Duster is an indie rock band that released their first album, titled “On the Dodge,” in 1996. They continued to release music throughout the late 1990’s, with albums titled “Stratosphere,” “1975,” “Transmission, Flux,” and, in 2000, “Contemporary Movement.” Duster consists of three different members, Clay Parton, Canaan Dove Amber, and Jason Albertini. They formed in San Jose, California.

From their first album to the release of  “Contemporary Movement,” no one really listened to them. According to NPR, not very many CDs or vinyl records were bought, and they were never played on the radio. After “Contemporary Movement” came out, they seemed to go radio silent for almost 20 years, until in 2019 they released “Duster,” named after the band. It contained 12 tracks, the most popular of them being “Chocolate and Mint.”

Even after “Duster” was released, for a year or so they didn’t have much recognition. That was, until their song “Inside Out” became popular on TikTok. It currently has 21.4 million streams on Spotify. The song was mainly instrumental, containing a total of 45 words. Yet, something about it was very calming. The main instruments used were electric guitar and drums. Though the music sounds very sad, people still liked them. Many of the songs had few words in them. Even if there were words, oftentimes they would be inaudible. After “Inside Out” became popular, other songs such as “Constellations,” “Stars Will Fall,” and “Me and the Birds” also started to become popular.

During an interview with Phluff, Parton was asked “How would you describe Duster to someone who doesn’t listen to you?” to which he replied “Experimental depressed music.” The interviewer asks: “How did you become aware that people were actively listening to Duster after you all had been inactive?” Parton replied and said “Dove’s roommate was like, ‘you guys are really popular on Spotify,’ but I don’t even use Spotify so I don’t know what that means.”

Because of the fact that Duster wasn’t very popular when “Stratosphere,” their most popular album, came out, not very many copies of vinyl records were made and not many people had them. Most of them go on the market for hundreds of dollars currently. The cheapest one to be found was $59.95. These vinyls are rare, since they don’t make “Stratosphere” ones anymore.

Though it took them a while, Duster finally started to get the recognition they deserve. They now have 1.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify, but have had no new music come out since 2019. Fans are hoping that word on another album comes out soon.