Caroline Polachek

Though the recently released Pang is this pop singer's ostensible debut, her artistic fingerprints crop up in every corner of the cultural sphere from over the past decade— whether that's soundtracking 2008 iPod commercials with her brilliant electropop duo Chairlift or writing and producing Beyoncé's "No Angel." Prolific career aside, Pang proves Polacheck is a masterful songwriter in her own right: tight vocal leaps, wry humor and genre-crossing instrumentation spanning country slide guitar and Arca-esque synth majesty. It's another reminder to pay attention—today's most compelling pop music is happening in its fringes.