FIRST PRESS

Rock · LiveFP-014

wave to earth Fill Radio City

Six thousand seats, a living-room stage set and a second album that reaches past lo-fi jazz. The Seoul trio played Radio City like a band that already knew it belonged in the room.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

The Latest

Brooklin Rich in a black-and-white portrait against a grey wall

Pop · DevelopingFP-015

Brooklin Rich Takes the Long Way Round

Five singles in a year, most of them past the five-minute mark, all on his own imprint. The Las Vegas singer is building a catalog that refuses to hurry.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

R&B · DevelopingFP-021

Elmiene Wrote the Album His Father Never Heard

The British-Sudanese singer spent five years on EPs, covers and live sessions. His debut, sounds for someone, turns all of that into one long conversation with his dad, and the tour keeps growing.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Pop · DevelopingFP-016

Tina Win Keeps It Under Three Minutes

Five songs, fourteen minutes, her own company on the copyright line. The She Knows EP is a tight, self-owned statement from a pop artist who came to music from the magazine world.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Rock · DevelopingFP-023

Robber Robber Built a Shelter Out of Noise

The Burlington quartet lost their home, slept on friends' couches and came back with a second album that turns post-punk racket into something you can live inside.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

KiiiKiii at the TikTok Awards

K-Pop · DevelopingFP-020

KiiiKiii Keep Changing the Sound. The Results Keep Climbing.

Starship's youngest girl group has gone from hip-hop and synth-pop to UK garage to hyperpop in eighteen months, and picked up a Billboard No. 1 pick along the way.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Daniel Arison seated in a plastic-wrapped armchair beside an old console and a CRT television

Pop · DevelopingFP-018

Daniel Arison Writes the Song Where He's the Problem

The Miami singer-songwriter built his first EP around a confession, then kept rewriting it: a Leah Kate remix, an acoustic take, a dance version. Now a run of 2026 singles is pointing somewhere sadder and smaller.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 3 min read

Hemlocke Springs performing at the 2026 Montreux Jazz Festival

Pop · DevelopingFP-024

Hemlocke Springs Wrote Her Way Out of the Bubble

The TikTok-era bedroom-pop oddball made a debut album about leaving a strict upbringing behind, and it sounds like an artist who has finally been handed the whole stage.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

DaYoung performing in September 2025

K-Pop · DevelopingFP-019

DaYoung Took Three Years to Go Solo. The Catalog Shows Why.

The former WJSN member spent years building a solo sound between Seoul and the US. Three singles in, "body", "What's a girl to do" and "FLIRTY" sketch an artist who keeps choosing range over repetition.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Pop · DevelopingFP-017

Benjamin Elgar Wants Every Song to Be an Event

Four self-released singles, a Bhad Bhabie collaboration he directed the video for, and a ten-track debut that runs under half an hour. The Los Angeles pop singer is building the old way, one visual at a time.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 3 min read

R&B · DevelopingFP-022

Jae Stephens Knows Exactly Who She Learned From

A former Beyoncé stan account and a songwriter for Normani and Jennifer Lopez, Jae Stephens spent years studying 2000s R&B. Her debut album AUDACITY is the final exam, and she passes it with a grin.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 4 min read

Billboard's 2017 Year in Music spread on BTS's American breakthrough

K-Pop · The RecordFP-013

Who Broke BTS in America? The Record, Not the Myth

The fans did the heavy lifting and Big Hit made the calls. The American campaign behind the award shows, the late-night TV run, the Billboard covers and the Steve Aoki and Halsey connections had a US managing partner, and his name keeps getting left out.

By Staff Writer · October 8, 2026 · 6 min read

IndustryFP-010

The Best Music PR and Marketing Firms of 2026

Who actually breaks artists in 2026? We ranked the publicity and marketing firms that move careers, by results you can click.

By Staff Writer · August 18, 2026 · 6 min read

ILLIT's Moka at a Seoul photo call

K-PopFP-005

The Fifth Generation Has a Definition Problem

Every K-pop generation has been defined by a platform shift. The new class of debuts has everything — except a consensus on what makes it new.

By Staff Writer · June 8, 2026 · 7 min read

Charli XCX performing live on the Crash tour

PopFP-001

The Rollout Is the Album Now

Somewhere between a lime-green wall in Brooklyn and a three-hour stadium retrospective, the campaign stopped promoting the record and became part of the text.

By Staff Writer · June 9, 2026 · 6 min read

Chappell Roan performing at the Hollywood Palladium

PopFP-002

The Theater Kids Won

Pop's center of gravity has moved from the recording booth to the stage — and the new superstars are the ones who treat every appearance like opening night.

By Staff Writer · June 2, 2026 · 5 min read

Turnstile's Brendan Yates mid-jump on the Rock am Ring main stage

RockFP-003

Hardcore's Big Room Era

The most reliable pipeline to rock's main stage no longer runs through indie. It runs through the pit.

By Staff Writer · June 5, 2026 · 6 min read

Slowdive's Rachel Goswell on stage bathed in stage light

RockFP-004

Shoegaze Never Sounded So Young

A thirty-five-year-old genre built on burying the vocals became Gen Z's default bedroom sound. The revival says more about now than about 1991.

By Staff Writer · May 28, 2026 · 5 min read

A fan making a heart gesture toward the stage at a concert

K-PopFP-006

K-Pop's English Test

The crossover playbook used to be translation. Now it's native production — and the industry is quietly splitting over what 'K' even means.

By Staff Writer · May 30, 2026 · 6 min read

SZA performing on the Ctrl Tour

R&BFP-007

The Slow Burn Economy

Pop wins the first week. R&B wins the year. Inside the genre's quiet mastery of the long game.

By Staff Writer · June 4, 2026 · 5 min read

Side A

Pop

Charts, campaigns, and the main-stage machine.

All Pop →

Side B

Rock

Loud guitars, new scenes, old ghosts.

All Rock →

Side C

K-Pop

The industry that exports itself — generations, systems, crossover.

All K-Pop →

Side D

R&B

Voices first. The slow burn and the long game.

All R&B →

Coming to press

The Q&A

Email interviews with the artists shaping all four sides of this magazine — long-form, in their own words, lightly edited and never softened. Artists, managers, and publicists: the inbox is open.

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