The New Acoustic Popular Music (Part 10) - The Singer Revolution - Second Part

By Don Robertson

Say Goodbye! to hard rock as it writhes in dying pain and bid Hello! to Americana, the new acoustic popular music. Thank God you have arrived. 

      In the previous articles of the New Acoustic Popular Music series, I discussed the emergence of new music that is widely divergent from the typical commercial offerings brought to us by corporate America. It is acoustic music that is mainly based on the roots music of Southeastern America. We find that it is innovative, fresh and young. Most of the musical members of this genre are under 30 years of age, or were when they started their careers. In this and the following articles in this series, I will continue to introduce this new generation of music.

     This is the second part of "The Singer Revolution". If you haven't read the first part, here it is. In this second part, I will showcase four Americans and one young lady from France.

Christina Perri

     This is American singer-songwriter, Christina Perri. Her song "Jar of Hearts" was a huge 2010 worldwide hit, with over 223,000,000 (two-hundred and twenty-three million!) Youtube views as I write this.

"Jar of Hearts" by Christina Perri

     This video features Christina with American grammy-award winning singer-songwriter Jason Mraz. This video, featuring no expensive over-production, is nearing 27 million hits at the time I write this article. This demonstrates the current popularity of real music from real talent, as opposed to the corporation-bred mayhem of so much music that has flooded the airwaves during the last few decades:

"Distance" Christina Perri with Jason Marz

Ryan Adams

     Twenty-year old Ryan Adams founded the alternative-country band Whiskeytown in 1994, and then began a solo career in 2000. Here he is on a 2011 Letterman show: 

"If I am a Stranger" by Ryan Adams

    The following song "Let it Ride" is performed by Ryan, seated with Neil Finn and Janis Joplin on BBC4's program Songwriter's Circle. The concept of three songwriters trading performances of their songs is a tradition from Nashville:

"Let it Ride" by Ryan Adams

Phillip Phillips

   American singer Phillip Phillips is a 2012 American Idyl winner.

"Gone, Gone, Gone" by Phillip Phillips

"Home" by Phillip Phillips

Nicole Atkins

    I find this Wikipedia entry for this young lady quite fascinating: 

Nicole Atkins (born October 1, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter. Her influences include 50s crooner music, 60s psychedelia, soul music, and the Brill Building style of writing. Atkins has been compared to Roy Orbison and singers from the Brill Building era.

"The Tower" by Nicole Atkins 2011

     The following is a clip from a 2013 Dave Letterman show:

"The Way It Is" by Nicole Atkins and the Sea 2013

Zaz

    Now after featuring the above four Americans, let's have a listen to Zaz, singing on a Paris street. Zaz is the name adopted by French singer Isabel Geffroy. When I first discovered this video back in 2011, there were very Youtube hits. As I write this, the total is nearing 50 million. To watch the same video with an English translation, just click here.

"Je Veux" by Zaz

    In the following two final episodes of "The New Acoustic Popular Music" I continue to present videos that I hope you will love and enjoy as I do. The next episode, Part 11 features youth in bluegrass music, and Part 12, Ireland.

Enjoy the music. 

So for now, "Good music. Good Vibes." I'm Don Robertson.