I Think I’m Gonna Start Listening To More Punk & Alternative Music

One of my biggest goals for 2024 has been to exponentially expand my musical palate, and I think I've been doing a good job so far. I've been trying to listen to as many new artists and genres as possible.

This week's genre was punk and rock and alternative. Luckily, I was in for a treat because Vxnny dropped earlier this week. Vxnny dropped “One Call Away”. It hurt me bumping; I really appreciate the emotion that he puts into his music. It was something that was quite refreshing. The one thing I would say about the majority of underground artists is that I don't really hear the emotion or pain in their voice when making music, but with Vxnny, especially in a song, it is quite apparent.

One of the aspects I really enjoyed about the song was the beat. I really enjoyed the piano chords; you know, I feel like with the punk/rap genre, you don't really get a lot of that strong piano pushing the tempo of the song, and I think that is something that was done really well throughout the song. Something else I noticed about the beat was the prolonged guitar outro at the end. I thought that was done really well. I thought it also enhanced the emotion that I was getting from the song; it just kept lingering as it faded out at the end, which I thought was a great way to keep the listener engaged.

Another thing I really liked about the song is the subject matter and how it is like a breakup song, but it wasn't too slow. It was upbeat, and it was just, all in all, very captivating and enjoyable to listen to, you know? I thought it was just well done. I think something that works really well is that with the subject matter and the instrument choices, as well as the emotion from Vxnny, it makes it just an overall very enjoyable listening experience. Also, as you sit back and kind of see him performing this song with a band in the background, trying to reach out to his love interest as he is singing this song.

I feel like this type of music and vibe really brings me back to my younger days when I was in middle school. I find this sound very interesting because I don't see anybody else making a sound like this, fusing the elements of punk rock and hip-hop together to create something special in the alternative space. As always, correct me if I'm wrong and there is an artist that does fuse these elements that I might not know of – put me on.

As always, the link to check out the song is going to be down below. If you're a hip-hop head looking to try something different and expand your musical palette as well, I totally suggest that you check out Vxnny. He has some other gems in his catalog, such as “Side wit your friends” and “Batshit,” that you should definitely give a listen to as well!