Playlists

We’ve all been there. A visit to your hometown—or perhaps, you’ve just grown up and changed while still in your hometown—is met with mixed emotions. It’s like for every fond memory and bout of nostalgia you experience, you also experience equal parts dread and anxiety.

These days, with streaming, downloads, and all the available formats, new and old, it is quite easy for good music to fall under the radar. In that respect, it is an almost an even field, whether music is something you seriously follow or you are just a casual fan. It often happens that your pile of vinyl or CDs just grows, or those downloads and possible streaming links are overcrowding your computer.

Ah, there’s nothing like hitting the open road with people whose company you deeply enjoy—for hours. And hours. And hours...

The music industry is a tough one due to its complexity, demands, and variety of listener interests and talents. "Making it big" takes a lot longer than you might think, and doesn't always look like how we expect it. Nowadays, it simply is not enough to know how to sing or play an instrument. Musical artists need to have a working knowledge of how to use their voice, instruments, social media, sound engineering, public relations, and more. As the general listener, we rarely have the opportunity to see the grueling hours of work that go into the finished product we experience.

Welcome back to Friday's Five at 5, and just a quick thank you for all the support from the first post of the series last week! For everyone that's new here, this is a place where I will share some of the best talent in your local areas every week, based on what YOU have sent in!

Welcome to "Friday's Five at 5," a series of blog posts which inform you of the best up-and-coming independent artists of right now. This series will reveal some of the most talented musicians in your local area, most of whom are extremely underrated and unfortunately unknown, despite their copious amounts of talent.

Next to Hip Hop, R&B (Rhythmic and blues) is my favorite genre to listen to—from the slow beats to the outstanding vocals that make me wish I could sing ,or rather just hold a simple note. Because I do have a passion for listening to R&B, there are so many songs I could list or recommend, but today I’m sticking to my top five R&B songs that were released in the last two years. So if you’re wondering why “Doo Wop,” by Lauryn Hill isn’t on here, that’s why. These are the songs that you might not have seen on the charts, but surely they deserve to be there, and on your love/feelings playlist.

Hello there,