@Halee Black

“Hey Siri, play the Study Session playlist.”

Bold, epic, and eclectic, this playlist collects recent indie rock and pop at its most anthemic—in other words, songs that give you a swallow-the-sun feeling, letting you know you're alive. Our editors update these selections regularly. If you like a track, add it to your library.

This is RESIST!, the place where we celebrate LGBTQ+ artists with attitude. You can forget genre here: The names you’ll find on this playlist are united simply by a serious punk spirit and a restless urge to disrupt the status quo. Whether they’re established risk-takers or pioneering icons-in-waiting, these lot are carving out their own spaces to explore music and identity with thrillingly radical results. As a result, the tracks on this playlist are powerfully diverse—and constantly changing. If you like a song, add it to your library now.

If you’re after just the hits, this is where you’ll find them: a handpicked selection of alternative's biggest songs of the past few years. Our editors update this playlist regularly, so if you hear something you like, add it to your library.

Tame Impala's music floats along like a lazy, psychedelic river. Reverb-drawn vocals, loose drums, and '70s-style synths coalesce into a sound that beckons your mind down strange, warped corridors. At the center is Australian Kevin Parker, whose journey starts with a debut EP of crunchy garage jams and winds its way through the hypnagogic rock of the Innerspeaker and Currents LPs to the '80s dream-funk of The Slow Rush.

Alex Scally concentrates on guitars and keys, Victoria Legrand sounds a bit like Nico, and the overall result is enchanting. The Baltimore dream-pop duo combined ethereal textures with captivating vocals to become one of the key indie bands of their era. Beach House's eponymous 2006 debut—reminiscent of Mazzy Star or Cocteau Twins— was met with critical acclaim. Their follow-up LP, Devotion, broadened their sound, and the dynamic Teen Dream introduced new influences like FM rock and soul. Beach House is constantly evolving and expanding. Check in.

With only the "Don’t Forget About Me" SoundCloud demo tape under his belt, Florida’s Dominic Fike claimed a multimillion dollar record deal from Columbia Records in 2018. Fike surged on the strength of songs that are more rhythmic and instrumentally complex than the average rap track. His guitar riffs on “Westcoast Collective” show he’s more than just a voice over a beat, while the groovy bounce of “3 Nights” took it to platinum status and got the viral video treatment from BROCKHAMPTON’s Kevin Abstract. His tender vocals are featured on Halsey’s aptly titled “Dominic’s Interlude,” flashing a hint of pop versatility.

When New Yorker Brendan Rice transformed into bedroom-pop troubadour Gus Dapperton as a teenager, he found the cathartic outlet he craved. Under this persona, the singer/songwriter/producer strips away any inhibition in favor of esoteric turns of phrase and woozy layers of analog and digital sounds. Early songs, like 2017’s “I’m Just Snacking,” float on languid croons and shimmering synths that warp into soothing, psychedelic ripples. Elsewhere, tracks like “I Got the Floor” show off his dance-floor potential, while the sweet synth laments of his 2019 debut, Where Polly People Go to Read, prove him to be quite the romanticist.

Ranging from gauzy electro to postmodernist art pop to heavy-gauge EDM—sometimes all in one song—Claire Boucher is a masterful shape-shifter. No matter the style, the music she records as Grimes is supercharged with thrilling tension: Bright melodies dance across ominous electronic beats, and influences from different eras spark as they collide. At the center of it all is her inimitable voice, looped and layered in playful, urgent, and otherworldly ways. Original, uncompromising, and unpredictable, her music is a candy-colored ode to self-empowerment.