Eyebrows were raised in the jazz world when it was announced that the relatively obscure and young Ken Vandermark was to receive a 1999 MacArthur "Genius" grant. Previous MacArthur recipients amongst jazz musicians included Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton -- near-legendary figures who, over the course of long careers, created substantial bodies... [+] Read More

Yes No

Merging the mammoth riffs of Black Sabbath with the straightforward attack of the Ramones, guitarist Kim Thayil created his own original style that helped propel Soundgarden to the top of the Seattle rock heap in the '90s. Born on September 4, 1960, in Seattle, WA (but raised in Park Forest, Il), Thayil picked up the guitar in the mid-'70s for... [+] Read More

Yes No

Mike Portnoy is the drummer for Dream Theater. He was born in 1967, and began playing drums in his teens. He played for various small bands, including the group Inner Sanctum, which released one album. He attended Berklee Music College. He is a founding member of Dream Theater and has been with the band for the duration. He is also a member of... [+] Read More

Yes No

Until Nine Inch Nails crossed over to the mainstream, Ministry did more than any other band to popularize industrial dance music, injecting large doses of punky, over-the-top aggression and roaring heavy metal guitar riffs that helped their music find favor with metal and alternative audiences outside of industrial's cult fan base. That's not to... [+] Read More

Yes No

Rage Against the Machine earned acclaim from disenfranchised fans (and not insignificant derision from critics) for their bombastic, fiercely polemical music, which brewed sloganeering leftist rants against corporate America, cultural imperialism, and government oppression into a Molotov cocktail of punk, hip-hop, and thrash. Rage formed in Los... [+] Read More

Yes No

Few rock guitarists in the 1990s were as groundbreaking as Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, who incorporated a myriad of different styles into his own playing. Born in New York City on May 30, 1964, Morello was raised by his mother (who, decades later, would help create the anti-censorship organization Parents for Rock & Rap) in... [+] Read More

Yes No

Few rock guitarists in the 1990s were as groundbreaking as Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, who incorporated a myriad of different styles into his own playing. Born in New York City on May 30, 1964, Morello was raised by his mother (who, decades later, would help create the anti-censorship organization Parents for Rock & Rap) in... [+] Read More

Yes No

Tool's greatest breakthrough was to introduce dark, vaguely underground metal to the preening pretentiousness of art rock. Or maybe it was introducing the self-absorbed pretension of art rock to the wearing grind of post-thrash metal -- the order really doesn't matter. Though Metallica wrote their multi-sectioned, layered songs as if they were... [+] Read More

Yes No

Zack de La Rocha is one of the biggest and most well-respected names in alternative music, known equally for his militant political activism and passionate vocal delivery. In the '90s he rose to fame as frontman for Rage Against the Machine and used that pedestal as a catalyst to further his left-wing political beliefs.

To... [+] Read More

Yes No