Stevie G: Where are all the new music stars?
Kendrick Lamar and Sza are on tour together and are selling out stadiums across the US before hitting Europe soon. Charli XCX, Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter and other big pop acts are also on the road, but many of the big tours this year are from legacy acts such as Oasis, Iron Maiden, Bruce Springsteen and Lenny Kravitz.
It all got me thinking about something that I’ve occasionally spoken about before. There is a real vacuum when it comes to big stars these days. Sure, there are massive artists such as Beyoncé and Kendrick and Sabrina. And of course there are many older acts who will remain popular among music fans of all ages. Oasis are a good example. But where are all the new stars? We had a few breakthroughs last year – Chappell Roan and maybe even Tyla, who has been bubbling for a few years – but, overall, if you look at the charts in 2025, the vacuum seems huge.
There’s new music and artists, but very little that will be troubling the established ones, unless you look at a genre such as country, which I traditionally don’t really cover here. Hip-hop, my speciality, is particularly conservative on a large scale in 2025, but thankfully much of the best stuff happens on the margins.
Tyler the Creator has just come off the back of two huge shows in Dublin and proves that there is an appetite for some of the best of what hip-hop can offer in 2025. Tyler has been a regular visitor here since the Odd Future days and, like Travis Scott, Drake, Snoop, 50 Cent and others, he can easily fill an arena here. But none of these are new artists anymore. Around five or ten years ago it seemed like new artists were coming out every few months.
The trap era brought us Migos, Young Thug, Playboy Carti, Future and many more great artists; most of them coming to Longitude to play to huge crowds.
There is no doubt that the pandemic changed the touring game and promoters are understandably much more wary when booking in 2025 but, nonetheless, there is less big name rap on the road. Central Cee is doing his thing and many of the aforementioned veterans are on tour but, overall, there is very little happening on the hip hop scene live on a big scale. Luckily in Cork we’ve got two big acts coming. Macklemore will do well in Virgin Media park, attracting a big pop crowd and many into more than rap, while D Block Europe will do two nights at the Marquee, drawing a very big young crowd. The initial first night sold out in hours.
The lack of big stars is not necessarily a bad thing. The grassroots of any scene is the key, and there are loads of smaller acts breaking through. If you take a quick look at the charts right now you might think you are in a different decade. The Irish album charts have Fleetwood Mac, Abba, Michael Jackson, Pitbull, Elton John and others vying for the top spots, and it’s mostly made up of greatest hits compilations and the odd newer thing. But dig deeper and there’s new artists breaking through all the time. On TikTok there’s grassroots artists blowing up left, right and centre and you catch them live at smaller shows. Tomorrow’s Travis Scott and Tyler are out there now. Besides, the big tours and acts cost a fortune to see anyway, and it’s cool that grassroots shows and events are cheap and accessible and possibly happening on your doorstep soon!
In the pop world things come in cycles. Like I said a few weeks ago, the focus seems to be on developing solo artists right now. Some break through and do well. Some even feel original and groundbreaking. But for every Chappell Roan there are a million artists who sound like just what we’ve been given before. But it’s always been the way. There’s a whole bunch of future stars waiting in the wings.
