Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
Lil Peep’s sound and look are a 2010s take on the emo trend of the 2000s, and he’s caused controversy not only for his lyrics (which cover topics like depression, death, sex and drugs) but his musical identity: Can he actually be called a rapper? Either way, his extremely cultivated persona was always going to attract haters, as emo did in its heyday. Still, it’s always good to have characters on the music scene, and for all of us who remember MySpace, tracks like Awful Things will emit more amusement than anger. I recently attended Reading Festival for the first time and was (pleasantly) surprised by just how few remnants of rock culture remained, but anyone who says rock is dead is ignoring the emerging teen alt-pop scene. Acts likes Twenty One Pilots, Halsey and Melanie Martinez have obsessive young fans, and Lil Peep has similar appeal, with a modern, genre-bending sound and a completely unsubtle, self-consciously stylised interpretation of teen angst for the Instagram age.