Pandora Trendsetters: Lil Peep Brings His ‘Emo Rap’ To The Big Leagues
There’s a new ruler this week on the Pandora Trendsetters Chart, which tracks the up-and-coming artists who are seeing the highest number of artist station adds on Pandora. AsToronto rapper Nav graduates to Mainstream status — more on our taxonomy of artists here — rising boy band Why Don’t We take the crown. The group is seeing close to 9,000 artist station adds weekly, and are also maintaining very strong fan engagement, averaging over 9,000 Twitter mentions per day over the past month. Harlem rapper Dave East takes runner-up following the release of his latest EP, Paranoia: A True Story.
But we also have three newcomers to the chart this week in a rather unconventional rapper, a sweet-talking country band, and a sage indie band. Read on for more.
Lil Peep raises his voice
When you consider the fact that both Nintendocore and pirate metal are actual, very real genres, it isn’t all that crazy that emo rap is one, too. It’s all thanks to 20-year-old Gustav Åhr, a.k.a. Lil Peep. The Long Island native has been building an ardent fanbase through his SoundCloud releases for a while, and since the release of a proper debut album on Aug. 15, that fanbase has grown significantly. Come Over When You’re Sober (Part One), which leans more toward rock than his earlier releases, has helped Peep see a dramatic increase in listenership on Pandora. This month compared to last month, he’s seen a 40% increase in artist station adds.
Lil Peep also sees strong fan engagement. Over the last 30 days, he’s seen an average of 24,834 talking about this per day. That’s 25 times what we’d expect from an artist with his 176,000 page likes. He’s also seen close to 5 million likes and 50,000 comments on Instagram, 27,000 Twitter mentions and nearly 16,000 Thumbs Up on Pandora over the past month.
LANco
Emo rap not for you? Check out rising Nashville band LANco, who deliver country songs that are anything but emo. The fivesome — composed of lead singer Brandon Lancaster, Chandler Baldwin, Jared Hampton, Tripp Howell and Eric Steedly — debut at #15 on this week’s chart after the success of their latest single, “Greatest Love Story.” The sugary-sweet song, about two high school sweethearts, just broke through the top 40 of the Top Spins Chart — a high position for a country track, and an even higher position for a country track from a relatively new act.
The success of “Greatest Love Story,” née “American Love Story,” has helped LANco see significant lifts in activity on social media and streaming. In the six months since its release, the group has added over 15,000 fans on Facebook and seeded around 35,000 artist station adds on Pandora. This week they get up to over 2,500 weekly station adds.
War on Drugs
While the War on Drugs have been indie darlings for a long while, it isn’t until recently that they’ve started crossing over to more mainstream success. Maybe they just have a deeper understanding — or, more specifically, A Deeper Understanding, their just-released fourth studio album. A Deeper Understanding has helped The War on Drugs set personal records in daily artist station adds. This month compared to last month, the group saw a 133% lift in station adds and a 138% increase in both Wikipedia page views and Twitter followers.
Elsewhere on the Trendsetters Chart, the reclusive R&B artist H.E.R returns to the chart at #20, rockers Greta Van Fleet enter the top 10, and Canadian R&B artist Daniel Caesar breaks through the top 5 after the release of his debut album, Freudian. See the full Trendsetters Chart here.
