By Michelle Hyun Kim, Leah Mandel, Kemet High, Colin Joyce, and Will Schube of Third Bridge Creative

This week’s column of rising artists shines a spotlight on an electronic artist paying tribute to his mother, a shoegaze act gaining buzz, a hip-hop savant taking inspiration from country music, a country-rock fusion band from Kentucky, and a former bedroom pop artist experimenting with new sounds.

Bolis Pupul

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 17,838
Genre: Electronic
Country: Belgium

Best known for his collaborations with Charlotte Adigery, Belgium-based producer/performer Bolis Pupul has found his solo breakthrough with his debut album Letter to Yu, a hallucinatory dance pop tribute to his late Chinese mother as he searches for her memory in Hong Kong. The album has received critical acclaim from The Guardian and The FADER, as well as an 8.0 rating from Pitchfork, resulting in Pupul gaining 36.6k new Spotify monthly listeners in the past month. With an EU and UK tour planned, Pupul’s retro bangers will undoubtedly reach more ears this spring and summer.

They Are Gutting a Body of Water

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 13,183
Genre: Nu gaze
Country: U.S.

In 2022, Philly’s They Are Gutting a Body of Water was noted as one of the bands at the forefront of the shoegaze revival, along with Wednesday, Hotline TNT, and fellow Pennsylvanian acts feeble little horse and Spirit of the Beehive. Since then, the group’s charm has been spreading by word-of-mouth. The big label and press-averse frontman Doug Dulgarian contributed to SoundCloud cult favorite Jane Remover’s shoegaze-inspired 2023 album, and in October the band put out a visual album, EXPANSION PAK, on which fans praised their “infinite level of strangeness.” This month, they released the single “krillin’” with Sun Organ and indie prodigy Greg Mendez, and were featured in the hip recommendations newsletter Perfectly Imperfect. They’ve been placed on Spotify’s “All New Indie” and “Shoegaze Now” playlists, and will be touring with DIIV this summer. 

Shaboozey

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 9,805
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Country: U.S.

When it comes to Black country artists, their time is now. Look no further than Virginia’s own Shaboozey. His first two albums Lady Wrangler (2018) and Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die (2022) provided a batch of top-notch storytelling through audio and visual formats. He continued to make a name for himself within the genre, fusing elements of hip-hop and rock. After taking several months off, he’s back with releases “Annabelle” and “Vegas”; the latter track surfed across the internet thanks to his COLORS performance earlier this month on March 4. Since then, Shaboozey has earned nearly a quarter of a million new monthly Spotify listeners, bringing his total to just over 1.73 million. His following on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have also steadily increased, just in time for his forthcoming album inspired by life on the road.

Ole 60

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 1,985
Genre: Country
Country: U.S.

The Kentucky rock act Ole 60 claim in their TikTok bio to be “not your father’s country band.” But part of their appeal is that, in many ways, they are. They play simple, straightforward Southern rock-influenced country songs that tell stories of unfaithful lovers and finding solace at the bottom of a bottle. They’ve drawn comparison to introspective peers like Zach Bryan and Morgan Wallen, and even though they’ve been releasing records for much less time than either, they’ve already achieved stunning successes. Their debut EP three twenty four hit #1 on Apple’s Country Albums chart in February. They have over 500k followers on TikTok and have videos on the platform that have achieved tens of millions of views. Their breakout single “smoke & a light” hit #1 on Spotify’s US Viral 50 and is on popular playlists like Hot Country and Country Top 50. Not bad for a quintet who all hail from small towns in the Midwest.

Julien Chang

Chartmetric Artist Rank: 6,992
Genre: Alternative
Country: U.S.

Julien Chang’s spellbinding blend of chamber pop, folk, and lounge jazz can be traced back to his days as a high schooler, eager to search out new genres while studying classical music. Chang first began getting attention for his woozy bedroom pop tunes at 16, but that acclaim didn’t stunt him; rather, each subsequent release found the Baltimore-born songwriter expanding his scope. His new project, Home For The Moment, is a reflection on his home city, and though only four tracks long, is his most excitingly restless work to date. While none of the songs on the project have (yet) found the success of his biggest hits, numbers are just one part of the equation. Since its release, Chang has jumped up by over 50k positions in the Chartmetric artist rankings. 

Visualizations by Nicki Camberg and cover image by Crasianne Tirado; data as of March 28, 2024.

Portions of this piece are included in Sound Signal, a bi-weekly newsletter from Third Bridge Creative. Sign up here.