Look out for Zach Hood and the mid tempo track I Miss My Friends. Although we are only 3 weeks in, the song has become my favorite this year.

The 20-year-old Alabama artist has quietly garnered 70+ million streams across his first six singles, landed on Spotify’s Pop Rising, Radar US & and held a spot on the Global Viral 50 chart.

Zach says, “I definitely feel like this is one of my most relatable songs yet – if not my most relatable – because kids my age are all going off to college and different places typically away from what they know. It’s one that really hits home for me,” Hood explained. “I not only had to go straight from high school into the real world, but I had to do it in Los Angeles – one of the strangest & loneliest cities in the world because virtually everyone is trying to ‘make it.’ I miss my friends, I miss home. It’s that simple.”

TikTokers are very much the new stars building fame and fortune.

Charli D’Amelio earned $17.5 million last year. She sells her 133 million followers clothes and tells them what products to buy. Her sister Dixie made 10 million. Both of them are building business empires. It’s a like big family business.

Addison Rae made over 8 million. She had a lead role in He’s All That series that ranked #1 on Netflix.

Bella Poarch made 5 million. She launched with a lip-sync video to “M to B,” a song by a British rapper which became the most-viewed TikTok in 2020.

TikTok influencers have completely replaced the Hollywood star.

talker releases the track Don’t Want You To Love Me. You’ll love if you like 90’s rock, and get use to it, because that’s where music is drifting again. This year you’ll hear less beats and more live instruments.

Los Angeles-based Celeste Tauchar who goes under the moniker talker dubs herself  “indie rock with glitter all over it”.

talker has released two EP’s, “Horror Films” and “Wax”, which received attention from Alternative Press, The A.V. Club, NPR Music, Grimy Goods, Buzzbands LA, and We Found New Music. She’s performed Red Rocks, The Bowery Ballroom, and Lollapalooza.

“This is about those confusing emotions when you get involved with someone from your past. The excitement & the trying-to-talk-yourself-out-of-it” says talker.

The mixing engineer who worked on Metallica’s ‘…And Justice For All’ has spoken about Lars Ulrich’s drum tracks on the record, saying they sounded “like ass”.

Steve Thompson was co-mixer on the 1988 album, which was the metal icons’ fourth LP and first since the death of their bassist Cliff Burton.

While the record is acclaimed, it has long been criticised for its dry, tinny production and Jason Newsted’s hard to hear bass guitar lines. In a new interview on A Discussion With Dean Cramer, Thompson spoke about working on the Metallica album.

“Lars originally came in with a whole EQ setup chart of how he wanted his drums to sound,” he said. “So Michael Barbiero, my partner, says, ‘Why don’t you work with Lars and get the drums [sounding the way he wants them to sound], and then once you do that, I’ll take care of the rest’. So he does that. And I listened to the sounds, and I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I think this sounds like ass’.

Only in 2022 would an album of  bird sounds jump ahead Taylor Swift on a top 50 chart. How long it will stay there? Not long, but it’s a good headline that will give ‘eyes’ on the album and deserving so.

The album titled Songs Of Disappearance chronicles the calls from endangered Australian birds and reached the Top Five ARIA album charts, selling more than 3,000 copies. It briefly reached No. 3 on the country’s top 50 albums chart.

Anthony Albrecht helmed the album with his arts organization, the Bowerbird Collective. He’s a musician and a Ph.D. candidate at Charles Darwin University.

“It’s absolutely incredible to have knocked Michael Buble, Mariah Carey and a whole bunch of other really famous artists out of the [top five],” he said.

“In some ways, it’s not surprising, because I believe Australians generally are so much more attuned now to the environmental crisis that we’re all facing — and that the unique and incredible species that also call Australia home are facing.”