Bowie was one of rock’s good guys. Despite some of the grandeur of his performances and his wild sides, he never felt like a shock rocker — not to the extent that Black Sabbath or Marilyn Manson would be described as — but he continued to have the ability to surprise.

Perhaps most surprising was his ending: knowing that he was going to pass away any day, he finally releases Blackstar (our review) and passes only days later. His final music is about dealing with his own mortality, and in his final music video, he portrays himself as the living dead.

Bowie’s final persona was that of Lazarus, a dead man with something more to say to the world.

Bowie spoke for fans all over the world, and paved the way for many of the gay performers we have today thanks to his claims to be gay, straight, bi, and an alien. It’s hard to image we’d have artists like Perfume Genius without him.

But more so, it’s hard to imagine we’d have any modern rock and roll without him. Bowie influenced everybody — including movers and shakers that were much bigger than him. These are musicians who changed the game on global scales, people who inspired generations to pick up a guitar or a bass and learn to play. Nirvana was inspired by him, for crying out loud.

His theatrics inspired Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne (particularly after Osbourne left the afore-mentioned Black Sabbath to start his solo career). He influenced heavy metal and glam rock acutely, perhaps obviously, through presentation alone.

But while Bowie wrote glam rock records, albums like The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust sound much more like singer-songwriter. And they have their origins in the folk nature of it all — so it’s not just his experiments on The Man Who Sold The World that solidified his influence on the folk genre.

Perhaps obviously, the Berlin Trilogy led the way for electronic crossover music. Let’s Dance helped kick-off the alternative dance music scene. And Bowie’s work with funk transcends many genres, ultimately influencing even hip hop. Progressive rock may not even exist without him.

It’s rare to find a genre — or a single musician, even — who isn’t inspired and can’t trace some of their roots back to Bowie. Bowie isn’t the man who sold the world so much as he is the one who made it his own. He kick-started genres and catapulted many into stardom.

He did all of this while being himself.

Ultimately, Bowie’s legacy might not be his influence in music itself. It will come down to his voice. For millions, Bowie was the way they learned that it was okay to be themselves. Music didn’t have to be as sociologically regressive as country or homophobic (and sadistically vengeful) as heavy metal, and it didn’t have to be as blatantly rebellious and angry as punk. In fact, if you were a teenager and didn’t find yourself fitting into any of these genres, Bowie was the perfect respite for you.

He made it okay to be weird.

And in that sense, he leaves behind an even greater legacy: the musicians who are comfortable being weird. These are the people like Arca, who are reinventing the language of electronic music with solo releases or production work on Kanye tracks. These are the Petite Noirs of the world. The Fiery Furnaces. The Chet Fakers. Their ability to be themselves is largely a credit to Bowie, the man who pioneered it so many years ago.

Bowie’s life is like poetry: every few stanzas, there’s a shift in theme and rhythm. But ultimately, it comes full circle. So it’s fitting that, in many ways, Bowie’s career ended the way it started: with jazz experimentation, a defiance of pop and rock expectations, and a revival of popular interest in jazz fusion thanks to trend-setters like Kendrick Lamar.

And reportedly, Bowie was listening to a lot of Kendrick while he made Blackstar — which is, no doubt, going to go down as a landmark record in the rock genre. So it’s fitting that today’s new musical leaders are able to inspire Bowie in the same way that he’s able to inspire us. And thanks to Blackstar, I think we clearly have a love letter from Bowie with his notes (no pun intended) on where he thinks rock music is going. The saddest thing about it is that he won’t be along to experience the new journey he’s started us on.

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Many people said Bowie’s 2013 comeback record, The Next Day, felt like a retrospective record. Perhaps fittingly, Bowie’s final work sounds like he was looking to the future and deciding what alien sounds would infiltrate rock music next.

Not unsurprisingly — for a number of reasons — he landed on jazz. Blackstar is a beautiful record filled with gorgeous jazz overtones and some songs that just eke it — like the title track and the now-haunting Lazarus. Apparently, Bowie was listening to a lot of Kendrick Lamar (like the rest of us, I guess). That’s not a joke; that’s according to what he told NPR.

But of course, Bowie was originally a sax player. It should come as no surprise that he loved jazz music, or that he would come back to it for what he ultimately knew would be his last record. It’s fascinating that the end of his career would not only see him embracing his roots, but also looking to the future.

But ultimately, what makes Bowie’s final record so special is that he’s using it to say goodbye to everybody who loved his music. He’s giving us a way to grieve. Few artists are so considerate. Few records are as beautiful, haunting, and thoughtfully made as Blackstar. I suspect we’ll be talking about this for years to come.

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Their latest release, No Cities to Love, comes after a decade-long hiatus. It might be their best record, which is incredible. If you’ve been living under a rock, it received practically universal acclaim from critics last year and has been dominant on Best Of lists.

What makes the record so special isn’t just great songwriting or intricate and unique chunky riffs. It’s that all of this greatness is stuffed into a collection of raw, unnerving three-minute punk-like songs.

With great songwriting, awesome riffs, left-leaning politics, and perfect cover art, there isn’t much not to love here. You’re missing out if you haven’t heard No Cities to Love yet.

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Their debut record swaps out some of the partying for tunes about love and loss, but the band never seems to take it too seriously. That’s not a complaint; actually, it’s pretty refreshing to hear a band that doesn’t care so much and recognizes it as life being what it is.

I’ve heard a lot of bands like Hinds, but what really makes them unique is the camaraderie between lead singers Carlotta Cosials and Ana Perote. Where most duet leads work off each other with harmonies, these two ladies will sing opposing parts and let the music slowly build into a shouting match.

In other words, these two ladies are definitely punk.

But it’s their defining feature. It’s what makes them unique. And they sound awesome together, and the band is undoubtedly at their best when they’re just belting it out. Recommended.

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A couple years later, Mayer would release a much more popular live record called Keep Me Where The Light Is, both a popular lyric and a reference to his desire for fame and happiness. That record is a sham. This is the real deal. It features Mayer singing his own songs, with stripped-back guitar and a fantastic duo of musicians accompanying him (Gravity is particularly stellar here), but it also includes a ton of covers of popular blues song done in what now feels like the trademarked Mayer style.

A lot of people compared early Mayer to Buddy Guy, which might be a bit much — particularly with the benefit of hindsight. But what hindsight has also revealed is how much Mayer got right about the blues. What Quentin Tarantino is to blaxploitation films, John Mayer is to the blues: a white man paying such incredible homage to what’s typically been considered a black genre (with roots going as far back as slavery), that it’s hard to consider him anything less than a genius in most circles. But John Mayer’s just a man who listens to a lot of blues. It shows. Try! is an essential part of any respectable blues fan’s library.

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That makes Binge & Purge a time capsule of sorts: it’s the closest thing we have to real Best Of record from the group, and it’s the only great-sounding live recording we have left from this era of the band. (The next live recording Metallica released was S & M, a recording they made with a live symphony orchestra that unfortunately included too many of their post-Black Album songs for many fans’ likings.) This means that, as a great summation of what made early Metallica so great, Binge & Purge is essential.

It’s also, in retrospect, a sign of the reckless debauchery and cyclical addictions that the band members would experience throughout the next ten years before beginning the road to some of their recoveries during the recording of St. Anger. Frontman James Hetfield infamously throws a pint of beer on a well-meaning fan. The band disappears for fifteen minutes in the middle of a show, leaving hazed bassist James Newstead to play on his own until they return. (They call it a solo, but you just know they were backstage getting mid-show blowjobs from whatever women were around that night.) And while this drunken idiocy leads to some great laid-back moments, it also feels sad in retrospect.

Maybe I’m just getting old and missing the point though.

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2016 is going to be a great year filled with new talent. We can’t wait to see what surprises these artists will bring our way.

Cloves

Cloves is still a teenager, but she sounded so much older than that on her debut EP, released late in 2015. She has a beautiful voice, soaked in reverb and drenched in atmosphere on the EP, but she also has a keen sense of songwriting.

As a singer-songwriter, she’s nothing like Adelle or Taylor Swift (although she’s often compared to them), but fans of Lana Del Ray are going to find a lot to like. We’re hoping we get the chance to hear a debut feature-length from her sometime in 2016.

Francesco Yates

Justin Timberlake has anointed Francesco Yates the heir apparent to Timberlake’s particular brand of R&B-influenced pop music. We’d believe it. His first EP, dropped in 2015, was filled with soaring vocal work overtop of fantastic pop.

Yates is only twenty years old, so he has a lot of time to get some mentorship and hone his craft. We know he’s already signed, and the label will be hoping to cash in on that sometime soon, that might mean a feature-length sometime in 2016. We’d be first in line.

Lawrence Taylor

On the topic of heirs apparent, Lawrence Taylor feels like the first real genuine heir to old-school John Mayer we’ve had in a long time. His debut EP, Bang Bang, was a tremendous success in our books: catchy and approachable as pop, but his acoustic guitar strumming has a blues-y feel to it too.

Lawrence Taylor has everything John Mayer had going for him in his Heavier Things era: a killer falsetto, a great sense of writing, and the air of ego — even on tape, for some reason. But that confidence works.

Eryn Allen Kane

Eryn Allen Kane is a prodigy. Her powerhouse voice, lauded by genre leaders like Prince, felt unstoppable on Aviary: Act I, her biggest EP yet. She’s got a crazy amount of soul and, along with Fantastic Negrito, brings a tremendous amount of the genre’s original vibes back to the mic.

Eryn Allen Kane has all the passion and energy of her youth ahead of her, and a lot to say: her voice sounds unhinged and desperate to be free against every track she releases, making us eager to hear at least Act II of Aviary — and hopefully a full-fledged album soon.

Daniel Caesar

Daniel Caesar’s short EP, Pilgrim’s Paradise, really grabbed our attention in 2015. His record feels like a summation of everything happening in both the retro soul movement and the current R&B revival scene headlined by artists like FKA Twigs and BJ the Chicago Kid.

Pilgrim’s Paradise was a small platter that felt like a full serving. The question we have for Daniel Caesar is whether or not he can keep it up for a full album — which is what we’re hoping he’ll deliver this year.

Highs

Toronto natives Highs put out their last major EP in 2013 and have since been touring like crazy — recently with We The City. This April, their debut full-length, Dazzle Camouflage, is expected to drop on Indica Records, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Highs’ self-titled EP had a keen sense of indie rock and an aversion to cookie-cutter sounds, and we’re hoping that audacity continues with Dazzle Camouflage.

Fantastic Negrito

Fantastic Negrito sounds like he stepped out of a time capsule and joined us in 2015 to say hello. Armed with dark blues rock that sounds influenced by the greats, but with a cynicism that belies his 21st-century roots, Negrito has charmed us with two EPs so far and we can’t wait to hear a full-length record. We’re keeping an eye on him this year.

What separates Fantastic Negrito from a lot of the revival scenes happening is an awareness of his black roots. Out of all the new blues and soul players right now, and even the up-and-comers, Fantastic Negrito sounds the blackest, with an obvious respect for the greats that came before him and a desire to be the genre’s new every man. We think he can pull it off.

BJ the Chicago Kid

It’s been a long time coming for the Chicago native to release his first album on Motown, but we can’t wait to hear the results. BJ the Chicago Kid feels, much like Anderson .Paak, like one of the music industry’s worst-kept secrets: an upcoming talent just waiting to explode. In times like this, it never feels like we’re waiting for an album to come out — it always feel as if the album is ready for us, like we’re not prepared.

In short, we’re expecting BJ the Chicago Kid to surprise us.

Made of Oak

Nick Sanborn, one of half of Slyvan Esso, completely blew us away with his first EP release as Made of Oak. Penumbra was a beautiful electronic album. It wasn’t incredibly dissimilar from his work in Esso, but that’s a good thing: Sanborn is one of the few producers in electronic music who can make a synthesizer feel as organic as an acoustic instrument. It looks like Nick plans to spend the year working on a new Sylvan Esso record and touring his butt off, but we can dream about a feature-length, right?

Coleman Hell

The last we heard from Coleman Hell was when he released an EP last year that was, more or less, a collection of the singles we already knew really well. But all of it feels as if it’s gearing up to something.

Rest assured that when his debut feature-length record drops, you’ll know: Coleman’s singles last year were all high-energy dance tracks that could get stuck in your head for days. We’re excited to hear more from him.

Barcelona

The last time we heard from Barcelona, the indie rock band was experimenting with their three-part EP record called Melodrama in 2014. It feels high time for another release from them. Their experimentation with the EPs — called Love Me, Love You, and Know Love, respectively — was interesting and completely different from what came before. We want to know what direction the band will go in next.

The trio has been completely quiet since the Melodrama series dropped — we had to double-check to make sure they were still around, to be honest. None of this indicates a new record this year, but we’re keeping a close eye on them because we want it to happen.

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