Ranked: Three Reasons What Will I Do by Emmett Hughes Is a Pop-Funk Groove Worth Your Week
5 min read
Ranked: Three Reasons What Will I Do by Emmett Hughes Is a Pop-Funk Groove Worth Your Week
A Huntington Songwriter’s 2024 Single Earns Its Place Through Listeners, Blogs and Long Island Stages
What Will I Do by Emmett Hughes earns its place this week on three counts, ranked here in order. The single arrived on 19 February 2024, a four-minute blend of contemporary pop, funk and groove from a songwriter based in Huntington, New York. Two and a half years on, the people around it explain why the Emmett Hughes groove still earns a slot.
Emmett Hughes has What Will I Do in the playlist below, and the rest of his coverage is collected on his artist profile. The single reached BestMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news titles. Put it on and carry on reading.
Reason One, the Emmett Hughes Groove Suits Listeners Raised on Motown, Soul and Pop-Funk
The first count is the listener it fits. This is a song for people who want a groove to settle into rather than a drop. Hughes sings and plays guitar, bass and keyboards. His own list of influences also runs from Motown and jazz to world music and reggae.
That Motown thread points to Hall & Oates in their early-1980s run, when their pop hits leaned on soul rhythm sections. Similarly, fans of Jamiroquai, who built a career on groove-first pop, are a natural audience for a track sold on its groove.
The song also has a longer history than its release date suggests. It first appeared in December 2023 on a three-track release built around Forty Years. Two months later, it returned as a standalone single, and that is the version most listeners met. It then opened a quick run of three singles in three weeks, with Forty Years on 26 February and Can I Speak for You on 4 March 2024.
It also helps that Hughes is not a newcomer finding his feet. He has played live since the late 1970s with original and cover bands. His debut album, Sixty Trips Around the Sun, came out in 2019, and his second, The Third Degree, followed in 2025. So What Will I Do sits in a catalogue with real depth behind it.
The Early Response to What Will I Do Came From Blogs in Mexico, Brazil and Beyond
The second count is the response it drew straight away. At least six write-ups landed in March 2024 alone, and several came from outside the United States. Mexico’s End Sessions and Brazil’s HBN both covered it. That is unusual reach for an independent single from Long Island.
The most useful of those notices came from Zona Emergente, a Mexican music blog. Its Spanish-language piece, published on 30 March 2024, heard a romantic song about living with the absence of someone you love. It also praised the way the track mixes a classic sound with a contemporary one. That reading gives the groove a second layer, because under the rhythm the lyric is about loss.
Meanwhile, the review from Thoughts Words Action travelled further when the outlet shared it on LinkedIn, tagged under groove, funk and reggae. For a catalogue pick, that matters. Early notices in several countries show the song moved beyond its home scene within weeks. The notices have also kept coming for the newer songs: HypeHub Magazine reviewed his 2025 single I’ll Always Be Around that October.
The Community Around Emmett Hughes Is a Long Island Stage, a Songwriter Night and a Podcast
The third count is the live community around the songwriter. The Emmett Hughes Band features local musicians and plays mostly in and around the New York metro area. The band has also played a short tour in the UK and several festivals in the northeastern US.
The song itself was first seen on a Long Island camera. In June 2023, months before its release, Hughes posted a live studio take of it. The video was shot and recorded at Tone House Studio in West Babylon. More recently, his channel carried a band set from Heckscher Park in Huntington, filmed in August 2025.
Closer to home, Hughes has been the featured artist twice at NOOM, a songwriters’ performance night in Huntington. He has also appeared on Long Island Sound, a podcast about local musicians. Those rooms are where his listeners are built, one show at a time.
The calendar keeps that going. On 11 October 2026, the band plays the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame in Stony Brook. Then, on 27 November 2026, it moves to My Father’s Place in Roslyn. Hughes is also writing a third album with his bandmates, so the community around his songs has more to come.
From the BestMusic.News Curator Team: “What Will I Do ranks well because it holds up away from the release cycle. Two and a half years on, it is still the easiest way into a songwriter whose band keeps playing around Long Island.”
Hear the Emmett Hughes Groove on What Will I Do and Follow Him Everywhere
Stream What Will I Do on Spotify or Apple Music. Then follow Emmett Hughes through his Spotify profile, the Apple Music artist page, Deezer and SoundCloud. For videos, head to his YouTube channel, and check the official site for gig dates. Finally, keep up with him on Instagram and Facebook.
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