The hottest artist in underground dance music is a horse. The Berlin-based DJ HorsegiirL claims she played exclusively for animal audiences before getting discovered by “Whitney Horseton” and crossing over to the human world with equine-themed bangers like “My Barn My Rules” and “Material Hor$e.” Since 2022, she’s developed a growing fan base of “farmies” who line up to see her surreal, genre-bending sets at festivals like Coachella and clubs like Berghain. Farmies are fiercely protective of her mystique: HorsegiirL, who also goes by Stella Stallion, has never revealed her face or her real identity. “People always love a bit of lore,” says Stallion. “We like stories. That’s how we function. That’s how we build empires and also how we bring them down.”While HorsegiirL’s act is extreme, it’s symbolic of a new wave of young musicians building their own niche environments—artists like 2hollis and the bands Magdalena Bay and Fcukers, as well as experimental acts like LSDXOXO and Oklou. A few years ago, the music industry decided that Gen Z wanted artists whose personalities were small, generic, and relatable enough to fit into social media algorithms; these new performers, however, feel like glitches in that system, like off-ramps from the infinite scroll into new universes. Their fans want to experience them in real life, not through a screen. Last year, Live Nation reported a 4 percent increase in concert attendance over the year before, and Gen Z surpassed millennials as the top buyers of concert tickets, signaling a shift in where, and how, teenagers and -20-somethings want to listen to music.HorsegiirL wears a Charles Jeffrey Loverboy top; Emily Frances Barrett belt.Photographed by Maciek Pożoga, styled by Flora Huddart“People now are just looking for a bit of separation from reality,” says LSDXOXO, the American-born, Berlin-based producer and musician also known as RJ Glasgow. His music, which combines elements of mainstream pop, underground techno, and even a dash