http://www.rhapsody.com/goto?rcid=art.14462&rws=%2Fnico%2Fmusic-videos.rssChrista Paffgen is most famous for her stint with the Velvet Underground. Yet as a solo artist, the German chanteuse known as Nico proved to be nearly as influential as Grace Slick and Janis Joplin in terms of challenging notions of how a female pop singer should sound, look and act. Instigated by Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event, Nico's relationship with the Velvet Underground lasted only a year, but it yielded underground rock's definitive <i>The Velvet Underground & Nico</i> in 1967. On it she delivered three classics: "Femme Fatale," "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be Your Mirror," and established an aesthetic she would continue to explore and manipulate until her death in 1988. You could call Nico a singer-songwriter, but her husky croon owed very little to American folk, rock and soul. She crafted a challenging form of art pop that looked to European modernism for inspiration. <i>The Marble Index</i>, released in 1969, is considered to be her peak as an artist. Critic Lester Bangs once called it "the greatest piece of 'avant-garde classical' 'serious' music of the last half of the 20th century." Not bad for a woman who started as a model for <i>Vogue</i> and <i>Elle</i>. - Justin FarrarArt & Progressive Rocken720Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:23:52 -0800 http://static.realone.com/rotw/images/logo_rhapsody_113x22.gif http://www.rhapsody.com/goto?rcid=art.14462&rws=%2Fnico%2Fmusic-videos.rss Christa Paffgen is most famous for her stint with the Velvet Underground. Yet as a solo artist, the German chanteuse known as Nico proved to be nearly as influential as Grace Slick and Janis Joplin in terms of challenging notions of how a female pop singer should sound, look and act. Instigated by Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event, Nico's relationship with the Velvet Underground lasted only a year, but it yielded underground rock's definitive <i>The Velvet Underground & Nico</i> in 1967. On it she delivered three classics: "Femme Fatale," "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'll Be Your Mirror," and established an aesthetic she would continue to explore and manipulate until her death in 1988. You could call Nico a singer-songwriter, but her husky croon owed very little to American folk, rock and soul. She crafted a challenging form of art pop that looked to European modernism for inspiration. <i>The Marble Index</i>, released in 1969, is considered to be her peak as an artist. Critic Lester Bangs once called it "the greatest piece of 'avant-garde classical' 'serious' music of the last half of the 20th century." Not bad for a woman who started as a model for <i>Vogue</i> and <i>Elle</i>. - Justin Farrar