Top Rock/Pop Artists on Rhapsody Online

Michael Jackson

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:33 -0800

It doesn't really matter if Michael Jackson bullied the world's media into calling him the King of Pop in the early 1990s or if they just started using that sobriquet on their own. Either way, he earned it. Whether singing "I Want You Back" as the 11-year-old frontman of the Jackson 5, breaking the MTV color line with the explosive "Billie Jean" or defending the world's downtrodden and misunderstood (himself, that is), Jackson set the standard for pop singing, songwriting, dancing and, let's face it, weirdness for the better part of a quarter century. He came of age in the Jackson 5, then moonwalked out of the family's clutches and into his own universe with three groundbreaking albums made with producer Quincy Jones. Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad blended soul, funk and rock influences into a taut dance-pop that transformed the sound of radio for the rest of the century. Singers and producers from Madonna to Timbaland are still trying to catch up. Prosecutors and paparazzi have been playing catch-up, too, with some of Jackson's questionable life choices, and since the late 1990s, he has seemingly spent more time in the tabloids than on the pop charts. On June 25th, 2009, Michael Jackson passed away at the age of 50. - Matty Karas

Kings Of Leon

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:42:42 -0800

Although the media pretty much ensured that their music would have the shelf life of a banana by pegging them as the "Southern Strokes," the Kings of Leon's music really owes much more to the latter-day songs of Eddie Vedder than they do to any boogie-rhythmic Southern Rock. Sure, they sport John Fogerty-style bowl-haircuts, boot-cuts and beards, but the actual sound of their recorded music is truly more rooted in tasteful post-grunge pop (more Pearl Jam than Creed). Brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill and cousin Matthew Followill comprise the Kings of Leon, and they did actually grow up in the south under the musical influence of their evangelist father, Leon (hence the moniker). But when you look past how they (and the music media at large) incessantly label themselves up as southern rockers and when you really listen to songs like "Molly's Chambers," "Holy Roller Novocaine" or even the Strokesesque "California Waiting," the guttural growl of the vocals and bent Neil Young and Crazy Horse influences seem to point more toward Seattle in 1992 than the 1970s heartland rock they wear so proudly on their tight-fitting thrift store T-shirts. But this is hardly a bad thing. When bands like Seven Mary Three and Puddle Of Mudd drive the grunge sound into the ground with over exaggerated baritone throat gymnastics and crunchy, new, Guitar Center six-string distortion, the Kings of Leon's music is a breath of fresh air with its toned down soulful vocal yelps and vintage tube-amp guitar tones. And they can write some pretty catchy songs to boot. - Eric Shea

Black Eyed Peas

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

Hailing from Los Angeles, the Black Eyed Peas date back to the early 1990s, when group founders Will.I.Am and Apl de Ap parlayed their breakdancing skills into a band called Atban Klann. Eazy-E eventually signed them to Ruthless Records, although the label didn't really know how to market their non-violent sound, and their album was shelved. After Eazy passed away, they picked up a third member, Taboo, and began performing around L.A. as Black Eyed Peas. Known for their positive lyrics and lively show, complete with singers and dancers, they developed a strong buzz, which led to a deal with Interscope and their 1998 debut, Behind the Front. They returned with Bridging the Gap two years later, bulking up their sound through collaborations with Premier, Mos Def and De La Soul, among others. For their third LP, 2003's Elephunk, the group added Fergie to the mix and scored enormous hits with the singles "Let's Get It Started" (originally called "Let's Get Retarded") and "Where Is the Love?" which launched them into the stratosphere and paved the way for extensive touring, advertising work, and a Grammy Award. In 2005, they released their fourth album Monkey Business, which included the single "Don't Phunk With My Heart, plus collaborations with James Brown, Justin Timberlake, and Sting, among others. As with Outkast, BEP's creative production style and anti-gangsta/good times vibes have endeared them to listeners who generally shy away from rap music, while simultaneously lightening up the airwaves and moving millions of units. - Brolin Winning

Coldplay

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:33 -0800

Coldplay create sparse, emotional soundscapes, dripping with melancholy. The London-based quartet is singer Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion. Their debut album, Parachutes, was released in late 2000 in the U.S., and they quickly became a sensation. The record went No. 1 in the U.K. charts and won Best Alternative Music Album at the 2002 Grammys. Marked by Martin's falsetto-happy vocals, songs like "Yellow" and "Shiver" employ stop/start dynamics that allow serene verses to build to a crescendo, centering on the well-trodden theme of love. Sophomore effort A Rush of Blood to the Head took home two Grammys and earned a spot on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list. Hits "Clocks" and "In My Place" were wistful and romantic, labeled by some as radio-friendly Radiohead. The group's third album, XandY, became the best-selling album of 2005, and "Speed of Sound" topped the year's charts worldwide. After conquering the charts and the Grammys, Coldplay shifted their focus from chart-topping anthems to a more experimental approach for their fourth album, Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends (which nevertheless topped charts upon its release). With ambient maestro Brian Eno co-producing, the 2008 album was an intriguing progression for the band, featuring a mix of global influences, classical strings, heavy piano and glistening bits of dreamy electronics. - Dan Shumate

Jack Johnson

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

Like G. Love, Jack Johnson plays groovy acoustic funk. The difference is that where G. Love relies on hip-hop, Johnson's points of reference are a bit more eclectic, incorporating lite jazz and classic singer-songwriter motifs (including interesting vocal experiments a la Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley). It's all held together by earthy rock backing and topped off with a voice that at times sounds enough like Mose Allison to convince listeners that Johnson really has the goods. Before embarking on a musical career, Johnson was a successful professional surfer. His popularity simmered with his first few albums, but with 2005's In Between Dreams Johnson's stock exploded, crossing over from the jam-rock crowd into the mainstream pop market. The record yielded hits in "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" and "Better Together." Johnson's comfortable voice and sweet melodies translated naturally to children's songs with his 2006 release Sing-a-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George. In 2008 he released a new studio album, Sleep Through the Static, and in 2009 he confirmed his live reputation with En Concert. - Mike McGuirk

Lady Gaga

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:36 -0800

Raised on a musical diet of Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, Lady Gaga brings a sense of theatrical fashion and attitude to her dance-inspired, electro-rock performances. Named after Queen's "Radio Gaga," the pop fashionista took the fast lane to success, starting at age four when she learned to play piano by ear. At 14, she began performing at open-mic nights in and around New York City's Lower East Side. After graduating from Convent of the Sacred Heart school (the elite private institution Paris Hilton attended), Gaga earned a coveted spot at the famed Tisch School of the Arts. Soon after, she started writing songs for the Pussycat Dolls, and at age 20, she was signed to Interscope Records. In 2009, she became one of pop culture's most ubiquitous figures, with the songs "Just Dance" and "Pokerface" dominating the pop charts and her public antics (Kermit dresses! A possible penis?) dominating discussions from TMZ to the blogosphere. Though Gaga's 2009 tour with Kanye West was cancelled, the fact that she was the one to call it off only confirmed her status as one of pop's reigning divas. - Jamie Sanchez

Dave Matthews Band

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:50:53 -0800

The Dave Matthews Band (DMB) emblazoned the 1990s with its hybrid of jazz, folk, and world music with a distinct pop sensibility. By the end of the decade, Matthews' introspective lyrics and distinctive vocal timbre resonated through capacity stadiums across the U.S., as DMB achieved arena-rock stardom.

The son of a physicist father and an architect mother, Matthews spent his formative years in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Westchester County, New York. After being drafted by the South African military to fight in favor of an apartheid political system at age 18, Matthews retreated with his family to the U.S. for good and soon ended up in Charlottesville, Virginia. There he began writing songs on his acoustic guitar during the day and working as a bartender at Miller's, Charlottesville's premier bar for local musicians, at night. Matthews eventually began jamming with topnotch players who frequently gigged at Miller's: guru trumpeter John D'earth, fusion drummer Carter Beauford, and reeds player LeRoi Moore. By spring 1991, the Dave Matthews Band played its first concert at a rooftop party in Charlottesville with its soon-to-be permanent lineup: Matthews, Beauford, Moore, virtuosic violinist Boyd Tinsley, and bassist Stefan Lessard.

In the tradition of the Grateful Dead and Phish, the Dave Matthews Band built up a fan base by allowing fans to record and circulate tapes of the band's performances. Fan favorites like "Ants Marching" and "Tripping Billies" were revamped nightly as the band opened up ample musical space for improvisation. The band's first record, 1993's Remember Two Things, was an indie success on the college charts and eventually went gold. RCA signed Matthews and released Under the Table and Dreaming (Number 11, 1994), which yielded the hits "What Would You Say," "Ants Marching," and "Satellite." Within a year, Under the Table and Dreaming was four times platinum.

After playing on the jam-band-friendly H.O.R.D.E. summer tour with Blues Traveler and the Allman Brothers Band and headlining a few national tours, DMB recorded 1996's Crash, which debuted at Number Two on the pop albums chart. It would earn DMB a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Perormances by a Duo or Group in 1997 for "So Much to Say." Matthews and brethren then proceeded to generate a string of live recordings. Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95 (Number Three, 1997), Live at Luther College (Number Two, 1999) (recorded on one of Matthews' acoustic-only tours with guitarist and longtime collaborator Tim Reynolds), and Listener Supported (Number 15, 1999) all document Matthews' commitment to his ever-swelling, increasingly diversified fan base. Meanwhile, 1998's studio album, Before These Crowded Streets, a series of solemn narratives about a tormented man's yearnings for his lover, debuted at Number One.

The dawning of the new millennium saw Matthews pick up an electric guitar for the first time in the studio on the uncharacteristically gritty Everyday, which was produced and cowritten by producer Glen Ballard. Everyday was actually the fifth studio disc DMB cut: they'd shelved an album recorded in 2000 with producer Steve Lillywhite, much of which made its way onto 2002's Busted Stuff. A year after that, Matthews issued Some Devil, his bow without the Band; it too won a Grammy, for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, in 2004 for the single "Gravedigger." That fall, DMB participated in the Vote for Change tour, usually headlining shows featuring Jurassic 5, Ben Harper, and My Morning Jacket, and the group launched a mail-order concert-recordings series, Live Trax. 2005 saw the release of Stand Up, DMB's seventh studio disc; it was followed in 2006 by The Best of What's Around, Vol. 1, a half-live, half-studio collection. As well, Matthews has continued to issue live albums recorded at scenic locales like Washington State's Columbia River Valley (The Gorge, 2002) and Colorado's Red Rocks (Weekend on the Rocks, 2005) as well as in urban settings like New York City's Live at Radio City Music Hall and Atlanta's Live at Piedmont Park.

Nickelback

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:53 -0800

Since the mid-'90s, Alberta's Nickelback (singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger, bassist Mike Kroeger, guitarist Ryan Peake and Daniel Adair, replacing original drummer Brandon Kroeger) have evolved from sounding like a Pearl Jam tribute band to becoming icons of radio-friendly, post-grunge modern rock. Nickelback's popularity first gathered steam with the single "Leader of Men" off their second self-released album, 1998's The State. The song was in heavy rotation on Canadian radio, and soon American label Roadrunner signed them (and reissued The State). They then toured with Creed, and in 2001, Silver Side Up yielded subsequent hits, such as "Someday." In 2005, Nickelback returned with All the Right Reasons, featuring members of ZZ Top and Pantera, which pushed them into contemporary heavy-rock territory and made them one of the decade's biggest bands in alt-rock, thanks to hits like "Photograph" and "Savin' Me." For 2008's Dark Horse, they brought in producer Mutt Lange (Back in Black, Pyromania) to add extra punch to their arena-rock anthems and power ballads. - Eric Shea

Beyonce

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:38 -0800

Beyonce Knowles, the leader of Destiny's Child, always knew she wanted to be a star. She formed the first incarnation of Destiny's Child in 1990 -- when she was 9 years old. By 2001, the group began to dissolve. Knowles nabbed a lead role in Mike Myers' Austin Powers: Goldmember; an appearance in MTV's Carmen: A Hip Hopera cemented her reputation as a formidable entertainer. Her solo debut, Dangerously in Love, came out in 2003. The first single, "Crazy in Love," was a duet with beau Jay-Z that zoomed to the top of the charts. B'Day, her stunning 2006 sophomore turn, featured hits like "Deja Vu" and "Ring the Alarm." Later that year, Beyonce starred as Deena Jones in the Oscar-winning movie musical Dreamgirls. In 2007, Beyonce made a Latin-crossover attempt, dueting with Shakira on "Beautiful Liar" and releasing a deluxe edition of B'Day, featuring "Amor Gitano" with Mexican crooner Alejandro Fernandez and a Spanish version of the anthem "Irreplaceable." For her third studio album, I Am ... Sasha Fierce, Beyonce split herself into two personae -- the tender, traditional Beyonce and the club diva Sasha Fierce. - Linda Ryan

Jason Mraz

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:56 -0800

Raised in Mechanicsville, Va., Jason Mraz grew up under the sway of local jam-circuit heroes Agents of Good Roots and regional favorites like the Dave Matthews Band, but it wasn't until he moved west that his own career began to take off. Following in Jewel's footsteps, Mraz secured a weekly slot at San Diego's Java Joe's, and by 2002 he signed with Elektra and brought on the Agents of Good Roots as his own backing band to release his debut, Waiting for My Rocket to Come. After extensive touring and a handful of live recordings, Mraz released his second studio album, Mr. A-Z, in 2005, and he continued to refine his fusion of soft rock and coffee-shop spunk with 2008's We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things. - Philip Sherburne

Miley Cyrus

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

Are you, do you have, or have you recently been around an eight-year-old girl? Then you know who Miley Cyrus is. In fact, we'd bet the young star of the Disney Channel's Hannah Montana has been an omnipresent part of your life since 2006, when her series about a regular girl who leads a secret double life as a pop star named Hannah Montana premiered, and Cyrus became tween America's biggest star. She has talent in spades: she sings, she dances, she wears couture. On top of all that, she's apparently the most well-adjusted celebrity in the world, thanks in part to her mom and her famous dad (one Mr. Billy Ray Cyrus of "Achy Breaky Heart" fame, who is also her Hannah Montana costar), who've helped her become an icon for how to do child stardom (and, for that matter, being a teenager) right simply by not spoiling their famous spawn rotten. So don't think Miley Cyrus is just going to be another young flame that burns out early. With several successful Hannah soundtracks, a tour opening for the Cheetah Girls and a Top 20 hit on the grownup pop charts (2007's "See You Again") under her belt at just 15, this girl's future looks bright. - Rachel Devitt

The Rolling Stones

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:32 -0800

The Rolling Stones began calling themselves the "World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band" in the late '60s, and few disputed the claim. The Rolling Stones' music, based on Chicago blues, has continued to sound vital through the decades, and the Stones' attitude of flippant defiance, now aged into wry bemusement, has come to seem as important as their music.

In the 1964 British Invasion they were promoted as bad boys, but what began as a gimmick has stuck as an indelible image, and not just because of incidents like Brian Jones’ mysterious death in 1969 and a violent murder during their set at Altamont later that year. In their music, the Stones pioneered British rock’s tone of ironic detachment and wrote about offhand brutality, sex as power, and other taboos. In those days, Mick Jagger was branded a “Lucifer” figure, thanks to songs like “Sympathy for the Devil.” In the ’80s the Stones lost their dangerous aura while still seeming “bad” — they’ve become icons of an elegantly debauched, world-weary decadence. But Jagger remains the most self-consciously assured appropriator of black performers’ up-front sexuality; Keith Richards’ Chuck Berry–derived riffing defines rock rhythm guitar (not to mention rock guitar rhythm); the stalwart rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts holds its own; and Jagger and Richards continue to add to what is arguably one of the most significant oeuvres in rock history.

Jagger and Richards first met at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. When they ran into each other 10 years later in 1960, they were both avid fans of blues and American R&B, and they found they had a mutual friend in guitarist Dick Taylor, a fellow student of Richards’ at Sidcup Art School. Jagger was attending the London School of Economics and playing in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys with Taylor. Richards joined the band as second guitarist; soon afterward, he was expelled from Dartford Technical College for truancy.

Meanwhile, Brian Jones had begun skipping school in Cheltenham to practice bebop alto sax and clarinet. By the time he was 16, he had fathered two illegitimate children and run off briefly to Scandinavia, where he began playing guitar. Back in Cheltenham he joined the Ramrods, then drifted to London with his girlfriend and one of his children. He began playing with Alexis Korner’s Blues, Inc., then decided to start his own band; a want ad attracted pianist Ian Stewart (b. 1938; d. December 12, 1985).

As Elmo Lewis, Jones began working at the Ealing Blues Club, where he ran into a later, loosely knit version of Blues, Inc., which at the time included drummer Charlie Watts. Jagger and Richards began jamming with Blues, Inc., and while Jagger, Richards, and Jones began to practice on their own, Jagger became the featured singer with Blues, Inc.

Jones, Jagger, and Richards shared a tiny, cheap London apartment, and with drummer Tony Chapman they cut a demo tape, which was rejected by EMI. Taylor left to attend the Royal College of Art; he eventually formed the Pretty Things. Ian Stewart’s job with a chemical company kept the rest of the group from starving. By the time Taylor left, they began to call themselves the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy Waters song.

On July 12, 1962, the Rolling Stones — Jagger, Richards, Jones, a returned Dick Taylor on bass, and Mick Avory, later of the Kinks, on drums — played their first show at the Marquee. Avory and Taylor were replaced by Tony Chapman and Bill Wyman, from the Cliftons. Chapman didn’t work out, and the band spent months recruiting a cautious Charlie Watts, who worked for an advertising agency and had left Blues, Inc. when its schedule got too busy. In January 1963 Watts completed the band.

Local entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky booked the Stones at his Crawdaddy Club for an eight-month, highly successful residency. He was also their unofficial manager until Andrew Loog Oldham, with financing from Eric Easton, signed them as clients. By then the Beatles were a British sensation, and Oldham decided to promote the Stones as their nasty opposites. He eased out the mild-mannered Stewart, who subsequently became a Stones roadie and frequent session and tour pianist.

In June 1963 the Stones released their first single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On.” After the band played on the British TV rock show Thank Your Lucky Stars, its producer reportedly told Oldham to get rid of “that vile-looking singer with the tire-tread lips.” The single reached Number 21 on the British chart. The Stones also appeared at the first annual National Jazz and Blues Festival in London’s borough of Richmond and in September were part of a package tour with the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard. In December 1963 the Stones’ second single, “I Wanna Be Your Man” (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney), made the British Top 15. In January 1964 the Stones did their first headlining British tour, with the Ronettes, and released a version of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” which made Number Three.

“Not Fade Away” also made the U.S. singles chart (Number 48). By this time the band had become a sensation in Britain, with the press gleefully reporting that band members had been seen urinating in public. In April 1964 their first album was released in the U.K., and two months later they made their first American tour. Their cover of the Bobby Womack/Valentinos song “It’s All Over Now” was a British Number One, their first. Their June American tour was a smashing success; in Chicago, where they’d stopped off to record the Five by Five EP at the Chess Records studio, riots broke out when the band tried to give a press conference. The Stones’ version of the blues standard “Little Red Rooster,” which had become another U.K. Number One, was banned in the U.S. because of its “objectionable” lyrics.

Jagger and Richards had now begun composing their own tunes (at first using the “Nanker Phelge” pseudonym for group compositions). Their “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back to Me)” was the group’s first U.S. Top 40 hit, in August. The followup, a nonoriginal, “Time Is on My Side,” made Number Six in November. From that point on, all but a handful of Stones hits were Jagger-Richards compositions.

In January 1965 their “The Last Time” became another U.K. Number One and cracked the U.S. Top 10 in the spring. The band’s next single, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” reigned at Number One for four weeks that summer and remains perhaps the most famous song in its remarkable canon. Jagger and Richards continued to write hits with increasingly sophisticated lyrics: “Get Off My Cloud” (Number One, 1965), “As Tears Go By” (Number Six, 1965), “19th Nervous Breakdown” (Number Two, 1966), “Mother’s Little Helper” (Number Eight, 1966), “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?” (Number Nine, 1966).

Aftermath, the first Stones LP of all original material, came out in 1966, though its impact was minimized by the simultaneous release of the Beatles’ Revolver and Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. The Middle Eastern–tinged “Paint It, Black” (1966) and the ballad “Ruby Tuesday” (1967), were both U.S. Number One hits.

In January 1967 the Stones caused another sensation when they performed “Let’s Spend the Night Together” (“Ruby Tuesday”’s B side) on The Ed Sullivan Show. Jagger mumbled the title lines after threats of censorship (some claimed that the line was censored; others that Jagger actually sang “Let’s spend some time together”; Jagger later said, “When it came to that line, I sang mumble”). In February Jagger and Richards were arrested on drug-possession charges in Britain; in May, Brian Jones, too, was arrested. The heavy jail sentences they received were eventually suspended on appeal. The Stones temporarily withdrew from public appearances; Jagger and his girlfriend, singer Marianne Faithfull, went to India with the Beatles to meet the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Stones’ next single release didn’t appear until the fall: the Number 14 “Dandelion.” Its B side, “We Love You” (Number 50), on which John Lennon and Paul McCartney sang backup vocals, was intended as a thank-you to fans.

In December came Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones’ psychedelic answer record to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper — and an ambitious mess. By the time the album’s lone single, “She’s a Rainbow” had become a Number 25 hit, Allen Klein had become the group’s manager.

May 1968 saw the release of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” a Number Three hit, and a return to basic rock & roll. After five months of delay provoked by controversial album-sleeve photos, the eclectic Beggars Banquet was released and was hailed by critics as the band’s finest achievement. On June 9, 1969, Brian Jones, the Stones’ most musically adventurous member, who had lent sitar, dulcimer, and, on “Under My Thumb,” marimba to the band’s sound, and who had been in Morocco recording nomadic Joujouka musicians, left the band with this explanation: “I no longer see eye-to-eye with the others over the discs we are cutting.” Within a week he was replaced by ex–John Mayall guitarist Mick Taylor. Jones announced that he would form his own band, but on July 3, 1969, he was found dead in his swimming pool; the coroner’s report cited “death by misadventure.” Jones, beset by drug problems — and the realization that the band now belonged squarely to Jagger and Richards — had barely participated in the Beggars Banquet sessions.

At an outdoor concert in London’s Hyde Park a few days after Jones’ death, Jagger read an excerpt from the poet Shelley and released thousands of butterflies over the park. On July 11, the day after Jones was buried, the Stones released “Honky Tonk Women,” another Number One, and another Stones classic. By this time, every Stones album went gold in short order, and Let It Bleed (a sardonic reply to the Beatles’ soon-to-be-released Let It Be) was no exception. “Gimme Shelter” received constant airplay. Jones appeared on most of the album’s tracks, though Taylor also made his first on-disc appearances.

After going to Australia to star in the film Ned Kelly, Jagger rejoined the band for the start of its hugely successful 1969 American tour, the band’s first U.S. trip in three years. But the Stones’ Satanic image came to haunt them at a free thank-you-America concert at California’s Altamont Speedway. In the darkness just in front of the stage, a young black man, Meredith Hunter, was stabbed to death by members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang, whom the Stones — on advice of the Grateful Dead — had hired to provide security for the event. The incident was captured on film by the Maysles brothers in their feature-length documentary Gimme Shelter. Public outcry that “Sympathy for the Devil” (which they had performed earlier in the show; they were playing “Under My Thumb” when the murder occurred) had in some way incited the violence led the Stones to drop the tune from their stage shows for the next six years.

After another spell of inactivity, the Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! live album was released in the fall of 1970 and went platinum. That same year the Stones formed their own Rolling Stones Records, an Atlantic subsidiary. The band’s first album for its own label, Sticky Fingers (Number One, 1971) — which introduced their Andy Warhol — designed lips-and-lolling-tongue logo — yielded hits in “Brown Sugar” (Number One, 1971) and “Wild Horses” (Number 28, 1971). Jagger, who had starred in Nicolas Roeg’s 1970 Performance (the soundtrack of which contained “Memo From Turner”), married Nicaraguan fashion model Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, and the pair became international jet-set favorites. Though many interpreted Jagger’s acceptance into high society as yet another sign that rock was dead, or that at least the Stones had lost their spark, Exile on Main Street (Number One, 1972), a double album, was another critically acclaimed hit, yielding “Tumbling Dice” (Number Seven) and “Happy” (Number 22). By this time the Stones were touring the U.S. once every three years; their 1972 extravaganza, like those in 1975, 1978, and 1981, was a sold-out affair.

Goats Head Soup (Number One, 1973) was termed the band’s worst effort since Satanic Majesties by critics, yet it contained hits in “Angie” (Number One, 1973) and “(Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo) Heartbreaker” (Number 15, 1974). It’s Only Rock n’ Roll (Number One, 1974) yielded Top 20 hits in the title tune and a cover of the Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” Mick Taylor left the band after that album; and after trying out scores of sessionmen (many of whom showed up on the next LP, 1976’s Black and Blue), the Stones settled on Ron Wood, then still nominally committed to Rod Stewart and the Faces (who disbanded soon after Wood joined the Stones officially in 1976). In 1979 Richards and Wood, with Meters drummer Ziggy Modeliste and fusion bassist Stanley Clarke, toured as the New Barbarians.

Black and Blue was the Stones’ fifth consecutive LP of new material to top the album chart, though it contained only one hit single, the Number 10 “Fool to Cry.” Wyman, who had released a 1974 solo album, Monkey Grip (the first Stone to do so), recorded another, Stone Alone. Jagger guested on “I Can Feel the Fire” on Wood’s solo first LP, I’ve Got My Own Album to Do. Wood has since recorded several more albums, and while none were commercial hits (Gimme Some Neck peaked at Number 45 in 1979), his work was generally well received.

The ethnic-stereotype lyrics of the title song from Some Girls (Number One, 1978) provoked public protest (the last outcry had been in 1976 over Black and Blue’s battered-woman advertising campaign). Aside from the disco crossover “Miss You” (Number One), the music was bare-bones rock & roll — in response, some speculated, to the punk movement’s claims that the band was too old and too affluent to rock anymore.

Richards and his longtime common-law wife, Anita Pallenburg, were arrested in March 1977 in Canada for heroin possession — jeopardizing the band’s future — but he subsequently kicked his habit and in 1978 was given a suspended sentence.

In 1981 Tattoo You was Number One for nine weeks (1980’s Emotional Rescue also went to Number One) and produced the hits “Start Me Up” (Number Two, 1981) and “Waiting on a Friend” (Number 13, 1981), the latter featuring jazz great Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone. The 1981 tour spawned an album, Still Life, and a movie, Let’s Spend the Night Together (directed by Hal Ashby), which grossed $50 million.

Through the ’80s the group became more an institution than an influential force. Nevertheless, both Undercover (Number Four, 1983) and Dirty Work (Number Four, 1986) were certifiable hits despite not topping the chart, as every new studio album had done in the decade before. Each album produced only one Top 20 hit, “Undercover of the Night” (Number Nine, 1983) and “Harlem Shuffle” (Number Five, 1986), the latter a remake of a minor 1964 hit by Bob and Earl.

Jagger and Richards grew estranged from each other, and the band would not record for three years. Jagger released his first solo album, the platinum She’s the Boss, in 1984. His second, 1987’s Primitive Cool, didn’t even break the Top 40. Richards, who’d long declared he would never undertake a solo album (and who resented Jagger’s making music outside the band), countered in 1988 with the gold Talk Is Cheap, backed up by the X-Pensive Winos: guitarist Waddy Wachtel and the rhythm section of Steve Jordan and Charley Drayton.

The two Stones sniped at each other in the press and in song: Richards’ album track “You Don’t Move Me” was directed at his longtime partner. Nevertheless, shortly before the Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in January 1989 the two traveled to Barbados to begin writing songs for a new Stones album. Steel Wheels (Number Three, 1989) showed the group spinning its wheels musically, and were it not for the band’s first American tour in eight years, it is doubtful the LP would have sold anywhere near its 2 million copies. But the 50-date tour, which reportedly grossed $140 million, was an artistic triumph. As the group’s fifth live album, Flashpoint (Number 16, 1991), demonstrated, never had the Stones sounded so cohesive onstage.

Bill Wyman announced his long-rumored decision to leave the group after 30 years, in late 1992. “I was quite happy to stop after that,” the 56-year-old bassist told a British TV show. The announcement helped deflect attention from Wyman’s love life: In 1989 he married model Mandy Smith, who was just 131⁄2 when the two began dating. The couple divorced in 1990, the same year that Mick Jagger finally married his longtime lover, Jerry Hall. (Jagger and Hall would later split up.)

The early ’90s were a time for solo albums from Richards — Live at the Hollywood Palladium and Main Offender (Number 99, 1992)and Jagger’s Wandering Spirit (Number 11, 1993). Neither sold spectacularly; apparently fans are most interested in Jagger and Richards when they work together. Wood released Slide on This, his first solo album in over a decade, and Watts pursued his real love, jazz, with the Charlie Watts Orchestra.

In 1994 Jagger, Richards, Watts, and Wood, along with bassist Darryl Jones (whose credits include working with Miles Davis and Sting) released the critically well-received Voodoo Lounge (Number Two, 1994) and embarked on a major tour that proved one of the highest-grossing of the year, earning a reported $295 million. Voodoo Lounge brought the Stones their first competitive Grammy, 1994’s Best Rock Album award. Voodoo Lounge was also the group’s first release under its new multimillion-dollar, three-album deal with Virgin Records, which included granting Virgin the rights to some choice albums from the Stones’ back catalogue, including Exile on Main Street, Sticky Fingers, and Some Girls. After having languished in storage for nearly three decades, the Rolling Stones’ Rock & Roll Circus concert film and soundtrack was released in 1996, which featured the Stones in the era of Beggars Banquet, and other rock luminaries — the Who, Jethro Tull, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, and more — as well as various acrobats, fire-eaters, and other circus artists who performed routines between songs.

Meanwhile, back to their standard time lapse of three years between tours, the Stones released Bridges to Babylon (Number Three, 1997, their 19th platinum LP) and launched yet another lavish, sold-out worldwide tour, where they played two-hour concerts consisting of only a few songs off the new album and lots of hits. Corporate sponsorship was particularly intense: long-distance carrier Sprint, for example, paying $4 million to print its company logo on tickets and stage banners. In 1998 the Stones released the obligatory tour album, No Security.

In 1997 Richards coproduced and played on Wingless Angels, an album of Rastafarian spirituals; guested, with Elvis Presley guitarist Scotty Moore, on All the King’s Men, a tribute to Presley; and with the rest of the Stones, played on B.B. King’s Deuces Wild. Assembling the roots-rock band the Rhythm Kings, with Peter Frampton and Georgie Fame sitting in, Bill Wyman put out three albums in the late ’90s. Watts continued his jazz excursions with 1996’s orchestral offering, Long Ago and Far Away, and then forayed into world beat with a 2000 collaboration with veteran session drummer Jim Keltner. Mick Taylor’s recording career revived, as the ex-Stone put out Stonesy releases with Carla Olson.

In 2000 "Satisfaction" topped a VH1 Poll of 100 Greatest Rock Songs. Jagger gained more attention in the social columns. In 1999 29-year-old Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez Morad claimed that she was pregnant with his child; Jagger disagreed. Jerry Hall filed for divorce. Jagger, despite the couple’s four children, maintained that their Hindu nuptials did not constitute a legal marriage. When Morad’s child was born, DNA tests concluded that Jagger was indeed the boy’s father. In 2001 he released his fourth solo album, Goddess in the Doorway (Number 39). At the post-9-11 "Concert for New York City," held at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 21, 2001, Jagger, Richards and a backing band performed "Salt of the Earth" and "Miss You."

In 2002, the Stones released Forty Licks, a greatest hits package including four new songs, and embarked on yet another tour, including two—one in Toronto and another in Hong Kong—to benefit victims of the SARS epidemic. In November 2003, the band inked a deal allowing the Best Buy chain to be the exclusive seller of their 4-DVD tour document Four Flicks. Some music retailers in the U.S. and Canada, including Best Buy competitor Circuit City and the 100-store HMV Canada, responded by pulling Stones merchandise from their shelves. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the Stones No. 4 in its "100 Greatest Artists of All Time," just below the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley.

On Jagger’s 62nd birthday, July 26, 2005, the Stones announced they were releasing a new album, A Bigger Bang (Number 3), followed by a tour. The album included a rare political song from Jagger, "Sweet Neo Con," which was stingingly critical of the Bush Administration’s post Iraq War tactics and included the line, "You say you are a patriot/I think that you’re a crock of shit." The Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour began in August 2005 and by year’s end had already set the year’s record at $162 million in gross receipts. The tour took the band from North and South America to Europe, Asia and even the 2006 Super Bowl. The tour ended two years later in London. Overall, the Bigger Bang tour earned a staggering $558 million, the highest-grossing tour of all time. The tour was not without its setbacks. During the New Zealand stretch, in May 2006, Richards was hospitalized for brain surgery after reportedly falling from a coconut tree in Fiji. In June, Wood went into rehab for alcohol problems.

The Stones released another 4-CD box set, The Biggest Bang, in June 2007; it also was sold exclusively through Best Buy. The Very Best Of Mick Jagger, a collection of the singer’s solo works, came out in October 2007. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese's April 2008 documentary Shine a Light intimately captured the Stones' 2006 Bigger Bang live performance at New York City's Beacon Theater from sixteen different camera angles and included guest performances by Christina Aguilera, Jack White, and Buddy Guy.

Updated from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)

Madonna

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:52 -0800

One of the few megastars only needing a single name, Madonna's brand of dance pop began as the purest of bubblegum but has become increasingly sophisticated during the course of a career now in its third decade. Her influence has lessened a bit since the multimedia dynasty she lorded over in the 1980s and early '90s, partly because she's been busy raising children and partly because the focus of dance-oriented music has radically shifted in the years between Bedtime Stories (1994) and Confessions On A Dance Floor (2005). However her clubbing antennae remain finely tuned, and each subsequent release serves less as an indication of her musical development and more her ability to latch onto producer/writers of the moment. This, and her constant image-massaging to remain relevant to the dance community, allows a mother in her early forties to get away with acting like a club kitten without too much dissent, even less so with her triumphant 2005 return to form. A ruthless careerist and tougher than most of us, she does tend to show weakness with her lyrics, which at their best are simple ditties and at their worst just plain embarrassing. A catchy tune is usually there to save the day, however, and perhaps this is why she has failed to make it in the acting world -- she needs the music to shield her inability to deliver a really good line. And what music -- hit after hit, some still working a dancefloor just as effectively 20 years after initial release. Few other artists in the dance pop and electronica world show such staying power, and few receive such goodwill from their fan base, no matter which upheavals she drags them through as she hops and skips from fad to fad, laughing all the way to the bank. - Nicholas Baker

Linkin Park

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

Naysayers predicted that this whole rap-rock thing would be dying a slow, silent death right about now, but it seems to be breathing just fine without needing to come up for air. Linkin Park are one of the most successful guitar-swinging, lyric-dropping scratch wizards to simultaneously glorify the big riff while bowing down at the altar of hip-hop. In the course of a single song they let their guitars run amok, push plodding rhythms and growl like angry dogs roused from sleep -- all while dexterously zipping back and forth along record grooves. Linkin Park formed in 1996, but all the pieces didn't fall into place until 2000, when Warner Brothers released Hybrid Theory, dubbed after the band's original name. Thanks to "In the End," the album was a massive hit and the second single, "Crawling," won them a Grammy for "Best Hard Rock Performance." Despite a somewhat cool reception from anyone over the age of 13, Linkin Park claimed a spot at the very top of the heap in the early 2000s nu-metal arena. They have since released an album of Hybrid Theory remixes, a studio album and a live album chronicling their extensive tours. A single called "Numb/Encore," featuring a collaboration with rapper Jay-Z, was released in 2004; the EP it was taken from, Collision Course, and single hit No. 1, and firmly reset Linkin Park's place at the top of the charts. In 2005 the band concentrated on a number of relief efforts to aid victims of the Southeast Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. MC Mike Shinoda splintered off to work on his solo project, a hip-hop group called Fort Minor. The band released Minutes to Midnight in 2007, another chart-topper that scaled back the rapping in favor of a more straight forward arena-friendly rock sound; the live album Road to Revolution followed in 2008. - Kali Holloway

Daughtry

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:55 -0800

A fourth-place finish in season five of American Idol didn't dissuade contestant Chris Daughtry from trying to send his rock yawp to the top of the charts. After getting booted from the show, Daughtry rejected an offer to lead alt rock band Fuel so he could form an eponymous outfit in his home state of North Carolina. They were quickly snatched up by the majors and immediately set to work on a record that enlisted the talents of vet producer Howard Benson and Nickleback songsmith Chad Kroeger. The band's first single, "Its Not Over," was released in the fall of 2006, followed by their eponymous full-length debut that same year. - Nate Cavalieri

John Mayer

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:56 -0800

In the 2000s no musician has been able to deftly navigate the terrain between R&B, pop, soul, and rock as successfully as John Mayer. Throughout his career his deference for music traditions, consummate musicianship, and keen sense of melody has kept him atop the charts and in constant radio rotation.

The middle son of two teachers who grew up in Fairfield, CT, John Mayer began playing guitar at age 13, and was soon playing local clubs in blues and cover bands. At 17, he was rushed to the hospital with cardiac arrhythmia, spending a week in bed; it was there, Mayer has said, that he began songwriting in earnest. A year after graduating high school, Mayer enrolled at Boston's Berklee College of Music; he soon skipped that to head to Atlanta to play coffeehouses with his friend Clay Cook as LoFi Masters. Shortly afterward, Mayer left to go solo, and by 1999 had cut an eight-song mini album he released and distributed himself, Inside Wants Out, hitting the road for a tour of the region around Georgia. He caught a break after appearing at 2000’s South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX, and was signed to Aware, a Columbia subsidiary, and recorded Room for Squares (Number Eight, 2001), which was picked up for release by the senior label. Columbia worked Mayer steadily until, over the course of a year, he became ubiquitous, thanks to the singles “No Such Thing” (Number 13, 2002) and “Your Body Is a Wonderland” (Number 18, 2002). Columbia further cashed in by reissuing Inside Wants Out (Number 22, 2002).

After the stopgap live Any Given Thursday (Number 17, 2003), Mayer released his follow-up, Heavier Things (Number One, 2003), which yielded “Bigger Than My Body” (Number 33, 2003) and “Daughters” (Number 19, 2004). Another live disc, As/Is, followed in 2004. That year, Mayer began an improbable turnaround, edging his public image from strictly mama’s-boy to sly smart-aleck, thanks to his oft-sardonic blog posts, a column in Esquire magazine, and a memorable guest spot on The Chappelle Show, jamming in a Harlem barbershop with members of the Roots. He later guest-starred on “Go!” — the first single off rapper Common’s Be, produced by Kanye West.

In his own music, Mayer began to focus on meatier stuff, particularly the blues. He played shows with Buddy Guy and Herbie Hancock, and in November 2005 released Try! Live in Concert (Number 34), credited to the John Mayer Trio, with veteran sessionmen Steve Jordan on drums and Pino Palladino on bass; they opened for the Rolling Stones that October. Continuum (Number Two, 2006) followed a year later, and its quasi-protest number, “Waiting on the World to Change (Number 14, 2006), soon wormed its way into America’s collective ear much the way his earlier material had.

Mayer, who also dabbles in stand-up comedy, has been the subject of much tabloid fodder and romantically linked to pop singer Jessica Simpson and actress Jennifer Aniston. In the summer of 2008 Mayer released a live DVD/CD entitled Where the Light Is recorded at a December 2007 concert in Los Angeles.

U2

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:34 -0800

U2 began the '80s as a virtually unknown "alternative" group and ended the century as one of the most widely followed rock bands in the world. The Irish rockers were influenced initially by punk's raw energy, but they immediately distinguished themselves from their post-punk peers with a huge, soaring sound — centered on Dave "the Edge" Evans' reverb-laden guitars and Paul "Bono" Hewson's sensuous vocals — and songs that tackled social and spiritual matters with an open, tender urgency. U2 shunned the sort of ironic expression and electronic sweetening that were considered hip in the '80s — until the '90s, that is, when the band began drawing on such elements to reinvigorate and broaden its sound. By 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 had revived its straight-ahead approach. U2 has maintained not only its massive popularity but also its status as one of the most adventurous and groundbreaking acts in pop music.

The band members began rehearsing together while students at Dublin's Mount Temple High School (the city's only nondenominational school). None was technically proficient at the beginning, but their lack of expertise mothered invention. The Edge's distinctive chordal style, for instance, stemmed largely from the guitarist's inability to play complicated leads, while bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. provided a rhythm section that was mostly pummeling ardor. The novice musicians quickly developed a following in Ireland and found a manager, Paul McGuinness, who remains with them to this day. They recorded independently before signing to Island Records in 1980.

U2's 1980 debut album, Boy, was produced by Steve Lillywhite. On it, the group earnestly explored adolescent hopes and terrors, rejecting hard rock's earthy egotism and punk's nihilism. Bono, U2's lyricist, was (and still is) a practicing Christian, as were the Edge and Mullen, and on their second LP, October (1981, also Lillywhite-produced), the singer incorporated imagery evoking their faith. Boy and October generated the respective singles "I Will Follow" and "Gloria," which got some airplay in the U.S. An American club tour generated further interest, thanks to U2's incendiary live performances.

War cemented U2's reputation as a politically conscious band; among its themes were "the troubles" in Northern Ireland, addressed on the single "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Another single, "New Year's Day," went to Number 11 in England and Number 53 in the U.S., while War topped the British chart and hit Number 12 Stateside. The group commemorated its 1983 tour with the live EP Under a Blood Red Sky, recorded at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

U2's next studio album, 1984's The Unforgettable Fire, was the first of several fruitful collaborations with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The album generated the group's first American Top 40 single, an ode to American Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., called "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (Number 33, 1984). The album hit Number 12 here, and the Irishmen supported it by headlining arenas around the world. In 1985 U2 was proclaimed "Band of the '80s" by ROLLING STONE and made a historic appearance at Live Aid. The following year, the group joined Sting, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed and others for the Conspiracy of Hope Tour benefiting Amnesty International.

U2 entered the pop stratosphere with 1987's The Joshua Tree, a critical and commercial smash that topped the albums chart that year and spawned the Number One hits "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," as well as "Where the Streets Have No Name" (Number 13, 1987). The LP, which was produced by Eno and Lanois, won the group Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance. In 1988 U2 wrapped up a triumphant world tour by releasing Rattle and Hum, a double-LP that combined live tracks with new material, and featured guest appearances by Bob Dylan and B.B. King. Rattle and Hum seemed bombastic to some critics; an accompanying film documentary also garnered mixed reviews. The LP nonetheless shot to Number One, and produced a Number Three single, "Desire" (1988). The band's next LP, Achtung Baby, reached Number One and received rave reviews. The LP marked a stylistic departure, featuring more metallic textures, funkier beats, and intimate, world-weary love songs. (Bono was fond of saying at the time that the album was the sound of "four men chopping down The Joshua Tree.") Hit singles included "Mysterious Ways" (Number Nine, 1992), "One" (Number 10, 1992), "Even Better Than the Real Thing" (Number 32, 1992), and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" (Number 35, 1992). Another track, "Until the End of the World," was featured (in differently mixed form) in Wim Wenders' 1991 film of the same name. Lanois, who produced Achtung Baby with support from Eno and Lillywhite, won a Grammy for his work.

In 1992 the band embarked on its Zoo TV tour, a flashy multimedia extravaganza that juxtaposed the rugged simplicity of its previous shows. Bono adopted a series of wry guises — the leather-and-shades-sporting Fly, the demonic MacPhisto — that he'd use for encores and, in the Fly's case, press appearances. In 1993, as the tour wound down, the band reentered the studio and made Zooropa, a quirky, electronics-drunk affair co-produced by Eno, the Edge and engineer Flood. The album reached Number One but yielded only the minor hit "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" (Number 61, 1993), which was also on the soundtrack to Wenders' 1993 movie Faraway, So Close. Johnny Cash sang lead on the track "The Wanderer." In 1993 the band renewed its contract with Island for an estimated $170 million. U2's contribution to 1995's Batman Forever soundtrack, "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me," was a Top 20 hit. Also in 1995 the group collaborated with Eno as Passengers on a largely instrumental album called Original Soundtracks I; the only track to get attention was "Miss Sarajevo," on which Bono shared vocals with opera singer Luciano Pavarotti. Proceeds from the single's sales went toward war relief in Bosnia. The same year Bono and the Edge cowrote with Irish folk singer Christy Moore a song about the peace process in Ireland, "North and South of the River."

In 1996 Clayton and Mullen recorded a rock version of the "Theme From Mission: Impossible" for the film starring Tom Cruise. It went to Number Seven on the pop chart. The following year saw the release of the electronica-heavy Pop; the album debuted at Number One in 27 countries, including the U.S., and garnered hit singles in "Discotheque" (Number 10, 1997) and "Staring at the Sun" (Number 26, 1998). U2 embarked on its next stage extravaganza, the PopMart tour, from 1997 to 1998. With a supermarket theme that played upon the concept of commercialism, the tour was even more grandiose than Zoo TV had been, with immense props that included a giant olive with a 100-foot-long toothpick, a 35-foot-high lemon, and a 100-foot-tall golden arch. At the tour's conclusion, U2 released a greatest-hits compilation with a remixed version of "The Sweetest Thing," previously the B side of "Where the Streets Have No Name." This time the song was released as a single (Number 63, 1998).

Bono returned to political activism in 1999, with much of his focus on fighting world poverty. He met with President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as the Pope, as a representative of Jubilee 2000, a nonprofit group devoted to convincing nations to forgive third-world debt in the new millennium. He also co-wrote a song, "New Day," with Wyclef Jean of the Fugees; the single's proceeds benefited relief efforts in Kosovo and the Wyclef Jean Foundation. The pair performed the song at the United Nations, as well as at NetAid, a concert held simultaneously in London, Geneva, and New Jersey's Giants Stadium, while being simulcast live on the Internet, to benefit several causes, among them third-world debt relief and global poverty.

In early 2000, the Wim Wenders movie The Million Dollar Hotel, based on a story co-conceived by Bono, was shown at the Berlin Film Festival and released in many countries. Bono coproduced the film, made a cameo appearance in it, and U2 recorded three new songs for the soundtrack, one of which, "The Ground Beneath Her Feet," was written around lyrics by controversial author Salman Rushdie. In addition, Bono recorded tracks with Lanois and Eno as the Million Dollar Hotel Band. U2 released an album of new material in late 2000: All That You Can't Leave Behind (Number Three), featuring the single "Beautiful Day" (Number 21), which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" (Number 52, 2001) became something of an anthem for Americans recovering from the shock of the September 11th terror attacks. The band's Elevation Tour featured a heart-shaped catwalk in front of the stage which provided fans with close-up contact with the musicians.

In 2002, U2 performed at the halftime of Super Bowl XXXVI and issued a second greatest-hits collection, covering the 1990s and All That You Can't Leave Behind; it yielded a minor hit in "Electrical Storm" (Number 77, 2002). U2 released How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in late 2004, which entered the charts at Number One, proving U2 one of the few sure things in the uneasy rock marketplace of the new millennium. The single "Vertigo" was featured in an iPod ad, and the group released a special-edition iPod loaded with all of its albums.

Bono's political-activism profile continued to swell, with ongoing African relief efforts on his part landing him on the cover of Time with fellow millionaire-philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates. In 2005 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Bruce Springsteen. The following year came the self-explanatory U218: Singles package. While the band worked on another studio album with Eno and Lanois, they released the concert movie U2 3D, which was filmed during their 2005 Vertigo Tour.

Pink Floyd

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:34 -0800

Early Pink Floyd recordings make space travel superfluous so long as we have keyboards here on Earth. Back when enigmatic lyricist and acid-eater extraordinaire Syd Barrett skippered the ship, the Floyd sounded something like Monty Python with instruments -- quirky, trippy and weird. Barrett made Bedlam seem a reasonable price to pay for such gems as "Bike," "Lucifer Sam," and the Space Rock tour-de-force "Astronomy Domine." Upon Barrett's departure, the only marginally less maniacal Roger Waters took on singing and songwriting duties. The band dug even deeper into labyrinthine song structures, but nothing prior had prepared the world for 1973s Dark Side of the Moon. The concept album par excellence, Moon utilizes a narrative lyric structure and musical leitmotifs to give the album a sense of coherence. These compositional strategies culminated in '79s harrowing magnum opus, The Wall, an unflinching look at England's soul -- its educational system, its flirtations with fascism, the conservatism leading up to Thatcher. After Waters' defection, the remaining members came down with a crippling case of the blands but decided to stick it out, releasing a series of flashy (note '95's Pulse), nostalgic commodities that basically sounded like David Gilmour solo efforts (even if they continued to sell like genuine Pink Floyd productions). In July 2005, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright and Roger Waters reformed for the Live 8 charity concert. Sadly, in July 2006, Syd Barrett died at the age of 60, from complications of diabetes. - Chad Driscoll

Elton John

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:52 -0800

Although he made an initial splash with his flamboyant stage getups, it's Elton John's effortless way with simple, yet memorable melodies that have won him his ongoing popularity. With lyricist Bernie Taupin, the British pianist crafted a string of hits in the 1970s: zoologically-themed numbers such as "Crocodile Rock" and "Honky Cat" showed off his rock 'n' roll side, while "Rocket Man" and "Bennie and the Jets" proved he could slow things down just as effectively. A range of personal and artistic problems began to take their toll around 1976, but he reclaimed a place on the charts in the 1980s with songs like "I'm Still Standing" and "Sad Songs (Say So Much)." His work during this era generally ranked a notch below the earlier glory days, but he continues to make his presence felt, filling concert halls, contributing to soundtracks and issuing a massively-selling rewrite of the perennial torch ballad "Candle in the Wind" on the occasion of Princess Diana's death in 1997. That same year, John was knighted Sir Elton John. In 1999, he collaborated on an adaptation of Verdi's opera Aida. With the coming of the 2000s, John became as much a humanitarian as a pop figure, raising millions for various charities and forming the Elton John AIDS Foundation. In 2005, he married longtime boyfriend David Furnish. - Mike McGuirk

Pink

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:53 -0800

If cultivating an iconoclast status is a career, then Pink is one serious go-getter. Since her 2000 debut, the husky-voiced singer has overhauled her sound several times, changed her hair color even more, married motocross star Carey Hart and taken George Bush to task. Then there's "Stupid Girls," the 2006 single in which Pink skewered tabloid perennials like Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton. Born Alecia Moore, she started dancing and singing backup at club nights in Philadelphia at age 13 and eventually went solo with Can't Take Me Home. Pink recruited Linda Perry to co-write her second album, 2001's M!ssundaztood, a collection of soulful pop-rock that spawned the hit "Get the Party Started." She then collaborated with Rancid's Tim Armstrong on 2003's Try This. The album didn't do well, and Pink took some time off to regroup and get married, getting back to the business of spitfire sass with 2006's I'm Not Dead. She has produced many of her own albums, built side careers in both songwriting and horror-film acting, and won a pair of Grammy Awards -- experiences that all informed the outspoken Funhouse in 2008. - Rachel Devitt

Elvis Presley

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:52 -0800

Elvis Presley is rock 'n' roll. He sang like a dream, he was sexy enough to send girls swooning, and he exuded enough cool not to have the boys resent him. Adults worried about his rebellious nature, but they were eventually comforted by his polite, courteous manner. Yet as perfect as Presley's 1950s rock recordings are, he excelled at so much: down-home country crooning, raucous R&B belting, enraptured Gospel singing, and classic pop balladeering. Elvis wasn't a vocal chameleon: these styles seeped out of him naturally, allowing his own personality to shine through. Despite his high level of talent and achievement in his craft, it was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international language of pop and inspired countless kids around the world to pick up a guitar or step up to a microphone. That said, Elvis didn't have a faultless career: he starred in plenty of bad movies, sang dozens of lame songs, got fat, and wore a kitschy white suit. But so what? He forever changed pop music, recording acres of perfect material over two short decades. Elvis (deservedly) remains the King. - Nick Dedina

Jimmy Buffett

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:24:33 -0800

Jimmy Buffett was a country rocker before 1977's aptly titled Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude cemented his image as a beachcombing sage. Although he hit his creative peak during this period, Key West, Fla.'s favorite son has continued to write amusing, often intelligent tunes. A wise businessman, he has become the hero of "parrot heads" -- blue and white-collar working stiffs who would love to lead the life about which he writes (music, novels, plays) and sings. Jimmy Buffett is indeed a genre of one. - Eric Shea

Mariah Carey

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:39 -0800

Say what you may about her fashion sense or "diva-tude," but there is no doubt that Mariah Carey defined 1990s urban pop music. Carey ruled the charts during the Clinton decade -- her 1990 self-titled debut album alone spawned four No. 1 hit singles, and she would have 11 more before the new millennium. Over the years, artists from Christina Aguilera to Ciara would name her as an influence. Her albums are always expertly crafted and performed, making her MTV Unplugged EP a surprisingly warm change of pace. Her dominance of the charts in the 1990s earned her the title of Billboard's Artist of the Decade. Despite heavily publicized personal trials in the early part of the new century, Carey returned to the forefront of modern music with The Emancipation of Mimi, which spawned her 16th and 17th No. 1 hits. In 2008, Mariah returned with the hit single "Touch My Body" and the subsequent album, E=MC2. The single pushed her past Elvis into second place (behind the Beatles) for the most No. 1 singles for an artist in the modern era. - Rachel Landy

Gloriana

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:43:19 -0700

Brothers Tom and Mike Gossin formed the earliest incarnation of Gloriana when they moved to North Carolina for college. Schoolwork quickly fell by the wayside when the brothers decided to move to Nashville to pursue their musical ambitions. The twosome met Rachel Reinert through MySpace, and although the duo had never sung with a third party -- much less a woman -- once they heard Rachel and the harmonies she brought to their music, they were convinced to give it a go. At one of their earliest Nashville shows, they were spotted by America's Most Talented Kid winner Cheyenne Kimball. After having released an album of teen-oriented pop, Kimball was looking to start a new chapter in her career. After the show, the mandolin-playing singer asked if she could join the band, and thus Gloriana was born. In February 2008, the quartet signed to producer Matt Serletic's Emblem Music Group and went into the studio with Serletic at the helm. Their debut single, "Wild at Heart," was released in May 2009, with an album expected to follow later in the summer. - Linda Ryan

Bob Dylan

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:32 -0800

Bob Dylan is on the short list of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He coupled a love for all forms of American popular and folk music with a personal and poetic songwriting style instead of relying on professional craftsmen or standard tunes. Influenced by Woody Guthrie, Dylan proved that you didn't have to be a technically perfect singer or musician to make brilliant pop music. The songs on 1963's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan catapulted the artist to stardom but he was already burning to get away from acoustic backing and match his unique vision to rock, country and blues. Dylan's music influenced a whole new generation of musicians -- such as the Beatles and Stevie Wonder -- to start crafting songs about what was important to them. While Dylan kick-started folk and country rock in his '60s studio work, the ragged home recordings he made with the Band showed that not even poorly placed microphones could stifle brilliance. Dylan still tours these days and records less often then he used to, but as albums such as 1997's Time Out of Mind and 2006's Modern Times prove, the man still has a lot to say and continues to do it in a way that no one else can. - Nick Dedina

The Fray

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:53 -0800

When tour buses and Grammy nominations were just distant dreams, the Fray's Joe King had aspirations to start up a real estate company. Had it not been for his chance meeting with old schoolmate Isaac Slade in a Denver music store in 2002, he may well have been writing up contracts rather than lyrics. Instead, the two began composing songs together, soon adding drummer Ben Wysocki and guitarist Dave Welsh to the mix. In 2004, after turning down eight of their submitted songs, Denver radio station KTCL finally gave airplay to "Cable Car," which quickly became a local favorite. Later that year, they were signed to Epic and their debut album, How to Save a Life, was released in 2005. Their brand of sentimental piano pop quickly struck a chord, particularly among music supervisors for hit TV shows like Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs, along with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences -- the album earned the band two Grammy nominations. In 2009, they followed up their double platinum-selling debut with The Fray. - Stephanie Benson

Journey

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:51 -0800

For the generation that grew up during the Reagan Era, Journey will always be associated with the sweaty palms and stomach-churning anticipation of grade school dances. Orgasmically dramatic break-up songs employed pulsating synthesizers, massive guitars, and innumerable vocal tracks backing up Steve Perry's pleading falsetto. With this astonishingly successful formula, Journey defined the blow-dried power-ballad that ruled '80s FM radio. After a long hiatus, Journey reformed in 1996, releasing a single and going on a reunion tour. In the early 2000s, minus original singer Steve Perry, Neal Schon and company went back into the studio and began recording new material, which produced Arrival in 2001 and Generations in 2005. - Mike McGuirk

Van Morrison

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:51:43 -0800

Part Celtic bard, part soulster, and part ecstatically scatting mystical visionary, Van Morrison is a painfully introverted figure who rarely gives interviews and is often at a loss to explain his own lyrics. In the studio, Van Morrison can sing like a soul man getting the spirit; onstage, however, his brilliance can be undercut by whim or temper, and he has upon occasion alienated audiences by rushing through songs and remaining aloof between them. Nonetheless, his influence among rock singer/songwriters is unrivaled by any living artist outside of that other prickly legend, Bob Dylan. Echoes of Morrison's rugged literateness and his gruff, feverishly emotive vocal style can be heard in latter-day icons ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Elvis Costello, while the Irish artist's own restless muse has kept him prolific and engaging through the '90s.

Morrison's mother sang at social gatherings, and his father collected classic blues and jazz records. He learned guitar, saxophone, and harmonica while in school, and was playing with Belfast blues, jazz, and rock bands by his mid-teens. At 15, he quit school, joined an R&B band called the Monarchs, and toured Europe with them as saxophonist. While in Germany, a film director offered Morrison a role in a movie as a jazz saxophonist. The project was dropped, and Morrison returned to Belfast and opened an R&B club in the Maritime Hotel. He recruited some friends to form Them, which became an immediate local sensation as the club's house band.

Them recorded two singles in late 1964: "Don't Start Crying Now" (a local hit) and Big Joe Williams' "Baby Please Don't Go" (which made the British Top 10 in early 1965). After the latter's success, the band moved to London and hooked up with producer Bert Berns. They recorded Berns' "Here Comes the Night," which went to Number Two in the U.K. and made the Top 30 in the U.S. Them's next two singles, "Gloria" (by Morrison) and "Mystic Eyes," were minor U.S. hits; "Gloria" was later covered by the Shadows of Knight (who took the song to Number 10 in 1966) and Patti Smith. Them's lineup underwent constant changes, and Berns brought in sessionmen, including Jimmy Page, for their albums. After a mostly unsuccessful U.S. tour in 1966, the group returned to England. Morrison disbanded Them, which soon re-formed with Ken McDowell as vocalist.

Morrison, meanwhile, grew frustrated by music-business manipulations (Them had wrongly been given a rough-kids image by their company), stopped performing, and moved back to Belfast. Meanwhile, Bert Berns (a.k.a. B. Russell) formed Bang Records in New York, and sent Morrison a plane ticket and an invitation to record four singles for his new label. One of them, "Brown Eyed Girl," reached Number 10 in the U.S. in 1967. Morrison toured America but was again disgruntled when Berns released the other singles &Number 8212; which Morrison considered demos &Number 8212; as Blowin' Your Mind. After Berns died of a sudden heart attack in December 1967, Morrison undertook an East Coast tour and wrote material for his next album. Warner Bros. president Joe Smith signed him in early 1968, and Morrison went into a New York studio that summer with numerous jazz musicians. In 48 hours he cut one of rock's least classifiable, most enduring albums, Astral Weeks, the first manifestation of Morrison's Irish-romantic mysticism. Though most of its cuts were meandering and impressionistic, with folky guitars over jazzy rhythms topped by Morrison's soul-styled vocals, critics raved; the album is still considered one of Morrison's richest, most powerful efforts.

His next album, Moondance (Number 29, 1970), traded the jazz-and-strings sound of Astral Weeks for a horn-section R&B bounce. The title tune and "Come Running" were chart singles, the latter in 1970 (Number 39), the former not until late 1977. The fittingly titled "Into the Mystic" became a minor hit for Johnny Rivers, while "Caravan" became an FM radio favorite. It was the first Morrison album to chart in the Top 100, and it eventually went platinum. His Band and the Street Choir (Number 32, 1970) yielded two uptempo R&B-flavored Top 40 hits in "Domino" (Number 9, 1970) and "Blue Money" (Number 23, 1971). By this time, Morrison had moved to Marin County, California, and married a woman who called herself Janet Planet.

Tupelo Honey (Number 27, 1971) reflected his new domestic contentment. It yielded a hit in "Wild Night" (Number 28) and went gold, thanks to progressive FM radio, which latched on to the lyrical title tune (featuring Modern Jazz Quartet drummer Connie Kay). St. Dominic's Preview (Number 15, 1972) included the minor hit single "Jackie Wilson Said" (Number 61) and contained two extended journeys into the mystic: "Listen to the Lion" and "Almost Independence Day." In 1972 Morrison guested on the John Lee Hooker–Charlie Musselwhite album Never Get Out of These Blues Alive.

By the time of Hard Nose the Highway (Number 27, 1973), Morrison had formed the 11-piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra, which was featured on the live LP It's Too Late to Stop Now. In 1973, though, Morrison suddenly divorced Janet Planet, disbanded the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, and returned to Belfast for the first time since 1966. There he began writing material for Veedon Fleece (Number 53, 1974).

Morrison took three years to produce a followup. He reportedly began sessions for an album four different times (one with jazz-funk band the Crusaders), but completed none. By 1976, he was living in California again. Late that year he appeared at the Band's farewell concert and in Martin Scorsese's film of the event, The Last Waltz. Finally, in 1977 came A Period of Transition (Number 43, 1977), which featured short jazz and R&B-oriented tunes and backup by pianist Mac "Dr. John" Rebennack. For Wavelength (Number 28, 1978), Morrison took on concert promoter Bill Graham as manager (they split in 1981); the album sold fairly well. Still, Morrison's chronic stage fright continued to plague him. At a 1979 show at New York's Palladium, he stormed off the stage midset without a word and didn't return.

The more serene Into the Music (Number 43, 1979) implied that Morrison had become a born-again Christian, and Common One (Number 73, 1980) delved more into extended mysticism. Beautiful Vision (Number 44, 1982) was more varied and concise, and it generated, as usual, sizable critical acclaim and respectable sales. It also included "Cleaning Windows," which contained references to such Morrison inspirations as Lead Belly, bluesmen Blind Lemon Jefferson, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and Muddy Waters, as well as Beat author Jack Kerouac and country singer Jimmie Rodgers. Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (Number 116, 1983) offered "special thanks" to L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology.

With A Sense of Wonder (Number 61, 1985), Morrison continued on his spiritual journey and drew further on literary influences, incorporating the work of a favorite poet, William Blake, on the track "Let the Slave." Meanwhile, Morrison rediscovered his ethnic roots and wanderlust, leaving his California home to travel nomadlike through Dublin, Belfast, and London. On No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (Number 70, 1986), the singer shared this sense of rebirth, while the album's title sneered at critics who had tried to pigeonhole his religious beliefs.

Morrison delved deeper into Celtic imagery with Poetic Champions Compose (Number 90, 1987) and collaborated with Ireland's best-loved traditional band, the Chieftains, on Irish Heartbeat (Number 102, 1988). Avalon Sunset (Number 91, 1989) contained "Whenever God Shines His Light on Me," a duet with Cliff Richard that became Morrison's first British Top 20 single since his days with Them, and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You," which in 1993 became a Number Five U.S. hit for Rod Stewart.

Morrison entered the '90s with the nostalgia-drenched Enlightenment (Number 62, 1990), on which he recalled first becoming acquainted with rock & roll and continued to explore the links between spiritual and romantic love. These themes carried over onto the similarly acclaimed double album Hymns to the Silence (Number 99, 1991), while on Too Long in Exile (Number 29, 1993), the singer brought things full circle, covering songs by some of his heroes &Number 8212; including Ray Charles and Sonny Boy Williamson &Number 8212; and duetting with John Lee Hooker on Them's "Gloria," with enough ardor to dispel any suspicions that age had mellowed him. Hooker, in fact, turned up as a surprise guest at some of Morrison's concerts in the early '90s, and Morrison would produce two of Hooker's albums in the late '90s. Morrison's spirited 1993 performances in San Francisco, documented on A Night in San Francisco (recorded December 18), were indicative of his renewed vigor onstage. That same year, Morrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A couple of years later, How Long Has This Been Going On (1996), a live jazz show recorded with Georgie Fame and Friends at Ronnie Scott's Club in London in 1995 also attested to his renewed energy. Nevertheless, Days Like This (Number 33, 1995) and The Healing Game (Number 32, 1997) were railed by critics as predictable, lackluster performances, especially Morrison's vocals; the former, however, included two duets with his daughter, Shana. Morrison took on an elder-statesman role when the song "Days Like This" was adopted as a peace anthem in Northern Ireland, and he received an Order of the British Empire title in 1996. A prolific artist, he continued his extraordinary output of an album nearly every year, and released The Philosopher's Stone, a two-disc set of previously unreleased material, in 1998. Back on Top, an album of new material, followed the next year. In 2000 Morrison was inspired by working with other musicians, and he released a concert recording of skiffle tunes performed with Lonnie Donegan, The Skiffle Sessions: Live in Belfast, 1998, and You Win Again, an album of country, rockabilly, and blues covers performed with singer/pianist Linda Gail Lewis, the sister of Jerry Lee Lewis.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)

Britney Spears

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

Britney. Over the past decade the name has dominated pop charts and tabloids. Uttered with a mix of adoration and repulsion, the first name of Britney Spears exists as shorthand for the magnificent mess of contemporary pop culture. It's been quite a ride for the former Mouseketeer, who first appeared in pearly smile and short skirt on the cover of 1999's ...Baby One More Time, with a glut of sugary singles. By 2000's Oops! I Did It Again, she was a household name and a pop-music icon, and not yet 20 years old. Two more LPs -- Britney and In the Zone -- were increasingly inflected with RnB and hip-hop, though flagging chart performances and record sales soon made her as much media sensation as music maker. Fueled by a messy breakup with Justin Timberlake, two sensational marriages (one commenced in Vegas and ended only 55 hours later; the other was to former backup dancer Kevin Federline) and rumors of drug and alcohol abuse, Britney's public image was in nonstop tailspin through much of the mid '00s. By 2007, the 'tween audience that squealed about her debut was engorged by tales of panty-less partying, drug-treatment programs and a custody battle over her two children with Federline. - Nate Cavalieri

Billy Joel

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:51 -0800

Owner of more hit singles than there are strip malls in his native Long Island, N.Y., Billy Joel has fashioned the quintessential pop career from unparalleled songcraft, a penchant for genre-bouncing from one album to the next, and over-the-top stage performances. A child of 1950s R&B and 1960s British Invasion, Joel has always maintained an extraordinary knack for coming up with songs that sound just as good (if not better) on the AM radio of your uncle's '73 Pinto as they do on the living room hi-fi. This devotion to the pop aesthetic over the course of twelve studio albums and innumerable radio hits -- beginning with the autobiographical "Piano Man" in 1973 on through "The River of Dreams" 20 years later -- has won Joel a fan base ranging from 20-somethings raised on his late '70s/early '80s classics ("My Life," "Only The Good Die Young," and "Pressure" among them) to the parents of those same 20-somethings who hear a bit of the Beatles, Dylan, and Smokey Robinson in those same classics. Although Joel removed himself from the pop fold following River of Dreams, his mighty back catalog continues to sell in hefty chunks. - Charles Hodgkins

Queen

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

Heavy metal gods to some, studio-oriented power pop innovators to others, and purveyors of overblown sports arena anthems to still many more, Queen left a deep and varied legacy at the end of their nearly 20-year career. Despite a 2005 Broadway stage show that was written by guitarist Brian May, which featured the remaining members, the band never really recovered from the tragic loss of singer Freddie Mercury to AIDS in 1991. Combining a fondness for hard rock riffs with a knack for catchy melodies, Queen had forged a unique sound brought to life through elaborate (bordering on excessive) studio production. Of their many hits, 1975's "Bohemian Rhapsody" best exemplifies their range: revved-up guitars, near-prog rock complexity and operatic vocals courtesy of Freddie Mercury and a cast of thousands (all of whom also happened to be named Freddie Mercury). Moving from the glam-inspired sounds of their early days, the British quartet scored late 1970s/early '80s hits as they dabbled in rockabilly ("Crazy Little Thing Called Love"), disco ("Another One Bites the Dust") and New Wave-leaning dance (their 1981 David Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure"). Say what you will, there's much more to Queen than "We Will Rock You." - Will York

Bruce Springsteen

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:51 -0800

No rock performer has spoken with more authority on the human fallout of the American Dream than Bruce Springsteen. Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska are American Gothics haunted by star-crossed lovers and noble souls hag-ridden by fate into crime, depression, and worst of all, ordinariness. But lest we forget, the original denim rocker has also written some of the most uplifting songs in AOR: every line of "Born to Run" and "Glory Days" offers an ideal place to hang your troubles out to dry. Springsteen plays the perfect tailor for the damaged lives that populate his lyrics, recognizing the tiny flaws and the holes that gape in the human fabric, and doing his best to mend them -- sometimes with simple compassion, sometimes with joy. Just about everything the Boss has done has an air of permanence about it. You just know that when generations hence try to grasp what life meant to us, his music will offer an important clue. But despite his many accomplishments and incredible fame, something has kept the Boss down to earth. He generously handed out hit songs to Patti Smith and Robert Gordon in the 1970s, and even today continues to promote the careers of lesser luminaries such as duet partner Elliot Murphy. - Henry B.

Shinedown

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:31 -0800

Formed in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2001, Shinedown have separated themselves from the ranks of their peers since the very beginning, when an acoustic cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" found its way into local and then nationwide rotation. The modern hard-rockers' debut album, Leave a Whisper, was re-released on the heels of the single's success and promptly went platinum, while carving out a Southern rock identity for the band. Second record, Us and Them, appeared in 2005 and furthered Shinedown's popularity on the strength of the emotionally charged, grungy single "Heroes." Third album, The Sound of Madness, found the band moving away from their Southern rock label and toward more straight-up hard rock with strong elements of the salad days of grunge informing their sound. The album yielded hits in "Devour," "Second Chance" and the title track. - Mike McGuirk

Demi Lovato

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:42:58 -0700

So you've seen Camp Rock, right? No? OK, then you've at least watched Barney once or twice. You haven't? What are you, some kind of grown-up? Well, then, chances are you've yet to come in contact with young Ms. Demi Lovato, who got her start showing her gums on the purple dino's cute-fest at age six and her big break as a star of Disney's 2008 rock-camp-themed movie-musical. But you're going to be seeing a lot more of her: The Dallas, Tex., native stars in the Disney Channel series Sonny with a Chance and makes headlines for her BFF-ship with fellow Disney starlet Selena Gomez. And her buddies the Jonas Brothers (who also star in Camp Rock) worked with Lovato, a longtime singer-songwriter, to put together her debut album in 2008. For album two, 2009's Here I Go Again, she enlisted John Mayer as inspiration and collaborator. - Rachel Devitt

Pearl Jam

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:42:35 -0800

Many accused Pearl Jam of being a mainstream hard rock band that happened to hop on the alt rock gravy train at its busiest stop (Grungeville circa late 1991/early 1992), thereby reaping the benefits of constant exposure on suddenly flannel-friendly MTV with hit videos for "Alive," "Even Flow" and, most notably, "Jeremy." In the wake of the unpredictable success of their multi-platinum anthem-fest/debut Ten, Eddie Vedder eventually got used to being a celebrity. Not coincidentally, the band bravely began messing with its straight-ahead rock formula around that same time: "Spin the Black Circle" married punk with garage rock, "Off He Goes" put their own "Daughter" to shame for fireside ambiance, "Around the Bend" manifested the effects of Mirror Ball (their 1995 collaboration with Neil Young) soft and clear, and "Low Light" out-R.E.M.'d R.E.M. in its waltzing, acoustic beauty. In 2000, Pearl Jam began releasing no less than 72 volumes of live material chronicling the American and European legs of their tour in support of Binaural, which came out the same year. 2002's Riot Act proved that the band was as relevant as ever, and in 2006 they returned with a self-titled, heavy blast of anthemic anger at the state of the world. Pearl Jam are one of the few stalwarts surviving from the long-ago age of grunge hype, and they've actually become bolder and better with age. - Charles Hodgkins

David Gray

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:39:06 -0800

Welsh singer-songwriter David Gray had enjoyed immense success in Ireland for years before the rest of the world caught up with him. His simple, acoustic-fronted songs are canvasses on which Gray paints emotions, with his hoarse vocals acting as the brush with which he recreates scenes from his soul. Leaving Wales to go to school in Liverpool, Gray drifted through various bands trying to find his place in the world of music. Eventually he started doing his own solo work and moved to London. He signed with Hut Records shortly thereafter, releasing A Century Ends in 1992 and Flesh in 1994. Despite strong reviews and some astonishing live performances, his music oddly failed to ignite and he was dropped by his label. He continued to play out live, and a performer-audience connection was forged in Ireland, where the crowds appreciated the singer's stark, emotional style. EMI snapped Gray up and in 1996, Sell, Sell, Sell was released. Again, the musician hit the road, this time in support of Radiohead and the Dave Matthews Band. But although the audiences were larger, sales stayed flat and he was dropped. Again. Thoroughly deflated, he went on a writing spree and with a "glass is half full" sort of optimisim, began recording his fourth album, White Ladder in his London studio apartment. The self-financed project was released on Gray's own IHT Records in 1998, and almost overnight found itself firmly lodged in the Irish Top-40, where it remained for quite some time. Dave Matthews, whom had befriended Gray on their earlier tour, signed him to his imprint label, ATO Records and released White Ladder stateside in 2000. American audiences warmed to the stirring single, "Babylon," and White Ladder went gold by the end of the year, and platinum a mere two months later. There was a glut of David Gray reissues in 2001 as well as The EPs 92-94, which consisted of three singles from A Century Ends, his very first single, "Birds Without Wings" and various other musical tidbits. This was quickly followed by 2002's A New Day at Midnight, which went gold for the singer-songwriter, despite the fact there wasn't another "Babylon" on the album. In 2005, Gray branched out from "bedroom recordings" and entered a proper recording studio with Marius De Vries (Rufus Wainwright, Madonna, U2, etc) producing. The resulting album, Life In Slow Motion, spills over with low-key but radio-friendly songs and an expansive aesthetic. - Linda Ryan

3 Doors Down

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:53 -0800

Can you raise your lighter high in the stadium and still keep your indie cred? Probably not, but you can combine the catchy hard rock of the Scorpions with the grungy street metal of Nirvana and get 3 Doors Down. Their debut hit, "Kryptonite," was a surprise smash, selling quantities that would make Shania or Britney very happy -- 2000's The Better Life went quadruple platinum in its first year of release, paving the way for still more multimillion sellers. Not bad for a rocking band that escaped from Escatawpa, Miss. (population: 8,000). Their 2008 self-titled album found them expanding their vision of modern rock, mixing heartland harmonies with touches of funk and world music -- but still delivering their music with an urgency as searing as ever. - Nick Dedina

The Jackson 5

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

The Jackson 5's bubblegum-flavored soul helped Motown usher in the 1970s with a string of chart toppers that included hits such as "ABC," "I Want You Back" and "The Love You Save." Raised in Gary, Indiana by devout Jehovah's Witnesses, the brothers endured the kind of strict upbringing that groomed them perfectly for the "Motown machine." And what a well-oiled machine it was! The Jackson 5's likenesses could be found on everything from lunchboxes to dolls to Saturday Morning cartoons. But by 1974, the machine showed signs of wear and tear: songs weren't charting as highly as they had previously, and demand for Jackson 5 merchandise was drying up. The machine broke down completely when, frustrated by Motown's refusal to allow the brothers to write or choose their own material, the Jackson 5 parted ways with the label and signed with Epic. Motown won a breach of contract suit, thus retaining the rights to the name Jackson 5. The brothers changed their named to the Jacksons. The Jackson 5 were inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame in 1997. - Linda Ryan

Neil Young

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:34 -0800

Throughout his extraordinary career, Neil Young's Americana-rooted songwriting has dipped into a staggering variety of styles and tones. With the live Time Fades Away, the spatial On The Beach and the liquid Tonight's The Night, Neil inadvertently presented his so-called doom trilogy -- three records that beautifully capture throwing in the towel. 1975's Zuma signaled a return from the darkness to the sunny, rural rock he first explored on Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. Comes A Time found him hip deep in a fermentation of 1970s canyon and country rock, while Rust Never Sleeps unfolded his career multi-dimensionally as he unleashed his acoustic/electric duality to a receptive commercial and critical audience. With Freedom and Ragged Glory, Young made a valiant return to form in the late '80s and early '90s before recapturing acoustic peace with Harvest Moon, his 1992 release that many view as the sequel to his heroically pastoral 1972 album Harvest. The Canadian transplant's high, watery tenor emotes with an elasticity that can effortlessly traverse into falsetto with natural warmth and heavenly tremolo. You'll find the real Young singing the hazy guitar epics "Like A Hurricane" and "Cortez the Killer," or when songs such as the gentle "Birds" and "Motion Pictures" seem to weep from your speakers. True to form, Neil Young is one of the only songwriters in the world who can approximate the sound of a heart breaking with his voice. - Eric Shea

Kelly Clarkson

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:37 -0800

The first-ever American Idol, Kelly Clarkson won over America with her soulful voice, bubbly personality and "small-town girl makes it big" story. Before Idol, the native Texan had made a dismal run at Hollywood, and after she hightailed it back to Burleson, her friends convinced her to audition for the competition. The show launched Clarkson, and her debut album proved that America had voted correctly. "A Moment Like This" was a colossal hit, and the album went multiplatinum, winning Clarkson her first Grammy (for "Miss Independent"). On second album Breakaway, Clarkson distanced herself from Idol's ickier aspects (From Justin to Kelly, anyone?) and went off in a new direction: adult contemporary-approved rocker chick. She then released My December in 2007. Co-written by Clarkson, the album is a more honest reflection of the A.I. heroine. In fact, RCA tycoon Clive Davis deemed it too negative and offered her $10 million to scratch some of the songs. Clarkson refused the offer and held her ground. Her next album, 2009's All I Ever Wanted, lightened My December's darkness with the pop touch that made fans fall in love with her in the first place. - Rachel Devitt

Radiohead

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:42:40 -0800

One of the 1990s' greatest success stories, Radiohead came to prominence largely on the success of their distorted, ingratiating single "Creep." Drolly repeating "I'm a creep / I'm a loser" in the pounding wake of arena rock guitars wasn't going to win them any artistic grants, but those lyrics and bouts with piercing feedback would not be soon forgotten. It wasn't until The Bends (1995) that Radiohead transcended the formula, crafting the patient, heart-wrenching "Fake Plastic Trees" and the magnetic, sunshine-driven "Black Star." Thom Yorke's signature falsetto began to operate in a more deeply emotional capacity at this point. Finally producing to the caliber of their songwriting, Radiohead's OK Computer demonstrated a staggering attention to detail, probably ranking as one of the greatest commercial artistic successes of the '90s. Rarely does a record offer masterpieces in varying moods. From the thunderously suspenseful "Airbag" to the moody chime of the blustery "Let Down," Radiohead emerged victorious. The alt-rock superstardom and critical gushing that followed pushed them into their darkest and most creative space yet, and they delivered the electronic-tinged Kid A in 2000 and Amnesiac in 2001. Many critics and fans claimed to not "get" the group's twisted, skittering melodies and complicated, chorus-free rock songs but to the devout the band's cerebral art rock was like manna from the heavens. 2003's Hail to the Thief offered up a mixture of guitar-driven tracks amid a more restless desire to experiment. In 2007, Radiohead shook up the music industry with In Rainbows, an album released via their website in which fans could name their own price. - Kelly Bauman

Kid Rock

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:54 -0800

After spending a decade toiling in obscurity and releasing a handful of albums that went nowhere, Kid Rock — Detroit's self-proclaimed "American Bad Ass" — spiked the title track of his forth album, 1998's Devil without a Cause, with a bold declaration: "I'm going platinum!" With the white trash rap/rock anthem "Bawitdaba" and a star-making performance at Woodstock '99, he delivered on his promise. But within a decade, Rock had made the total transformation into a classic rock singer when his 2007 album Rock N Roll Jesus debuted at Number One.

He was born Robert James Ritchie on Jan. 15, 1971, in Romeo, Michigan, a small, rural town north of the Detroit metro area, where his father owned a Lincoln-Mercury dealership. While growing up, he frequently clashed with his father, whom he blamed for being a workaholic, resulting in Ritchie's leaving home on multiple occasions as a teenager. He experimented with drugs and occasionally sold crack for spending money, but his primary focus was music. Though raised on his parents' classic rock & roll albums (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Seger, etc.), Ritchie was equally interested in hip-hop. He formed his own break-dance crew, the Furious Funksters, and refined his scratching skills. Before long, he was DJ'ing and rapping at clubs and parties throughout the Detroit area, slowly building a reputation that led to a deal with Jive Records.

His 1990 debut, Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast, netted Kid Rock an opening spot on an Ice Cube tour and sparked controversy when the FCC threatened to fine a college radio station $23,750 for playing the album's homage to oral sex, "Yo-Da-Lin in the Valley." The fine was eventually dropped and so was Kid Rock; Grits Sandwiches had failed to sell enough to keep Jive's interest. He then signed to the indie label Continuum, which released 1993's The Polyfuze Method and the 1994 heavy metal-leaning EP Fire It Up. Both failed to reach an audience beyond Rock's local Detroit following. Undaunted, Kid Rock borrowed $8,500 from his father to set up his own label, Top Dog, and self-released his third full-length album, Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp, in 1996. The album sold enough for Kid Rock to attract the attention of Atlantic Records.

Devil without a Cause (Number Four, 1999) was slow out of the gate but began a steady climb up the Billboard 200 as rock radio and MTV picked up on the album's hybrid rap/metal singles "I Am the Bullgod" (Number 31 Mainstream Rock) and "Bawitdaba" (Number 10 Modern Rock). A third single, "Cowboy" (which threw dirty Southern rock and country elements into the mix), went to Number Five on the Modern Rock chart and Number 82 on the Hot 100. In 1999 — ten years after his debut album — Kid Rock was nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy. (He lost to Christina Aguilera.)

The History of Rock (Number Two, 2000) featured remixed and rerecorded versions of tracks culled from his pre-Atlantic career and a couple of new tracks. He also announced plans to issue various projects by members of his Twisted Brown Trucker Band on his Atlantic-distributed Top Dog label, beginning with Double Wide (2000) by his DJ, Uncle Kracker. An album was also planned for his sidekick, Joe C. (born Joseph Calleja), but the diminutive, 26-year-old rapper, who suffered from the digestive disorder celiac disease, died in his sleep on November 16, 2000.

The following year Rock released Cocky (Number Three, 2001), his official follow-up to Devil Without a Cause, which featured a mix of rap/rock, Southern rock and country-tinged material. That year, he began talking up his love of country music and Southern rock, and appeared with Hank Williams Jr. on an episode of CMT's Crossroads show. Like Devil Without a Cause, though, Cocky's sales were sluggish at first. But by the time he released its biggest single — a duet with Sheryl Crow on the country-rock ballad "Picture" (Number Four, 2003) — the album went on to sell more than four million copies. "Picture," which also reached Number 21 on the Hot Country singles chart, signaled a major change in style for the rap/rocker.

When he returned with the self-titled Kid Rock (Number Eight, 2004), his transformation into a classic rocker was complete. The album spawned three Top Forty Mainstream Rock hits—a cover of Bad Company's mid-Seventies rock hit "Feel Like Makin' Love" (Number 33, 2004), "I Am" (Number 28, 2004) and "Jackson, Mississippi" (Number 14, 2004)—as well as the Number 50 Hot Country single "Single Father." After much touring, his rock band Kid Rock & the Twisted Brown Trucker Band released Live Trucker (Number 12, 2006), a performance set whose cover paid homage to Detroit rock legend Bob Seger's 1976 album, Live Bullet. Kid Rock returned the following year with Rock N Roll Jesus (Number One, 2007), which yielded the singles "Amen" (Number 11 Mainstream Rock, Number 27 Modern Rock, 2007) and "So Hott" (Number Two Mainstream Rock, Number 13 Modern Rock, 2007). He has said he will return to his hip-hop roots on his next album, following a side project with Run-DMC's Rev. Run.

Kid Rock's extramusical affairs have often eclipsed his music. In 2001, he began an on-again-off-again relationship with Pamela Anderson, whom he married in 2006 and then promptly divorced five months later. He's been arrested a number of times on assault and battery charges, including a 2005 incident in which he punched a DJ at a strip club, and a pair of 2007 incidents in which he was in a fight in an Atlanta Waffle House, and a more public dust-up when he and Motley Crue drummer (and former Anderson husband) Tommy Lee got into a scuffle at the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony.

The Beach Boys

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:51 -0800

In the early 1960s, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson fused innovative chord arrangements with elastic-ranged vocal harmonies onto a foundation of Chuck Berry-inspired rock 'n' roll. The resulting music, set against a backdrop of surfing, girls, and cars, was unfortunately panned by the media as America's answer to Beatlemania. By the end of 1964, Wilson had retired from live performances to focus on composing and producing the band's recordings. Desperately trying to get the sounds from his head onto tape, the Beach Boys released the epic Pet Sounds in May of 1966. In the liner notes of this orchestrated pop masterpiece, Wilson admits that his aim was to write a "teenage symphony to God." Generally hailed as the greatest rock 'n' roll album ever, Pet Sounds struggled to attain the commercial success of the band's earlier suburban hymns. Although the Beach Boys (as well as Brian Wilson) went on to make many more successful albums, they never came close to approximating the innovative genius and transcendent, childlike innocence that was Pet Sounds. - Eric Shea

The Grateful Dead

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:50 -0800

Born out of the burgeoning West Coast hippie scene in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district during the late '60s, and inextricably linked to psychedelic experimentation, the Grateful Dead blended psychedelic folk music and a transformative live experience that grew into the largest, most devoted and longest lived cult following in the history of popular music. Deadhead culture rapidly became more ubiquitous than the music -- the Dead's friendly jams, laid-back tunes and open attitude towards bootlegging inspired a tightly knit community that followed the band around the country and traded tapes of concerts years after they'd been recorded. The Dead's concert performances live forever in the often-altered minds of those who attended show after show, and in thousands of hours of recorded material. The majority of these Dead bootlegs were recorded really well and sound like someone took the time to master and equalize them. Hardcore Deadhead classics like "Jack Straw" re-emphasize why the band's live shows were a musical phenomenon. Those who identified best with the Workingman's Dead and American Beauty LPs will be pleased to know that there is an overwhelming amount of well-recorded and downloadable live jams from that era when Jerry was younger, the songs were fresh, and the guitars sounded especially warm.

Britt Nicole

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:04:39 -0700

Talk about focused. Britt Nicole began singing in church at age 3 and after high school she turned down a scholarship to Nashville's Belmont University music program, choosing instead to get her training on the job. The gamble paid off. She soon scored management, development and label deals, releasing her debut, Say It, before she turned 21. Hit songs "You" and "Believe" followed before her track "Sunshine Girl" was featured on MTV's teen reality show Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County. In summer 2009, Britt released her sophomore disc, The Lost Get Found, filled with high-energy pop rooted in her faith.

Jordin Sparks

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:05:11 -0700

You might call Jordin Sparks an amateur talent contest professional, although prodigy is perhaps more accurate. In 2007, the 17-year-old Sparks won American Idol. But before that, she appeared twice on America's Most Talented Kids, received two awards from the Gospel Music Association Academy and finished second at Music in the Rockies, a competition for aspiring contemporary Christian artists. The year before she won Idol, the multitalented Sparks also won Torrid's search for the "Next Plus Size Model" and appeared in a Seventeen magazine ad for the clothing line. So winning Idol was just the big, fat cherry on top of a talent show sundae -- and the culmination of a life spent working towards performance career.

The child of NFL player Phillippi Sparks (formerly of the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys), the baby-faced belter grew up singing and doing children's theater. She got a string of gigs singing the national anthem at professional sporting events in her home state of Arizona, toured with CCM star Michael W. Smith and recorded an EP (2003's For Now) at age 13. Despite all her experience, Sparks did not initially make the cut when she auditioned for Idol in Los Angeles. She did, however, win the local Arizona Idol contest, which earned her the right to audition again in Seattle and, eventually, to become the youngest ever American Idol. Following her win, she toured with the other Idols and began work on her debut album. - Rachel Devitt

Katy Perry

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:35 -0800

Katy Perry may or may not actually be gay, but she's certainly made her young career with coy, playful references to sexuality -- her own and her paramours'. The young Californian singer-songwriter first generated a heaping helping of online buzz in 2007 with "Ur So Gay," in which she accuses a disappointing boyfriend who "doesn't even like boys" of being, well, take a guess. Then, in 2008, she shot up the charts with the Sapphic sweet-talker "I Kissed a Girl." Kind of a surprising turn of events for the daughter of two pastors who wasn't allowed to listen to secular music as a kid and got her start in Christian music, releasing a 2001 album under then name Katy Hudson. Or maybe not -- if you believe the old saw about preacher's daughters and once you learn that Perry says her life changed when she discovered Queen as a teenager. By 2004, she'd worked with Glen Ballard (Alanis Morissette) and the Matrix (Avril Lavigne), been signed to Columbia and been hailed by the likes of Blender as the Next Big Thing! But nothing really clicked until she released her debut, One of the Boys, on Capitol in 2008 and got her gay on. - Rachel Devitt

Norah Jones

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:55 -0800

This young singer and pianist has so much talent that she can't be contained by one genre of music. The American-born, Texas-bred daughter of Indian music legend Ravi Shankar has after-hours jazz, soul, country, blues and folk music at her command, and combines each with natural, dreamy ease. It's almost as if Rickie Lee Jones or Diana Krall were recording for an absinthe-soaked 4AD label that specialized in Americana. Some of our greatest artists -- from Frank Sinatra to Ray Charles, from Elvis to the Beatles -- were genres onto themselves, and it's refreshing to see a performer as young as Jones craft her own sound and style. Blue Note Records signed her in hopes of slowly building her into the kind of crossover jazz success that the Verve label has enjoyed with Diana Krall and Cassandra Wilson. But it didn't turn out quite that way: the buzz around Jones's debut, 2002's Come Away With Me, was so enthusiastic that the album eventually became one of the biggest sellers of the new millennium. Blue Note wisely chose not to try to make her even more successful and left Jones and her band to their own devices for 2004's Feels Like Home, a slightly darker return to the sophisticated but comforting acoustic sound of her debut. Jones and her band avoided the sophomore slump with the album, which hit the gates as a massive hit and further secured her career in music. In early 2007, Jones released Not Too Late, her first all self-penned set. She also performs regularly with other bands and musicians, including the Little Willies, Peter Malick (she appears on every track of his New York Cityalbum), jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter, electronica band Wax Poetic, and a number of her heroes, among them Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. - Nick Dedina

Fleetwood Mac

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:09:52 -0800

Whoever named Fleetwood Mac was either lucky or prescient. The only thing about the group that hasn't changed since it formed in 1967 is the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Through the '70s, the band's personnel and style shifted with nearly every recording as Fleetwood Mac metamorphosed from a traditionalist British blues band to the maker of one of the best-selling pop albums ever, Rumours. From that album's release in 1977 into the present, Fleetwood Mac has survived additional, theoretically key, personnel changes and remained through the mid-'90s a dominant commercial force.

Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac was formed by ex–John Mayall's Bluesbreakers Green, McVie, and Fleetwood along with Elmore James enthusiast Jeremy Spencer. McVie had been a charter member of the Bluesbreakers in 1963, Fleetwood had joined in 1965, and Green had replaced Eric Clapton in 1966. With its repertoire of blues classics and Green's blues-style originals, the group's debut at the British Jazz and Blues Festival in August 1967 netted it a record contract. Fleetwood Mac was popular in Britain immediately, and its debut album stayed near the top of the British chart for 13 months. The quartet had hits in the U.K. through 1970, including "Black Magic Woman" and the instrumental "Albatross" (which was Number One in 1968 and reached Number Four when rereleased in 1973). America, however, largely ignored Fleetwood Mac; its first U.S. tour had the group third-billed behind Jethro Tull and Joe Cocker, neither of whom was as popular in Britain.

Green and Spencer recorded Fleetwood Mac in Chicago with Willie Dixon, Otis Spann, and other blues patriarchs in 1969 (the LP wasn't released until 1971), yet the group was already moving away from the all-blues format. In May 1970 Green abruptly left the group to follow his ascetic religious beliefs. He stayed out of the music business until the mid-'70s, when he made two solo LPs. His departure put an end to Fleetwood Mac's blues leanings; Danny Kirwan and Christine Perfect moved the band toward leaner, more melodic rock. Perfect, who had sung with Spencer Davis in folk and jazz outfits before joining British blues-rockers Chicken Shack in 1968, had performed uncredited on parts of Then Play On, but contractual obligations to Chicken Shack kept her from joining Fleetwood Mac officially until 1971; by then she had married McVie.

Early in 1971 Spencer disappeared in L.A. and turned up as a member of a religious cult, the Children of God (later the title of a Spencer solo effort). Fleetwood Mac went through a confused period. Bob Welch joined, supplementing Kirwan's and Christine McVie's songwriting. Next Kirwan was fired and replaced by Bob Weston and Dave Walker, both of whom soon departed. Manager Clifford Davis then formed a group around Weston and Walker, called it Fleetwood Mac, and sent it on a U.S. tour. An injunction filed by the real Fleetwood Mac forced the bogus band to desist (they then formed the group Stretch), but protracted legal complications kept Fleetwood Mac from touring for most of 1974. From then until around the time of the Tusk tour in 1979–80, the band managed itself, with Mick Fleetwood taking most of the responsibility.

The group relocated to California in 1974. After Welch left to form the power trio Paris in 1975, Fleetwood Mac finally found its best-selling lineup. Producer Keith Olsen played an album he'd engineered, Buckingham-Nicks (Polydor), for Fleetwood and the McVies as a demo for his studio; Fleetwood Mac hired not only Olsen but the duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who had played together in the Bay Area acid-rock group Fritz from 1968 until 1972, before recording with Olsen. Fleetwood Mac now had three songwriters, Buckingham's studio craft, and an onstage focal point in Nicks, who became a late-'70s sex symbol as Fleetwood Mac (Number One, 1975) racked up 5 million in sales. The McVies divorced in 1976, and Buckingham and Nicks separated soon after, but the tensions of the two years between albums helped shape the songs on Rumours (Number One, 1977), which would sell over 17 million copies, win the Grammy for Album of the Year, and contained the 1977 hits "Go Your Own Way" (Number 10), "Dreams" (Number One), "Don't Stop" (Number Three), and "You Make Loving Fun" (Number Nine).

After touring the biggest venues around the world — with Nicks, who was prone to throat nodes, always in danger of losing her voice — Fleetwood Mac took another two years and approximately $1 million to make Tusk (Number Four, 1979), an ambitious, frequently experimental project that couldn't match its predecessors' popularity, although it still turned a modest profit and spun off a couple of hits: "Tusk" (Number Eight, 1979) and "Sara" (Number Seven, 1979). Buckingham and Mac engineer Richard Dashut also produced hit singles for John Stewart and Bob Welch. As with many bands that have overspent in the studio, Fleetwood Mac's next effort was a live double album (Number 14, 1980).

In 1980 Fleetwood and Dashut visited Ghana to record The Visitor with African musicians, and Nicks began work on her first solo LP, Bella Donna, which hit Number One and went quadruple platinum with three Top 20 singles: "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (a duet with Tom Petty), "Leather and Lace" (a duet with Don Henley), and "Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove)." Late 1981 saw the release of Buckingham's solo LP, Law and Order (Number 32, 1981) and his Top 10 single "Trouble."

Fleetwood Mac's first collection of new material in three years, Mirage (Number One), was less overtly experimental and featured the 1982 hit singles "Hold Me" (written by Christine McVie about her relationship with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson) (Number Four), "Gypsy" (Number 12), and "Love in Store" (Number 22). The following year Nicks released her second solo effort, The Wild Heart, which contained "Stand Back" (Number Five). Unlike Buckingham's critically lauded but only moderately popular solo releases, Nicks' were hugely popular, with her third release, Rock a Little ("Talk to Me"), charting at Number 12. In 1984 Christine McVie released two hit singles, "Got a Hold on Me" (Number 10) and "Love Will Show Us How" (Number 30), and Buckingham released his critically acclaimed Go Insane. Under the stress of several factors — among them each member having his or her own management team, Buckingham's increasing authority in the studio, Nicks' ascent to solo stardom and chemical dependency (treated during a 1987 stint at the Betty Ford Clinic), Fleetwood's bankruptcy — the group took a hiatus, not coming back together again until 1985, when it began work on Tango in the Night. Long dissatisfied with his position in the group, Buckingham officially left the group after deciding not to tour with it to support the album. His replacements, Billy Burnette [see entry], who was a member of Fleetwood's informal side group Zoo, and Rick Vito, toured instead. While the group was at work on Tango, Nicks was also recording, working, and touring behind Rock a Little. Released in the spring in 1987, Tango quickly moved into the Top 10, bolstered by the Top 20 hits "Little Lies," "Seven Wonders," and "Everywhere."

Behind the Mask (Number 18, 1990), Fleetwood Mac's first studio album not to go platinum since 1975, came out in 1990, around which time Christine McVie and Nicks both announced they would remain in the group but no longer tour. Later that year the drummer's best-selling memoirs, Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, was published.

In early 1991 Vito left the group, followed two years later by Burnette. In January 1993 Buckingham joined Fleetwood, the McVies, and Nicks to perform Bill Clinton's campaign anthem, "Don't Stop," at his presidential inaugural gala. The next month Nicks announced her departure from the group; in 1994 she released Street Angel (Number 45, 1994), her first album of new material in four years.

Two new members joined Fleetwood Mac in fall 1993: Dave Mason [see entry] and Bekka Bramlett (the daughter of Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, with whom Mason had toured before Bekka was born). Bramlett had also sung with the Zoo. After releasing Time (1995) to disappointing response, the group dissolved.

A year later, the Rumours edition of Fleetwood Mac reunited to record The Dance (Number One, 1997), a live document of an MTV concert that featured the band's greatest hits as well as four new songs. The album's release coincided with a worldwide tour — its first in 15 years — that found Fleetwood Mac's popularity undiminished as it marked the 20th anniversary of Rumours. In 1998 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where it played an acoustic set that Buckingham insisted would be its swan song. Ironically, founding member Peter Green performed as well — but with fellow inductees Santana. Taking stock of Nicks' solo highlights, Enchanted, a three-disc box set, was also released. Her 2001 release, Trouble in Shangri-La, returned her to the Top 10. Even Green enjoyed a comeback, forming the Peter Green Splinter Group and releasing a series of late-'90s albums devoted to the blues. By 2000, Fleetwood Mac had sold more than 100 million copies of its albums — including 25 million for Rumours alone — making it one of the most popular rock bands in history.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)

Rihanna

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:12:56 -0800

Talent and a dose of good luck got Barbados-born Rihanna signed to Def Jam when she was 16 years old. She was discovered by producer Evan Rogers during his island visit in 2003, and went on to impress Def Jam CEO Jay-Z so much that he grabbed her for a multi-album contract. The singer's first single, "Pon de Replay," was released in June 2005, with the full album Music of the Sun dropping a month later. But her big break came in 2006 with the release of the single "S.O.S." and the subsequent album A Girl Like Me. The single, which sampled Soft Cell's "Tainted Love," was one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially popular songs of that year. Though Rihanna had basically moved away from dancehall, she was moving toward a new aesthetic that married R&B, synth-pop and hip-hop. She continued in this direction with 2007's Good Girl Gone Bad, which featured the infectious singles "Umbrella" and "Shut Up and Drive." In early 2009, she was assaulted by then-boyfriend Chris Brown en route to a pre-Grammys party; that November, she released Rated R, a highly personal album with an unmistakable darkness. - Sam Chennault