My pleasure! I love talking music so I’m happy for any excuse.
And okay, now that I understand we’re talking like retro vocal synthwave, I have some better recommendations!
My first recommendation immediately came to mind, but I’m gonna be honest and say that the best part of this recommendation does extend past the 5yr guideline I alluded to in my original comment, so you’ll have to excuse that. She’s still an active artist, but her recent work has been as features or a 2020 album collab with a more aggressive synth artist that probably isn’t what you’re looking for. But anyway, I definitely recommend Dana Jean Phoenix if you haven’t heard her yet!
Start here, the opener title track of ‘Le Mirage’ is an absolute banger than I think is totally gonna work for you:
If you’re open to slightly darker/heavier synth stuff, ‘Megawave’ is the collab album I mentioned above with artist Powernerd, and I think it’s pretty groovy:
Beyond Dana Jean Phoenix, here are some other artists I’d recommend but with less specific recommendations (probably just listen to their popular songs to get a feel):
Summerdrive is not this sound exactly, but they’re kind of synthwave meets clean pop so you might dig them (The Midnight who I previously recommended also sit in this space, but they’re a little jazzier):
And finally Gunship are also not this sound exactly, but rather sort of what you’d get if you mixed that synthwave sound with 80s hard rock, and it’s goddamn glorious (I love Gunship):
Hey mate! I’m doing 2 quizzes next week for charity and I’d like to have a music round where I play the first 10 seconds of a song and people guess it. I need to find songs that people might know without being too obvious, and I can only think of a couple. Do you have any ideas?
I’m about to go on a trip so I only have a brief moment to answer this, I’m sorry, but here are some quick picks without having more context to go on:
fairly obvious:
1979 by Smashing Pumpkins
Ain’t It Fun by Paramore
Raspberry Beret by Prince
Meant to Live by Switchfoot
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Thinkin Bout You by Frank Ocean
Stop by the Spice Girls
Super Bass by Nicki Minaj
I Believe In a Thing Called Love by The Darkness
Here It Goes Again by OK Go
Electric Feel by MGMT
less obvious:
Lost in the Supermarket by The Clash
All My Life by K-Ci & JoJo
Ever Fallen in Love by the Buzzcocks
Maniac by Conan Gray
Closer by Tegan and Sara
I Need a Dollar by Aloe Blacc
Disco Man by Remi Wolf
Them Changes by Thundercat
Cocoa Butter Kisses by Chance the Rapper
Swing Life Away by Rise Against.
I tried to not give you anything too obscure, but if these are too obvious or if you have a theme or direction to narrow the field I can think on it more and get back to you in a few days, probably.
edit:
I didn’t think too much about the first 10 seconds part admittedly again due to limited time, so some of these may be better to play 10 seconds a later section of the song if you’re open to that.
Mate you’re absolutely bang on the mark!!! I’ve just spent half an hour listening to them. Le Mirage is amazing and modern fairytale is so good I’ve played it twice already! Gunship is truly glorious I particularly like monster in paradise and can’t wait to listen to more. I like Nina and Summer drive too, there’s some real wins in their stuff. Honestly thanks so much you’ve made my day! Really excited 😃
My pleasure! I love talking music so I’m happy for any excuse.
And okay, now that I understand we’re talking like retro vocal synthwave, I have some better recommendations!
My first recommendation immediately came to mind, but I’m gonna be honest and say that the best part of this recommendation does extend past the 5yr guideline I alluded to in my original comment, so you’ll have to excuse that. She’s still an active artist, but her recent work has been as features or a 2020 album collab with a more aggressive synth artist that probably isn’t what you’re looking for. But anyway, I definitely recommend Dana Jean Phoenix if you haven’t heard her yet!
Start here, the opener title track of ‘Le Mirage’ is an absolute banger than I think is totally gonna work for you:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3NuANBUmoNZH5x2BZzXSQV
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dana_jean_phoenix/le_mirage/
2018 album ‘PixelDust’ is probably overall the better album but it doesn’t have a mega-banger like the track ‘Le Mirage’:
https://open.spotify.com/album/1vJClfLqAeNTyAHbv5sqWN
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dana-jean-phoenix/pixeldust/
If you’re open to slightly darker/heavier synth stuff, ‘Megawave’ is the collab album I mentioned above with artist Powernerd, and I think it’s pretty groovy:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3ft0lmyttvgoCrja0jAI0Q
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/dana-jean-phoenix-powernerd/megawave/
Beyond Dana Jean Phoenix, here are some other artists I’d recommend but with less specific recommendations (probably just listen to their popular songs to get a feel):
NINA - very similar space to Dana Jean Phoenix:
https://open.spotify.com/artist/31KAV0Dg1UNmnfSmvLT2XG
https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/nina_f11
Summerdrive is not this sound exactly, but they’re kind of synthwave meets clean pop so you might dig them (The Midnight who I previously recommended also sit in this space, but they’re a little jazzier):
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5RASv130lmR8GyP0EcQLjJ
And finally Gunship are also not this sound exactly, but rather sort of what you’d get if you mixed that synthwave sound with 80s hard rock, and it’s goddamn glorious (I love Gunship):
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PALZKWkpwjRvBsRmhlVSS
https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/gunship
And if I’m still off the mark, hit me with another example :P
Hey mate! I’m doing 2 quizzes next week for charity and I’d like to have a music round where I play the first 10 seconds of a song and people guess it. I need to find songs that people might know without being too obvious, and I can only think of a couple. Do you have any ideas?
I’m about to go on a trip so I only have a brief moment to answer this, I’m sorry, but here are some quick picks without having more context to go on:
fairly obvious:
1979 by Smashing Pumpkins
Ain’t It Fun by Paramore
Raspberry Beret by Prince
Meant to Live by Switchfoot
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
Thinkin Bout You by Frank Ocean
Stop by the Spice Girls
Super Bass by Nicki Minaj
I Believe In a Thing Called Love by The Darkness
Here It Goes Again by OK Go
Electric Feel by MGMT
less obvious:
Lost in the Supermarket by The Clash
All My Life by K-Ci & JoJo
Ever Fallen in Love by the Buzzcocks
Maniac by Conan Gray
Closer by Tegan and Sara
I Need a Dollar by Aloe Blacc
Disco Man by Remi Wolf
Them Changes by Thundercat
Cocoa Butter Kisses by Chance the Rapper
Swing Life Away by Rise Against.
I tried to not give you anything too obscure, but if these are too obvious or if you have a theme or direction to narrow the field I can think on it more and get back to you in a few days, probably.
edit:
I didn’t think too much about the first 10 seconds part admittedly again due to limited time, so some of these may be better to play 10 seconds a later section of the song if you’re open to that.
Mate these are amazing!! I’d never have thought of any of them thanks so much
Glad to help! I wasn’t kidding when I said I basically always enjoy getting to talk about music 😅
And now I’ve listened to modern fairytale three times and I’m just sorry it’s not four
Mate you’re absolutely bang on the mark!!! I’ve just spent half an hour listening to them. Le Mirage is amazing and modern fairytale is so good I’ve played it twice already! Gunship is truly glorious I particularly like monster in paradise and can’t wait to listen to more. I like Nina and Summer drive too, there’s some real wins in their stuff. Honestly thanks so much you’ve made my day! Really excited 😃
I’m so glad you dig the picks! Happy to help, feel free to ask me about music anytime ✌
You’ll rue the day you said that haha