(Vocals, b. 1969) After finding success with the ska-punk/balladry of band No Doubt, Californian Stefani went out on her own to attempt a solo career away from the genre. After a 2001 smash single with Eve, ‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’, she worked with dance and hip hop producers such as Dr. Dre and the ever-popular Neptunes, ...
(Vocals, b. 1981) Britney Spears started life, after a short stage career, on American TV’s New Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 onwards. Her debut single ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ (1998) was a masterly slice of melancholy pop that topped the charts – due in no small part to its suggestive video featuring the singer/actress in a ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1992–present) Formed in 1992 by Gavin Rossdale, (guitar, vocals), Dave Parsons (bass), Nigel Pulsford (guitar) and Robin Goodridge (drums), Bush were playing UK dives when signed by American label Interscope. The grunge-powered sound of their debut album Sixteen Stones (1994) received heavy rotation on American radio – with equally healthy sales – after the breakthrough ‘Everything ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1987–present) Gwen Stefani (vocals), Tom Dumont (guitar), Tony Kanal (bass) and Adrian Young (drums) began life as a ska/punk band from California. Their eponymous debut album (1992) went against the grain of grunge and they were dropped by their label. Success followed after their self-financed Tragic Kingdom (1995) crashed into US charts on the back of the ‘Just ...
(Vocals, b. 1979) Alecia Beth Moore, a.k.a. Pink or P!nk, has risen to prominence through her refreshing dissimilarity to more conventional pop starlets – happy to wear her hair cropped pink and wear leather when others were long blondes in dresses. A protégé of Linda Perry, the songwriter who also took Christina Aguilera and ...
If you ask a young music consumer what kind of acts represent pop music, they will undoubtedly reel off a list of teen-orientated, manufactured bands. Pop has come to represent a narrowly focused genre, as far away from the initial, revolutionary rock-meets-pop appeal of Elvis Presley and The Beatles as can be. Since the 1950s, pop ...
September ‘American Idiot’ The song that was to revitalize the career of Green Day was a protest against the war in Iraq promulgated by American president George W. Bush. With lines like ‘Don’t want to be an American idiot,’ ‘I’m not part of a redneck agenda’ and ‘now everybody do the propaganda’ was a powerful anti-Bush statement. Musically, ‘American ...
(Vocals, b. 1986) Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, alias Lady Gaga, made an impact on pop music reminiscent of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera a decade earlier when her infectious, electronic debut single ‘Just Dance’ went straight to No. 1 in the UK and US in 2008. The extrovert New Yorker’s eccentric fashion style further added to her ...
(Vocal group, 1975–88) A soul/disco outfit originally formed as an all-purpose backing band comprising ex-Motown personnel Kenji Brown (guitar), Victor Nix (keyboards), Kenny Copeland and Freddie Dunn (both trumpets), Michael Moore (saxophone), Duke Jobe (bass) and Henry Garner and Terrai Santiel (both drums). Fronted by singer Gwen Dickey, they supplied the platinum-selling soundtrack to the movie Car Wash (1976) ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.