Showing 351 - 375 of 1538
Artist: Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke was the most important soul singer in history -- he was also the inventor of soul music, and its most popular and beloved performer in both the black and white communities. Equally important, he was among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of the music business, and founded both a record... [+] Read More
Artist: Foghat
Foghat specialized in a simple, hard-rocking blues-rock, releasing a series of best-selling albums in the mid-'70s. While the group never deviated from their basic boogie, they retained a large audience until 1978, selling out concerts across America and earning five gold albums, as well as two platinum. Once punk and disco came along, the... [+] Read More
Artist: Willie Jones III
Drummer Willie Jones III would probably rather have people paying attention to his stick, brush, and pedal work, but first a beat must be struck concerning the odd lineage of this particular name in jazz. It represents an example of performers who actually have no family relation to each other, but make use of Roman numerals so that they don't... [+] Read More
Artist: John Leitham
Now performing as Jennifer Leitham, left-handed bassist John Leitham earned a reputation as a swinging, straight-ahead player with an immaculate sense of time. Born in Philadelphia in 1953, Leitham first played bass in a rock band and switched to acoustic upright in his early twenties. He studied for six years with Philly-area teacher Al... [+] Read More
Artist: Sandra Cross
A native of South London, Sandra Cross is the only girl among seven brothers. She started singing in the Pentecostal Church and led the choir when she was nine. At 14, she recorded with a friend as Love & Unity. The recording was the first prize for winning a talent show with a song Sandra wrote entitled "I Adore You." Released on Studio 76... [+] Read More
Artist: Robert Alexander
Coming straight out of the Tommy Dorsey style of straight-on swinging and pretty melodic lines, Robert Alexander became one of the music industry's top studio players, recording frequently with singing stars such as Perry Como and Frank Sinatra. He hailed from New England, and began playing the horn in high school band. Alexander joined the... [+] Read More
Artist: Pulley
The Southern California punk revival band Pulley was formed upon vocalist Scott Radinsky's departure from Ten Foot Pole, brought about by that band's desire for a singer with a full-time focus on music (Radinsky is also a major-league relief pitcher and has played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, among others). Pulley's initial lineup included... [+] Read More
Artist: Rasco
San Mateo native Rasco (whose name is an acronym for "realistic, ambitious, serious, cautious, and organized") worked as a member of the West Coast hip-hop groups Various Blends and Cali Agents. His deep voice and straight-ahead rap style came to the public's attention with his 1997 12" The Unassisted, which earned him several honors including... [+] Read More
Artist: Jane Getter
Based in New York, the flexible jazz guitarist Jane Getter has played everything from fusion and pop-jazz to straight-ahead post-bop and hard bop. Getter's influences are far-reaching; Wes Montgomery and George Benson have affected her playing, but so have fusion guitarists like John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny, Al DiMeola, and John Scofield (who... [+] Read More
Artist: Ten Foot Pole
Formerly known as Scared Straight, but wanting to have more fun than a straight-edge band, Ten Foot Pole converted into a powerful, aggressive punk rock band. While Scared Straight had releases on the Mystic label, Ten Foot Pole quickly came under the Epitaph umbrella, staying there until past the millennium.
Co-founder Dennis Jagard was born in... [+] Read More
Artist: Jungle Brothers
Although they predated the jazz-rap innovations of De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, and Digable Planets, the Jungle Brothers were never able to score with either rap fans or mainstream audiences, perhaps due to their embrace of a range of styles -- including house music, Afrocentric philosophy, a James Brown fixation, and of course, the use of... [+] Read More
Artist: Powderfinger
Within the space of three albums, Powderfinger emerged as one of Australia's most popular radio-friendly rock bands. They hail from Brisbane, famous for its sub-tropical climate and its often ultra-conservative "deep north" politics. The band grew out of a three-piece, becoming Powderfinger in 1990 with the addition of two more members,... [+] Read More
Artist: Creed
Creed emerged from a good-sized pack of post-grunge contenders to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands in America during the late '90s. At a time when many other Seattle disciples were lapsing into inactivity or experimenting with less commercially established sounds, Creed carried the torch of straightforward, grungy hard rock without... [+] Read More
Artist: Madball
Part of the New York hardcore scene, Madball originated back in 1989, as a side project of the legendary outfit Agnostic Front (Madball vocalist Freddy Cricien's older brother is none other than AF's Roger Miret). After releasing the "Ball of Destruction" single in the same year, an early version of the band began playing live. It wasn't until... [+] Read More
Artist: David Allan Coe
A life-long renegade, singer/songwriter David Allan Coe was one of the most colorful and unpredictable characters in country music history. One of the pioneering artists of the outlaw country movement of the '70s, he didn't have many big hits -- only three of his singles hit the Top Ten -- but he was among the biggest cult figures in country... [+] Read More
Artist: Set Your Goals
Bringing to mind an amalgamation of bands like Lifetime, CIV, New Found Glory, the Movielife, and early Saves the Day, the Bay Area's Set Your Goals straddles the line between pop-punk and hardcore. They burst onto the scene with a 2005 self-titled EP on Straight on Records. Comprised of vocalists Jordan Brown and Matt Wilson, guitarist Dave... [+] Read More
Artist: Krisiun
Formed at the outset of the '90s, Brazilian death metal band Krisiun featured guitarist Moyses Kolesne, his brother Max Kolesne on drums, and bassist/vocalist Alex Camargo. Employing a vicious, straight-ahead death metal style, the group recorded two demos (1991's Evil Age and 1992's Curse of the Evil One) and self-released a mini-album titled... [+] Read More
Artist: Joe Strummer
As frontman and main songwriter of the Clash, Joe Strummer created some of the fieriest, most vital punk rock -- and, indeed, rock & roll -- of all time. Strummer expanded punk's musical palette with his fondness for reggae and early rock & roll, and his signature bellow lent an impassioned urgency to the political sloganeering that filled some... [+] Read More
Artist: Artful Dodger
Hailing from Virginia, Artful Dodger was a tuneful working-man's band that had a brief run of success in the late '70s. In classic power pop style, the group combined hard-driving electric guitars with catchy arrangements and harmonies. But where the Raspberries emphasized balladry and romanticism, and Big Star had both that plus lyricism,... [+] Read More
Artist: 3X Krazy
West Coast gangsta rap trio 3X Krazy rose from Oakland alongside a small wave of other similar-minded groups during the mid-'90s and retained its hardcore slant throughout the decade as its group members broke away for respective solo careers. Comprised of B.A., Agerman, and Keak da Sneak, 3X Krazy debuted in 1995 with the Sick-O EP, which... [+] Read More
Artist: MC Eiht
Veteran West Coast gangsta rapper MC Eiht dedicated much of his life to rap, beginning his seminal career with Compton's Most Wanted (CMW) while only a teenager. Despite his youth, Eiht's contributions helped catapult CMW to national fame in 1990 with It's a Compton Thang. The group followed the lead of fellow Compton gangsta rappers N.W.A, but... [+] Read More
Artist: The Stylistics
After the Spinners and the O'Jays, the Stylistics were the leading Philly soul group produced by Thom Bell. During the early '70s, the band had 12 straight Top Ten hits, including "You Are Everything," "Betcha by Golly, Wow," "I'm Stone in Love With You," "Break Up to Make Up," and "You Make Me Feel Brand New." Of all their peers, the Stylistics... [+] Read More
Artist: The Fugees
The Fugees translated an intriguing blend of jazz-rap, R&B, and reggae into huge success during the mid-'90s, when the trio's sophomore album The Score hit number one on the pop charts and sold over five million copies. The trio formed in the late '80s in the New Jersey area, where Lauryn Hill and Prakazrel Michel ("Pras") attended a local high... [+] Read More
Artist: Public Enemy
Public Enemy rewrote the rules of hip-hop, becoming the most influential and controversial rap group of the late '80s and, for many, the definitive rap group of all time. Building from Run-D.M.C.'s street-oriented beats and Boogie Down Productions' proto-gangsta rhyming, Public Enemy pioneered a variation of hardcore rap that was musically and... [+] Read More
Artist: Cher
Cher has had three careers that place her indelibly in the public consciousness, and two have been in association with her then-husband, composer/producer/singer Salvatore "Sonny" Bono (February 16, 1935-January 8, 1998). She charted major hit records in the 1960s and 1970s, working in idioms ranging from early- '60s girl group-style ballads to... [+] Read More
