With 2023 on the horizon, it’s time to start looking ahead: There’s a lot of potential for new music.
Some artists have been teasing fans for the last couple of years. For instance, Robert Plant has allegedly been sitting on material he’s conjured up with this Sensational Space Shifters band since 2019, while George Clinton said he’d amassed so much new music back in 2018 that it couldn’t all fit on the album he released that year. A “part two” would be necessary, though it has yet to see the light of day.
Other artists have made it quite clear that new music is coming, they’re just not sure exactly when. Dolly Parton is working on a full-fledged rock album after her surprise induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, Joe Perry said in a 2022 interview with UCR that Aerosmith is “looking over the next two or three years” to release archival material that stretches back to the ’70s.
Sometimes, the holdup on new music is due to decisions made between artists, management and labels — a diplomatic process that can slow things down. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. has solved that problem, though. He also aims to release new music in 2023 and “for the first time in my adult life, I don’t have a contract with anyone except myself,” he says. “So I get to do whatever I want.”
Below, we’re taking a look at all the new rock music that might (or might not) arrive in 2023.