Ten LGBTQ+ Music Artists You Don’t Want to Miss in 2024
Pride Month has arrived, and it's ample cause to feature some of our favorite LGBTQ+ artists.
But the music featured here – from trailblazing pop to hook-laden metal – deserves to be heard year-round.
These LGBTQ+ music artists aren’t just setting the benchmark for great tunes in 2024. They’re shaping the industry’s future.
There’s no better time to get to know them than now.
Snow Tha Product
The 2010s are a renaissance for women emcees. Megan Thee Stallion. Glorilla. Ice Spice.
Name Snow Tha Product in the same breath as those industry titans from now on.
The bi-lingual rapper switches up languages mid-flow on "Nah" so smoothly it's almost blink-and-you-miss-it. During the thumping "Drunk Love," rapid-fire flows give way to woozy melodies ready to soundtrack late-night highway drives and scores of bad decisions.
Snow is about to go global. Get on the bandwagon before it's too late.
Bentley Robles
The cover of Bentley Robles LP Ugly Crier features a half-naked Robles weeping tears of blood from opaque eyes. It's an aesthetic flex for the ages, equal parts alluring and spooky.
That complexity carries over to every bombastic jam on Crier, which marries hyper-pop flourishes to club beats and thick, syrupy hooks. Robles' song of the summer-ready collaboration with fellow LGBTQ+ music artist Zee Machine (more on him in a bit) might be his most significant swing for the charts yet.
If there's any justice, it will connect.
FIGHTMASTER
Few artists thread rock and pop instincts together more beautifully than FIGHTMASTER.
Their songs are a tapestry of instrumental muscle that flex irrepressible melodies in verses and choruses. “Bloodshed Baby” is less menacing than its title but still uncoils the flare of vintage Hot Fuss-era The Killers. It's the same with “BRICK X BRICK,” a swamp of guitars of choir-like vocal harmonies you want to get lost in forever.
Check them out ASAP.
Lagoona Bloo
Watch Lagoona Bloo’s “Elle Woods” video before you keep reading this.
Is that not The Avengers, but make it Drag Race of video clips? "Elle Woods'' would be mesmerizing if it wasn't packed with all-star LGBTQ+ music artists and queens. The song bops like it was born to, and the entire package proves Lagoona Bloo is ready to join pop's A-list. Stream the just-released Underwater Bubble Pop for more proof.
Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox? As in trailblazing actor and Emmy nominee Laverne Cox?
Yes, the same, and yes – Laverne makes jams. How else would you describe "Beat For The Gods," which sounds like riding a rainbow straight to Valhalla? As Laverne bellows a monologue about serving up face over pulsating drums, it's impossible not to grin or stop moving.
Cox brings the goods no matter what medium she plays in. If you haven't, get to know her as a musician.
LEXXE
LEXXE's artistic ambitions are immediately apparent to anyone who hears or sees their work. The "Joyride" video is half chase film and half gothic rave. On "Meet Me In The Shadows," they give spooky electronica pop a facelift worthy of instantaneous recognition.
Ambitions are only half the battle, though. Pop music is supposed to be fun – and LEXXE is never anything less than an absolute blast to listen to.
It's music for your head and heart.
Brooke Candy
It's beyond audacious to interpolate a St. Vincent song. Putting that interpolation over the queasiest beat this side of mid-aughts PC Music is a heat check.
Audacious might be Brooke Candy's middle name.
"Pills" is the dark side of looking for a guy in finance, a jam about the late-night club sessions your parents are afraid of. Candy coos words that are unprintable here with A-list charisma and stamina.
This is the song of summer for those who know. Stream it now.
BITE!
When was the last time you heard a truly great guitar riff? If the answer is "too long" in any way, shape, or form, BITE! 's "Run From The Devil" is here to change that.
Like every track in the LGBTQ+ duo's catalog, "Run From The Devil" swaggers out the gates with distortion-drenched confidence. It plays like every 80s hair metal anthem by way of Pantera-era Southern metal, but somehow more progressive and degenerate.
If that doesn't sell, BITE! As an artist, you need to watch; nothing will.
Johnny Manuel
Johnny Manuel embodies independent music.
Manuel is a former major-label artist, but his career exploded when he embraced going it alone. He brought impeccable pop and gospel stylings to The Voice Australia; as the video proves, they took quick and meaningful notice.
Manuel is the artist you're looking for if you've been craving standards sung with modern verve but timeless technique.
Zee Machine
[EMBED ZEE MACHINE’S “THE RADIO (LO-FI VERSION)” VIDEO]
In the 2020s, artists brave enough to play a song on an instrument with minimal band or studio backup are few and far between.
Maybe that’s why Zee Machine’s “The Radio (Lo-Fi Version)” is so striking.
A stripped-down take on his sad-boy club rager, “The Radio (Lo-Fi Version),” reveals the bruised heart of its narrator while showcasing Zee’s elastic vocals. It’s a stone-cold stunner that suggests Zee can make any kind of heart-shredding music he sets his mind to.
Enjoy it during Pride Month and all of 2024.