From Charlotte Plank to Sherelle: The biggest female drum'n'bass artists to listen to next year
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Drum’n’bass is officially mainstream. From football matches to the supermarket, it’s almost impossible to move these days without hearing speakers pumping out those bassline tracks set to 174 beats per minute. And from Chase’n’Status to Rudimental via Kenya Grace, it’s enjoying chart success like never before.
But it hasn’t always been that way. The genre has come a long way from its roots, 30 years ago – and a new Spotify documentary is diving into that history. Titled Meet By the Front Left Speaker, it’s an examination of drum’n’bass’s meteoric rise to success, from 1991, where Fabio and Grooverider started playing DnB at Rage; to 2003, when Pendulum’s tune Vault was being played at Glastonbury to thousands of rapturous crowds.
Since 2021, streams of drum’n’bass tracks have increased by 94 per cent in the UK, making its biggest names – Chase & Status, Rudimental and Bou among them – into superstars. And with 68 per cent of listeners in the UK under 34, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
Within the genre, there are an increasing number of female artists making their mark on the scene, some of whom feature in the documentary. From Nia Archives to Sherelle, here are some of the best ones to listen to next year. Plank’s music straddles the line between traditional DnB and pop-infused songwriting. Her singles fuse indie lyrics with the fast-paced rhythm of drum’n’bass production. The Aussie-British star kick-started her career with a Rudimental collaboration (she was stacking boxes in M&S at the time) and has gone onto release Lost Boys – a more indie-leaning track – and L.S.D., which leans more towards drum’n’bass.
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