Replay Value: What Will I Do by Emmett Hughes and the Long Reggae-Pop Crossover
A Huntington Songwriter Folds Reggae, Blues and a Warm Saxophone Into a 2024 Pop Single
What Will I Do, a 2024 single by Emmett Hughes, hangs its hook on a question. The question is also the title. Hughes asks it over a groove that borrows from reggae, blues and rock, with a warm saxophone for colour. The song came out on 19 February 2024, and it still earns the replay.
Emmett Hughes’s music is in the playlist below, filed with this desk’s groove, funk and disco picks, and his coverage so far is collected on Emmett Hughes’s artist profile. What Will I Do reached PopHits.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Give it a spin, then read on for where the song sits in a fifty-year crossover.
Reggae Has Been Slipping Into American Pop Since 1972, and Emmett Hughes Writes From That Tradition
Reggae’s route into American pop is older than most listeners assume. In 1972, Paul Simon went to Kingston, Jamaica, to record Mother and Child Reunion with Jimmy Cliff’s backing band. At the time, it was one of the few songs by a non-Jamaican musician to use reggae so prominently. It reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The idea never left. Pop and soft rock writers have kept borrowing the off-beat lift of reggae ever since, usually as seasoning rather than the main course. What Will I Do sits in that line. It is a pop song that lets reggae carry part of the rhythm, while blues and rock fill in the rest.
Where Emmett Hughes Fits, a Huntington Songwriter Who Has Played Live Since the Late 1970s
Hughes comes to that tradition with a long run behind him. He is a singer, songwriter and performer based in Huntington, New York. He has played live since the late 1970s with original and cover bands, and he sings and plays guitar, bass and keyboards. His own list of influences reads like a map of the crossover: symphonic music, Motown, rock, jazz, world music and reggae.
His debut album arrived in 2019. A second album followed in March 2024, built around the hard questions of sustaining a relationship, and What Will I Do belongs to that stretch of writing. The Emmett Hughes Band plays around the New York metro area, has done a short tour of the UK and has played festivals in the Northeast. At home, he has twice been the featured artist at NOOM, a songwriters’ performance night in Huntington. Music is not his only line of work, either. His press kit also lists a career as a chiropractic physician, alongside gardening and sailing. A third album is in progress.
The Hook, the Warm Saxophone and the Question in the Title Make What Will I Do Stick
The song’s pull starts with the question. Beach House, which reviewed it in April 2024, heard lyrics that ask questions relevant to anyone at a turning point. It also noted melodies that stay with the listener after the song ends. That is a fair description of a hook: a line simple enough to remember and open enough to fit your own situation.
The arrangement does the rest. Beach House picked out rock, reggae and blues with a hint of orchestral colour. The Spanish-language blog Danel Records singled out a warm saxophone and a polished production. It moves between reggae, blues, pop-rock and a touch of indie folk. Meanwhile, Rockola Indie heard the harmony of funk alongside blues, rock and friendly pop, and filed the song under soft rock.
The lyric keeps things grounded. Danel Records read it as a song about sadness and nostalgia. The narrator looks back on shared moments and faces life without that person, then reaches for the strength to move forward. At 4:15, the song takes its time, which suits a story about deciding what comes next.
Adjacent Acts for Emmett Hughes Fans, From Men at Work to Paul Simon, and Where to Listen
Listeners who remember Men at Work will recognise one of the moves. Who Can It Be Now? opens on Greg Ham’s saxophone hook and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982. The band made pop singles with a horn in the foreground, and What Will I Do uses a warm saxophone in a similar spirit.
Paul Simon is the other reference point, and not only for the Kingston session. His songs have long paired a plain-spoken lyric with rhythms borrowed from further afield. Hughes’s list of influences points the same way. So listeners who like that combination, and who want a song that asks a direct question, should give What Will I Do a second play.
It suits fans of grown-up pop with a groove, the kind that sits between soft rock and reggae-pop. It also works as a way into his catalogue: start here, then go back to the 2019 debut.
From the Curator Team: “What Will I Do puts its best idea in the title. A question that simple is easy to sing back, and the reggae-leaning groove keeps it from sounding heavy. That is why the song holds up on a second and third play.”
Stream What Will I Do on Spotify or Apple Music, and find Emmett Hughes on Deezer and SoundCloud. Watch him on YouTube, and follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Gig dates, recordings and his press kit are on his official website.
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