ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Hannah Diamond

NotoriousHannahDiamond

Image Courtesy of Hannah Diamond

Believe me when I say that I’ve spent a very long time trying to figure out what genre Hannah Diamond (and her fellow PC Music cohorts) falls into. She’s pop, but not quite pop. Edgier? More saccharine? Definitely electronic, but almost exclusively so. Her music seems like it was made entirely using computers, no instruments. The list could go on and on, but the point of this is that Hannah Diamond is virtually impossible to lump into only one genre, if at all. In today’s world, everyone is scrambling to smack labels on whatever new music comes out, leading to (sometimes) ridiculous and obscure names in an attempt to explain whatever song / artist you’re listening to. If I were to come up with a genre, it would be something along the lines of sparklewave or ringtonecore. (I’ve even heard the phrase “glitter trap” thrown around.) Disgusting, right?

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PC Music, and more specifically, Hannah Diamond, is a prime example of the difficulty of labelling. Don’t get me wrong, I was a fan immediately upon hearing her track “Attachment,” and went on to become obsessed with every other track of hers (2, including a feature on a labelmate’s song) and every subsequent yet-to-be-released track, but every time someone asked me what kind of music she made, I’d find myself stumbling over a long list of adjectives. Hannah Diamond’s music is born out of the internet age. Diamond clearly draws inspiration from all things computerized, as well as everything that is sickly sweet and sparkly. Her almost-chipmunk vocals sound like they shouldn’t work and wouldn’t make sense, and under any other circumstance they wouldn’t, but somehow I can’t imagine her music with out these over-the-top edits. Hannah Diamond’s music is maximalist, leaving no room for guesswork. It’s abrupt, up front, cheeky, and completely new. Give her a listen, and find yourself trying to put her music into just one box.

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– Lotanna Obodozie

 

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