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Pentatonix is an innovative acapella group serving as a substantial inspiration for vocalists and sound engineers through their unique stylistic choices. These techniques include layering, volume panning, and arranging these vocals to create a melodically thick composition, adjacent to mainstream music. As a personal inspiration, Pentatonix is eminent for their rich harmonies sung exclusively through vocals. Their engineers arrange their harmonic sequences that create polyphonic and homophonic textures (Jean, 2021) that structure pleasingly with their songs and vocals. Polyphonic textures are created via ‘functional equality’ (Mardaeva, 2022, p. 100) in various melodic and harmonic lines played simultaneously, which Pentatonix uses prominently in their choruses. Homophonic textures are central melodies surrounded by additional complementary harmonies (Jean, 2021) to reinforce the depth of the lead which is used in their verses highlighting a primary vocal type, exuding a sense of individuality that is pleasing to the audience. The group is competent in assembling and mixing diverse vocal assets with versatility in genres that altogether accentuate their unique ability to existing and original tracks. Their skill, talent, vocals, and stylistic choices are admirable and have personally inspired me to strengthen my vocals, experiment with harmonic polyphonic textures, and learn to harmonise by recording covers of existing songs.

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Charlie Puth is an innovative self-produced engineer and songwriter competent in identifying any pitch and tone within sounds. Evident from social media, Puth exhibits his production skills by multitracking everyday utilities and furniture by pitching the samples to compose a base chord progression, rhythm, and overall composition. He taught me that music is not isolated to quintessential musical instruments. As an artist, Puth has inspired a new objective to develop perfect pitch, production and mixing skills so I can eventually produce my own optimal-sounding music.

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Olivia Rodrigo’s candid poetry and instrumentation are authentic  and provide a personal melodic outlet to empathise with. I am particularly enamoured by her engineer's stylistic choice of incorporating a distorted radio-like effect on her vocals and instrumental layers that elicit a sense of nostalgia, enabling the audience to reminisce through different periods of their lives. Rodrigo has a gift for composing songs in which the instrumentation, effects, and poetry are all compatible in producing emotionally and empathetically accessible music, versatile to diversified generations. Olivia Rodrigo has inspired me to allow myself in the future to connect to the audience by connecting to my own emotions when making music.

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Pentatonix was heavily influenced and inspired by Imogen Heap, through the tone of her voice and the atmosphere created by her music. The group agreed that their alto singer, Mitch Grassi was vocally influenced by and inherited Heap’s ‘ethereal tone’ (Vain, 2015). Grassi was inspired by her synthetic ‘soundscapes and ambient music’ (Martens, 2015),  deriving from her electronica-based genre (Henderson, n.d.). She partially inspired the foundation of Pentatonix as they began by covering electronic-based music, then experimented with textures and ethereal/watery atmospheres similar to Heap’s by implementing their individualistic harmonic sound to existing or original songs (Martens, 2015). I believe Pentatonix was also influenced by covering her songs which increased their success and musical repertoire. For example, Imogen Heaps ‘Aha’, which they arranged to capture the ethereal, eerie atmosphere and incorporated their own ominousity through their deepness and vibrato.

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Justin Timberlake influenced Pentatonix throughout their journey of covering songs, and eventually producing their own music. Vocalists in Pentatonix were inclined to ‘channel his soulfulness’ (Vain, 2015) in their original music, and adopt his fervent vocal techniques. The group also describe his music as ‘ear candy’, meaning he produces gratifying melodies without any remarkable sentiment (Definition of Ear Candy, n.d.). Showing a fondness towards his ‘live in the moment’ melodies, they try to implement these aesthetic sounds into their original songs (Vain, 2015).

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Vocalist of Pentatonix Scott Hoying, admires various R&B artists and has ‘emulated’ (NBC News, 2016) their vocals to develop his unique voice. One of these influences is Beyonce. Hoying is also motivated by her work ethic and her ability to endeavour towards pristine effort and results. As a group, Pentatonix strives towards immaculate quality in their performances and vocal ability and they believe that Beyonce’s effort towards perfect adjacent quality vocals and music is a scarce gift in this generation of artists (NBC News, 2016).

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Charlie Puth was inspired by Taylor’s thought provoking lyrical choices, and pop and folky sound from an early age (Smooth Radio, 2018). Puth was fascinated by the consistency of his controlled vocals between live performances and studio recordings (NME, 2022). Charlie Puth cherished James Taylor's art from a young age, and his admiration is the reason he developed a musical repertoire (Zemler, 2020).

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Puth was vigorously influenced by songwriter and producer George Michael. Puth was particularly inspired by Michael’s disengagement from ‘Wham!’ (Steinway & Sons, n.d.) to substantiate his independent musicality, repertoire, and ability to single-handedly compose music which was Puth’s objective in the music industry as well (O’Connor, 2020). Puth admired George as a ‘Triple Threat. As a producer, songwriter, and performer’, as revealed in an interview he had with O’Connor (2020). He also recognised Michael as a genius producer with an aptitude to multitrack as little as five instruments and manipulate them as an engineer to create a comprehensive song, inspiring Puth in his production and innovative multitracking ability (O’Connor, 2020). This potentially influenced Puth into multitracking, but also further breaking the boundaries of musical instruments to create his own artistic flow.

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The R&B/Hip Hop (Murray, 2023)  group TLC were considered an early influence for Puth. Puth grew up experimenting with jazz that eventually developed into a ‘retro blend of R&B and pop’  (Balkin, 2020) pulled from TLC’s influence. Puth was influenced by their first album which he believes was their group presenting themselves as an ‘advocate for female rights in the music industry’ (NME, 2022), as they were belittled and deprecated by the common society. Despite being unsung, TLC demonstrated empowerment by creating soulful R&B music that made it huge in the industry, influencing Puth’s blend of genres including R&B, to accumulate his unique music style (NME, 2022).

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Rodgrigo admired the heavy instrumentation and feminine quality of the rock band ‘Babes in Toyland’ (Hunter, 2023). She highlights that she acquired her rockier composition from the band's energetic and punkier songs, emanating from aggressive instrumentation through their gritty vocals and guitar (Brannigan, 2023). ‘She tried to tap into the Minneapolis band’s aggression and energy’ (Brannigan, 2023) and utilised this gritty distortion influence in her own music to blend with her lyrics and elude the aggression and aggravation she experienced within her years of youth.

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In an interview on the channel 102.7IISFM (2023), Rodrigo reveals that listening to Lorde’s song ‘Royals’, introduced her aspiration to the world of songwriting through Lorde’s ability to write and produce a song with lyrics so emotionally driven at such a young age. Rodrigo resides with the idea of ‘authenticity’ and the absence of ‘pandering’ being pertinent in writing relatable music (102.7KIISFM, 2023). Rodrigo’s career further took off from this aspiration as she has written a candid album during her adolescence making her a pinnacle artist of the 2020’s. It is evident that Rodrigo has adapted a diaphanous and delicate tone fairly similar to Lorde’s. There is a possibility that she pulled influence from Lorde’s bright and delicate voice.

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Taylor Swift is a lyrical and compositional inspiration to Rodrigo as speculated on the internet and evident in her productions. Rodrigo elaborated on how ‘Taylor Swift is the best storyteller of our generation’ (Russo, 2021). She admires Swift’s ability to lace her poetic lyrics with verity and remain true to her life and emotional journey, allowing the audience to transcend into a completely divergent state of mind (Russo, 2021). Taylor’s lyrics are determined by her intimate emotions that the audience can relate to and empathise with (Pazzanese, 2023). This quality of candid lyricism is inherent and has been inherited in Rodrigo’s lyrics.