christian record.
New York art-rock band formed in 1975 by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison, known for fusing new wave with funk, African polyrhythm, and avant-garde production. "Once in a Lifetime," co-written with producer Brian Eno, appeared on 1980's Remain in Light.
Psychedelic-pop recording project of Australian multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, who writes, plays, and produces nearly everything himself in the studio before touring with a full band. Broke through with Innerspeaker (2010) and Lonerism (2012) before Currents (2015) won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album; Deadbeat (2025), his fifth album, includes "Dracula," his first Hot 100 entry and, in its JENNIE remix, his first top-10 hit.
American singer who, alongside a pre-fame Lauryn Hill, performed the duet of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" in the 1993 film "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit," a recording that introduced the hymn to a new, largely secular film audience.
American gospel singer and multiple Grammy and Dove Award winner, best known for 2013's "Break Every Chain." "Church," her 2025 duet with John Legend from her debut studio album TASHA, earned a nomination for Best Gospel Performance/Song at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
Canadian singer-songwriter and former dancer from Calgary, Alberta, who broke through with 2020's "you broke me first" before her 2023 album Think Later and 2024's So Close to What established her as a radio-pop mainstay. "Housewife," released October 15, 2026, is the first single from her upcoming fourth studio album.
Pennsylvania-born singer-songwriter who moved from Nashville country through the pop mainstream and back through folk and indie textures over a two-decade catalog, becoming the era's dominant touring and streaming act. "I Knew It, I Knew You," her first film soundtrack single, was written for Toy Story 5 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — her ninth chart-topping debut, the most of any woman.
Bristol, Tennessee-born singer and television host best known for 1955's "Sixteen Tons." His 1956 gospel album Hymns, recorded during his run hosting NBC's The Ford Show, became the first religious album certified Gold and spent 277 consecutive weeks on Billboard's Top Pop Albums chart.
California vocal group led creatively by Brian Wilson, whose harmony-driven surf-pop of the early 1960s gave way to increasingly ambitious studio experimentation by mid-decade. "Good Vibrations," released in 1966 after months of sessions across multiple studios, became the group's most expensive single to date and a defining example of the recording studio used as a compositional instrument.
Cincinnati, Ohio band that began as a solo project of Dylan McCartney (also of The Serfs, Motorbike, and Crime of Passing) and has grown into a six-piece that also features Eric Dietrich, Dakota Carlyle, Ryan Sennett, Luke Cornett, and Cole Gilfilen. Known for pushing post-punk toward krautrock, dub, and psychedelia, they broke through with 2024's Elude the Torch. The 23-track double album I Lost My Way for Centuries, recorded in an attic, was released September 18, 2026 on the independent Cincinnati label Feel It Records.
Studio percussion project assembled by producer Michael Viner, best known for its 1973 instrumental cover of "Apache" on the album Bongo Rock. The track never charted as a single but became the most sampled breakbeat in hip-hop history after DJ Kool Herc began looping it at Bronx block parties in the mid-1970s.
Birmingham, England rock band who reinvented themselves in 1967 from a fading R&B outfit into pioneers of orchestral, Mellotron-driven progressive rock with the concept album Days of Future Passed. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
Christopher Wallace of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn — the rapper who gave Bad Boy Records its center of gravity and East Coast hip-hop its most quotable narrator on the strength of one album, 1994's Ready to Die. Murdered in Los Angeles in March 1997 at 24, sixteen days before his second album, Life After Death, was released.
Salt Lake City choir of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, long known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Its 2009 album Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing: American Folk Hymns & Spirituals, produced by music director Mack Wilberg, reached No. 1 on Billboard's Top Classical Crossover Albums chart.
Tampa-raised, New Orleans-based singer-songwriter whose 2026 album Birds of Paradise, recorded live in four days at Dial Back Sound in Mississippi, followed his acclaimed 2022 debut Wellswood. Released on the small Chicago label Dear Life Records.
Musical instrument maker and musician based in Bacup, Lancashire (UK), who builds her own bowed strings, flutes, and percussion from the branches of native British trees -- Wych Elm, Lime, Wild Cherry, Oak, and Yew -- then records them at home, looping and running them through pitch-bending glitches and delay pedals. Her debut LP, Aesthesis, released in early 2025 on the small UK label Hood Faire, drew on sources including the Gnostic text "The Secret Book of John," the 1940 film "The Thief of Bagdad," and Lata Mangeshkar's devotional Meera Bhajans recordings.
Los Angeles studio-musician supergroup formed in 1977, drawing most of its original members from the city's session-player circuit. Its 1982 single "Africa," from the album Toto IV, became a decades-later internet phenomenon via meme culture and Weezer's 2018 cover.
South African-born Australian singer-songwriter and actor who broke through with 2015's Blue Neighbourhood and the Grammy-nominated "Rush" off 2023's Something to Give Each Other. Moved from EMI/Capitol to Interscope Records for his fourth studio album, She's the Best, due October 9, 2026.
Baltimore hardcore band that spent the 2020s dragging the genre toward melody, groove, and genuine pop songcraft without losing the pit. Fourth album *Never Enough* (2025) — the first to feature guitarist Meg Mills — won the Grammy for Best Rock Album and became the band's highest Billboard 200 entry yet.
Los Angeles rapper, producer, and Odd Future founder who has rebuilt his sound and persona with nearly every album since 2017's Flower Boy. Chromakopia (2024), his eighth studio album, is his most explicitly autobiographical work yet -- narrated in part by his own mother and built around a chaotic self-interrogation of fame, masculinity, and inherited expectation.
Northern Irish singer-songwriter and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer whose 1991 double album Hymns to the Silence paired original songs with traditional hymns and standards, including "Be Thou My Vision."
Country singer, guitarist, and multiple Grammy winner, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. His 2011 duet with Carrie Underwood on "How Great Thou Art," performed live on ACM Presents: Girls' Night Out, became one of the most-shared country performances of its era.
American composer and bandleader who built a disco arrangement out of the opening movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Credited as Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band, "A Fifth of Beethoven" (1976) topped the Hot 100 and became one of the defining novelty crossovers of the disco era.
English cathedral choir recorded at Wells Cathedral in Somerset under director Malcolm Archer with organist Rupert Gough. Their 1999 Hyperion release The English Hymn, Volume 1: Christ Triumphant anthologizes great 20th-century hymn tunes, including Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Sine Nomine" setting of "For All the Saints."
American singer and one of the best-selling music artists in history. Her recording of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow," cut in 2011 with R. Kelly producing for the "Sparkle" (2012) soundtrack, was released as a single four months after her death and reached No. 1 on Billboard's Gospel Digital Song Sales chart.
Texas-born country singer-songwriter and Outlaw Country pioneer who, as a struggling songwriter and Ray Price bassist in 1961, wrote "Crazy" -- first offered to, and turned down by, singer Billy Walker -- before Patsy Cline's recording became a genre-defining standard.
Staten Island hip-hop collective whose 1993 debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was built on RZA's production. "C.R.E.A.M.," released as a single in January 1994, reached No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is the group's highest-charting track. A 2026 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performer inductee.
Oklahoma-born singer-songwriter and former U.S. Navy sailor whose self-released early recordings grew into a string of chart-topping, heavily lyrical country-folk albums, including 2023's self-titled Zach Bryan. His October 2026 EP Young Manhood & Other Donatable Organs features Lana Del Rey and Turnpike Troubadours.