Every year new artists break into the mainstream, steamrolling into your ears through viral videos, radio spins, concerts and word-of-mouth. MTV revealed to Mashable which ones it thinks will make big waves in the music industry -- both offline and online -- in 2013.
Based on their recordings, live performances, music videos, personality and fan engagement (including on social media), these 13 artists made it onto MTV's shortlist:
Alt-J
Joey Badass
Becky G
Robert DeLong
Gold Fields
Hunter Hayes
Trinidad James
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Austin Mahone
Twenty One Pilots
The Weeknd
Jessie Ware
Zedd
"It feels amazing to be honored by MTV," said country crooner Hunter Hayes, who in December was nominated for three Grammys. "2012 blew my mind, so there's always that question of how do we beat last year? This is a good start."
The announcement is part of MTV's Artists to Watch, a music discovery initiative launched Tuesday morning on the network's TV channels, websites and social platforms.
"Every two weeks, we'll feature a new artist to watch," says Amy Doyle, head of music and talent strategy for MTV. "We'll work with that artist to create a campaign that will hit all of MTV screens. This will include exclusive performances, interviews, photos that we'll feature on-air, on Artists.MTV, MTV.com as well as our various social channels."
The Artist to Watch campaign also has a live-concert series component where selected artists will perform in New York City and other places throughout the year. First up: a Jan. 16 NYC concert featuring Zedd, Jessie Ware, Twenty One Pilots and Robert DeLong.
"We wanted to create a strong launching pad for emerging artists to instantly cultivate a larger fan base and we think we've done that with Artist to Watch," Doyle adds.