Music is something people have all been exposed to since birth. It’s all over the world and everywhere the lives of people today. It’s listened to in the elevator, on the radio, maybe in the shower, and some people use it to fall asleep. Someone has to create all this music, and that is where music artists come into play. They sing the songs listened to so often, and sometimes write and produce music themselves too. These people take long periods of time to create the songs loved and enjoyed so much. Hearing about these artists can help understand their music better, and some of these artists have something in common: deeper meanings in their music.
David Kushner is an amazing artist that is a perfect example of having deeper meanings in his music. He has 3 albums and over 20 songs and has been described as soul-pop, a slower, more heartfelt version of the pop typically heard on the radio.. His songs tend to be slow and heartfelt with deeper or sometimes darker meanings behind them. Kushner’s hit song “Mr. Forgettable” was revealed to be about his grandfather and his struggle with dementia before his passing. The song is written from his grandfather’s perspective as he struggles with memory loss. “Miserable Man,” a song released after “Mr. Forgettable,” also has a deeper meaning. “Miserable Man” tells the story of a man stuck in a small town, unsatisfied with his life, yearning for change and escape from limitations.
In an interview with Poptized, David Kushner said “I love creating very, I guess you would say very mature, real things about life like Alzheimer’s, you know?“ He also mentioned some of his biggest inspirations, including The Lumineers, Mumford and Sons, and Hozier.
Similar to David Kushner, Hozier writes songs with underlying messages that address issues in the real world as well as songs with romantic undertones. Since 2013 he has made songs with similar feelings as Kushner’s music but makes them more lighthearted with the tone of his music.. He is typically classified as an alternative or indie artist. Hoziers most famous song, “Take Me to Church,” has heavy religious tones, mentioning God, sin, worshiping, repenting, and obviously church. Typically listeners might think the song is about religion, but in reality, it’s about two gay lovers struggling to live and love in their unaccepting town. The music video shows two gay men being hunted down and attacked by masked men, and the lyrics mention being forced to worship in the bedroom by a third party, most likely a pastor.
Hozier is a well known musician, and as some artists do, he has gained attention from other artists. As a result of this, he has collaborated with many well known artists such as Maren Morris on her “The Bones,” Allison Russell on Hozier’s “Wildflowers and Barley,” Mavis Staples on Hozier’s “Nina Cried Power,” and so many more songs and artists.
While Hozier has done amazing collaborations with plenty of people, one of his best performing song collaborations he has created was with Noah Kahan on his pop-folk song “Northern Attitude.” Kahan tends to stick to more folk sounding music, with some of it mixing into slower pop. In the past few months, Kahan has blown up on Tiktok due to one of his songs “Stick Season” attracting major amounts of attention on the platform. The song gained 567 million streams on Spotify, as well as a cover from well-known singer Olivia Rodrigo. Kahan himself has stated that it’s a song of feeling left behind and trapped, about seeing the other side of a person or place thought to be only beautiful. He equates it to a relationship saying “As a relationship ends, someplace or someone you used to look back at so fondly quickly transforms into a memory of pain.”
One of his lesser-known songs, compared to “Stick Season,” is “Orange Juice.” On his TikTok page, Kahan posted a video explaining that the song is about two friends meeting up again after years of being apart after a tragic accident forced them apart. One of them found religion and the other person stayed in the town where it happened and forged forward. Kahan stated “It’s really a song about how trauma can bind you, and how it can also separate you…”
These artists are all great musicians and songwriters, each having their own style of music different from each other, but they all have things in common. Each of them incorporates deeper meanings into their songs. They have personal stories tangled in with their music. Music is so important in many people’s day-to-day lives. In some cases, it can influence emotions or the way a person might act. It can be good to take a step back and away from the more popular or well known artists and admire the lesser-known ones who put work into creating their songs. Compared to Hozier, both David Kushner and Noah Kahan are fairly small artists, both of them having one or two well known songs and the rest of their music being forgotten. Smaller artists deserve the same amount of recognition for their work as more popular artists receive for theirs. They take the time to place deeper meanings within their songs, just like more well known artists and musicians who have more support than them. For the sake of the music industry, it’s necessary to begin to recognize lesser-known artists for their time and dedication to creating the songs loved and enjoyed by many.