Author: Andy Kellman

Bio: The career of Atlanta vocalist Algebra (formerly recording as Algebra Blessett) began to take shape with background credits on albums by India.Arie and Musiq. Algebra also appeared alongside Anthony Hamilton on Miri Ben-Ari's "She Was Just a Friend" before releasing her first album, 2006's Purpose, on the revitalized Kedar label.

Author: MacKenzie Wilson

Bio: Tyson Ritter (vocals/bass) and Nick Wheeler (guitar/programming) were in junior high school when music started to influence them. Both were stuck in the ho-hum life of small-town America. Stillwater, OK, wasn't exactly the most exciting place in the world, so naturally the boys turned to music. While Ritter was staying up late, watching music videos, and rocking out to AC/DC, READ MORE

Author: Matt Collar

Bio: A soul singer who has drawn comparisons to such classic R&B vocalists as Bill Withers and Bobby Womack, Anthony Hamilton struggled for the better part of the 1990s as two of his albums went unreleased. Getting his start at age ten singing in his church choir, the Charlotte, NC, native also performed as a teenager at various nightclubs and talent shows. Always with an eye to move on to bigger things, Hamilton made the move to New York City in 1993, eventually signing with Uptown Records, epicenter for the new jack swing sound and home to artists such as Jodeci and Mary J. Blige. By 1995, Uptown was set to push Hamilton's debut album, but the company went out of business, leaving the album unreleased. Hamilton next signed with MCA and recorded his critically acclaimed but largely overlooked...  READ MORE

Author: Greg Prato

Bio: Along with such similarly styled outfits as the Goo Goo Dolls, the New Orleans trio Better Than Ezra helped open the floodgates for countless chart-topping mainstream alt-pop acts of the late '90s (Sugar Ray, Semisonic, Matchbox Twenty, Third Eye Blind, etc.) by merging rock with melody and creating a more easily digestible form...  READ MORE

Author: MacKenzie Wilson

Bio: Born in Houston in the fall of 1981, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles started performing at age seven. From dance classes to singing in the church choir, Beyoncé was a natural. She and cousin Kelly Rowland met Latavia Roberson during this time, and the trio formed a group with Letoya Luckett. Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé's father and Rowland's legal guardian, signed on to be the girls' manager. This situation would ultimately lead to the formation of one of the most popular female R&B groups of all time - Destiny's Child. Destiny's Child made its debut 1990 and within ten years, the vocal act had experienced personal and political highs and lows that fueled the group's desire to make it big. Destiny's Child sold 33 million albums worldwide by 2002 and earned a slew of Grammys and additional music awards....  READ MORE

Author: MacKenzie Wilson

Bio: The Texas indie rock quintet Blue October came together in the late '90s with vocalist/guitarist Justin Furstenfeld, drummer Jeremy Furstenfeld, violinist Ryan Delahoussaye, bassist Matt Noveskey, and lead guitarist Brant Coulter. In 1998, Blue October independently released their debut album, READ MORE

Author: Johnny Loftus

Bio: Husky-voiced American Idol singing sensation Harold "Bo" Bice hailed from Helena, AL, and brought his Southern sensibility with him to the fourth season of Fox's long-running talent contest. Bice competed weekly against fellow rocker Constantine Maroulis, his long hair, bell bottoms, and drug rug tunics against Maroulis' biker jacket and stockpile of New York City swagger. Eventually Bice won out (to the shock of some Idol fans), and went all the way to the winner's circle where he was AI runner-up to corn silk Oklahoman READ MORE

Author: Craig Lytle

Bio: Brian McKnight grew up in a family where music came naturally. He was a member of the church choir along with his immediate family; his grandfather was the director. With a gospel upbringing, McKnight explored other genres of music. Still in his early teens, he exercised his writing ambitions by penning instrumentals (soft jazz, easy listening). He formed a band and began performing his originals at local venues. By the age of 18, McKnight had secured a publishing deal. His calling to the national scene manifested itself when his older brother Claude and the group he was a member of, Take 6, signed a recording contract with a major label. After sending out numerous demos to various record companies, McKnight's tape drew the interest of Mercury Records president Ed Eckstine (son of Billy...  READ MORE

Author: Marisa Brown

Bio: R&B singer Cassie got her first taste of the music industry at 16 when she had the opportunity to speak with the producer Rockwilder, a meeting that inspired her to take formal voice lessons. This decision paid off nicely later on, when, after she'd graduated from high school and was working on her modeling career in New York, she became acquainted with producer Ryan Leslie. He encouraged her to pursue music more seriously, and in January 2005, Cassie's mother's request for a song provided the impetus to go into the studio with Leslie and record one. Tommy Mottola heard Cassie's work and signed her to a management deal, and with Leslie as her producer, the young singer joined P. Diddy's Bad Boy Entertainment in 2006. That same year, her self-titled debut album was released; "Me & U," its lead...  READ MORE

Author: Jason Bitchmeier

Bio: Reminiscent of Nelly and repped by Ludacris - the Dirty South's two biggest stars in the early 2000s - Chingy had all the makings of a rap sensation and indeed lived up to his promise immediately, when his debut single, "Right Thurr," became an overnight summer anthem in 2003. Like Nelly and his St. Lunatics posse, Chingy is a St. Louis native, debuted at a young age, and boasts a Southerrn dialect. All of this made him considerably marketable in the wake of Nelly's massive success the summer before. Ludacris and his manager, Chaka Zulu, noted this and were quick to sign Chingy to their fledging Disturbing the Peace label and rush released his debut single, "Right Thurr." The party rap track blew up in the clubs first, especially throughout the South, and quickly infiltrated urban radio in...  READ MORE

Author: Steve Huey

Bio: After Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera was the most popular female singer of the late-'90s teen pop revival. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Aguilera was a technically skilled singer with a genuinely powerful voice, belting out her up-tempo dance numbers and ballads with a diva's panache. Born Christina Maria Aguilera on December 18, 1980, on Staten Island, her parents were of Irish and Ecuadorian stock and her father's military career meant the family moved quite a bit during her childhood. They eventually settled in Philadelphia, where Aguilera began performing in talent shows at age six, with considerable success. She appeared on Star Search in 1988 (though she didn't win) and in 1992...  READ MORE

Author: Matt Collar

Bio: Neo-soul songstress Corinne Bailey Rae was born in Leeds, England, in 1979 to a British mother and West Indian father. Displaying an interest in music from an early age, Rae studied classical violin until she acquired an electric guitar in her early teens. Inspired by such '90s alt-rock icons as L7, Veruca Salt, and others, Rae formed her first band, the all-female indie rock outfit Helen. Despite developing a strong local following, the band ultimately folded and Rae enrolled at Leeds University to study English...  READ MORE

Author: Jason Birchmeier

Bio: Beginning with his 1996 album My Heart, singer/songwriter/producer Donell Jones recorded a jazzy and soulful style of urban pop for La Face Records and scored a few modest singles in the process. His first two singles - "In the Hood" and "Knocks Me Off My Feet" - established his reputation within the competitive urban market. In particular, the latter song, originally a Stevie Wonder song from Songs in the Key of Life (1976), became a substantial hit for Jones, climbing to the upper reaches of the Billboard R&B chart and driving the album up the charts as well. In addition to his own music, he also wrote songs for other urban artists such as Usher ("Think of You") and 702 ("Get It Together"), among others. Born the son of a gospel singer, Jones immersed himself in music at a young age....  READ MORE

Author: Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Bio: Eric Benet is a contemporary R&B singer with mild hip-hop and strong adult contemporary influences. As a teenager, Benet was in a vocal group called Benet with his sister and cousin. The group signed with Capitol and released an eponymous album in 1992 that went ignored. Eric went out as a solo artist shortly afterward, signing to Warner Bros. and releasing his debut album, True to Myself, in the fall of 1996. A Day in the Life followed in 1999; its first single, a cover of Toto's "Georgy Porgy", was a moderate radio hit, but the album's second single "Spend My Life With You" (featuring Tamia) was a chart smash. "Spend My Life With You" went to number one on the R&B charts, was certified gold, was nominated for a 2000 Grammy Award for "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group." Benet's popularity...  READ MORE

Author: Charlotte Dillon

Bio: Five for Fighting has one main member, John Ondrasik, who considers himself mainly a singer and songwriter, though he is also competent as a guitarist and pianist. The name he picked for his band refers to a form of discipline used in the turbulent sport of hockey. Players who fight during the game are sent storming away to cool down for five minutes in a penalty box. In other words, they get five for fighting.

Ondrasik, born and raised in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, started his musical training when he was only two years old. His mother, a piano teacher, gave him lessons. When...  READ MORE

Author: Johnny Loftus

Bio: In November 2005, Linkin Park co-founder Mike Shinoda debuted as a solo artist with Rising Tied, an ambitious collection credited to his alter ego, Fort Minor, that blended hip-hop with electronics and rock elements. The set was exec-produced by Jay-Z, who had previously collaborated with Shinoda and READ MORE

Author: John Bush

Bio: The Gnarls Barkley collaboration didn't bring producer Danger Mouse to the top of the British charts for the first time, but it did mark his debut as the pilot of a hit record. Mouse, born Brian Burton, first gained the ears of discriminating listeners when he concocted The Grey Album, a bootleg that mashed the vocals from The...  READ MORE

Author: Steve Huey

Bio: Early in their career, Buffalo natives the Goo Goo Dolls were frequently dismissed by critics as mere imitators of the Replacements; however, the band refined and mainstreamed their sound enough to become of the most popular adult alternative rock bands of the latter half of the '90s, selling millions of records to audiences largely unfamiliar with their inspirations. That's no knock on the band, either -- their music simply improved in craft and accessibility as the years progressed, and radio happened to be receptive to what a decade earlier would have been considered collegiate power pop. Thus, the band landed two huge hits with the acoustic ballads "Name" and "Iris."

The Goo Goo...  READ MORE

Author: MacKenzie Wilson

Bio: R&B vocalist Heather Headley was born in Trinidad in the mid-'70s. At an early age, this daughter of a pastor was surrounded by music and performance art. She started playing concert piano by the age of four, later immersing herself in the eclectic music of her culture: calypso, soca, and reggae. This foundation would later motivate Headley to sing professionally. Upon arriving in the States with her family at age 15, Headley quickly adapted to America's ways. She soaked up American music and worked with its complexities. She graduated with honors from high school, and later studied communications and musical theater at Northwestern University. In 1997, she was cast as Nala in the Broadway production of The Lion King. She was so impressive that Disney called on her shortly thereafter to...  READ MORE

Author: John Duffy

Bio: One of a handful of neo-classic soul artists to emerge following the late-'90s success of artists like D'Angelo and Lauryn Hill, Atlanta's India.Arie stood poised at the beginning of 2001 to make a major impact. A studied songwriter and guitar player rooted in the R&B, soul, Motown, and blues of the past, but grounded in the post-hip-hop urban world of today, Arie's debut, Acoustic Soul, was rich with textured songs, hooks, and impressively mature lyrics, considering the artist had only been writing songs for five years. Born in Denver, CO, to parents from Memphis and Detroit, music was always in Arie's life. The family moved to Atlanta when India was 13 and after high school she began playing guitar at the encouragement of her mother. Involvement in the fertile Atlanta urban music scene...  READ MORE

Author: MacKenzie Wilson

Bio: Before Jack Johnson perfected his rock star ways, he was a champion surfer on the professional route, with a sponsorship with Quiksilver. It was a life that was second nature for the Hawaiian native, for he began chasing waves as a toddler, and by the time he was 17, he was an outstanding athlete on the pipeline. However, Johnson was also testing his other creative outlets -- one being film and the other being music.

It was during his college years as a film student at University of California at Santa Barbara when Johnson began writing songs. He and old mates Chris Malloy and Emmett Malloy produced a surf cinema documentary entitled Thicker Than Water, in turn spotlighting Johnson as a talented cinematographer as well as a burgeoning singer/songwriter. His peers in and...  READ MORE

Author: Andrew Hamilton

Bio: A multi-talented artist, Jaheim is most famous for his R&B vocals, although he has also rapped, modeled, and acted, and he has appeared in Source and other hip-hop publications. Hip-hop balladeer Jaheim Hoagland hails from New Brunswick, NJ, where he grew up in the 176 Memorial Parkway Homes public housing project. Misfortune hit early: his father died in 1981, when he was only two years old. Coming from a musical family helped him overcome the tragedy and the many pitfalls of his environment. His grandfather, Victor Hoagland, sang with many top groups, including the Drifters, and their family reunions were big songfests. Singing at family reunions and local talent shows preceded a successful tryout at the Apollo Theater's notoriously tough talent show. The smooth crooner who sounded like a...  READ MORE

Author: Andy Kellman

Bio: A major star on television (In Living Color, The Jamie Foxx Show), the big screen (Any Given Sunday, Collateral, Ray), and radio (his second album, Unpredictable, went platinum), Jamie Foxx - born Eric Morlon Bishop, Jr., in Terrell, TX - started out as a comedian and went through years of gradually escalating notoriety before winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray. Though a 1994 album, Peep This, was something of an underground hit, he didn't really break out as a singer until his guest appearance on Kanye West and Twista's "Slow Jamz." The song helped set the stage for his second album, released through J Records at the very end of 2005. Upon release, Unpredictable duked it out for the number one position on the Billboard albums chart with Mary J. Blige's The Breakthrough....  READ MORE

Author: Steve Huey

Bio: Few celebrity siblings can emerge from the shadows of their already famous relations to become superstars in their own right and with their own distinct personalities. That's exactly what Janet Jackson did in becoming one of the biggest female pop and R&B stars of the '80s and '90s. Since her breakthrough in 1986 with the album Control, Jackson's career as a hitmaker has been a model of consistency, rivaling Madonna and Whitney Houston in terms of pop-chart success over the long haul. A big part of the reason was that Jackson kept her level of quality control very high; her singles were always expertly crafted, with indelible pop hooks and state-of-the-art production that kept up with contemporary trends in urban R&B. Once established, her broad-based appeal never really dipped all that much;...  READ MORE

Author: William Ruhlmann

Bio: Jill Scott grew up in north Philadelphia and began her performing career reading her own poetry. She was heard by Amir, drummer in the Roots, who invited her to join the band in the studio, resulting in the co-composition "You Got Me," a Top 40 pop hit in 1999. Subsequently, she collaborated with Eric Benet, Will Smith, and Common and broadened her performing experience by touring Canada in a production of the Broadway musical Rent. Signed to Steve McKeever's newly formed Hidden Beach Recordings label, she released her debut album, Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1, in July 2000. Experience: Jill Scott 826+ appeared the following summer and hot on the heels of the "A Long Walk" single. Scott's starpower soared over the next year, eventually earning her a Grammy nomination in early...  READ MORE

Author: Stacia Proefrock

Bio: After a short-lived stint at the Berklee College of Music, where he had a "great learning experience, but not because of class," John Mayer set down roots in Atlanta, where his music career hit the ground running. After one year in Atlanta, he released his debut solo album, Inside Wants Out, in 1999. At the same time, he became a regular in the Atlanta club circuit, playing a steady stream of shows at venues like Eddie's Attic. An appearance in March 2000 at the South by Southwest Music Festival led to a recording contract with Aware Records, a subsidiary of Columbia. He began recording his major-label debut, Room...  READ MORE

Author: MacKenzie Wilson

Bio: Tom Chaplin (vocals), Richard Hughes (drums), and Tim Rice-Oxley (piano) are childhood friends from Battle, East Sussex, England, who make up the merry pop sounds of Keane. Formed in 1997 while each were attending college, Keane initially started out as a cover band. They played Oasis, U2, and READ MORE

Author: Heather Phares

Bio: The winner of Fox TV's first American Idol: The Search for a Superstar competition during the summer of 2002, Kelly Clarkson went from an anonymous talent to a nationally known singer, performing for an audience of millions of viewers. One of the show's most naturally gifted singers, the 20-year-old Burleson, TX, native's vocal talents were discovered when she was in seventh grade, when her school's choir teacher heard her singing and urged Clarkson to join the choir. After high school, Clarkson cultivated her voice and went to Hollywood to make her name; she appeared as an extra on an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch but no other opportunities materialized.

Upon returning to Burleson, Clarkson worked at a movie theater, promoted Red Bull energy drinks, and...  READ MORE

Author: Corey Apar

Bio: Born in 1975, Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall -- not short for anything, the KT is just an alternate spelling of Katie -- comes from the quaint university town of St. Andrews. Due in part by being adopted at birth, her imagination and creative side flourished from early on as she thought about how her life could have gone in any given direction. Growing up, her father was a physicist who would take Tunstall and her brothers into the St. Andrews observatory to look at the sky, thus fueling her youthful love for space and sci-fi. It wasn't until discovering hair metal through a brother that music really did start to become important to her, and when it did, her affection for spacy things was reflected in her favorite album, READ MORE

Author: Marisa Brown

Bio: Part of the original lineup of the superstar group Destiny's Child, LeToya Luckett, who as a solo artist chose to go by her first name only, didn't just sit around after she and Latavia Roberson left the group shortly after the release of 1999's The Writing's on the Wall (neither singer was seen in the "Say My Name" video, which came as a surprise to both of them). She started up another group with Roberson, Anjel, which dissolved before a record ever came out, opened up an upscale boutique in her hometown of Houston, TX, and lived briefly in Los Angeles, where she signed to Capitol in 2003. Her first promotional single, "U Got What I Need," was released in 2004, followed the next year by "All Eyes on Me" (that same year LeToya also appeared on the Coach Carter soundtrack with her song "What...  READ MORE

Author: Steve Huey

Bio: After leaving the Commodores, Lionel Richie became one of the most successful male solo artists of the '80s, arguably eclipsed during his 1981-1987 heyday only by Michael Jackson and Prince. Richie dominated the pop charts during that period with an incredible run of 13 consecutive Top Ten hits, five of them number ones. As his popularity skyrocketed, Richie moved farther away from his R&B origins and concentrated more on adult contemporary balladry, which had been one of his strengths even as part of the Commodores. After 1987, Richie fell silent, taking an extended break from recording and touring before beginning a comeback toward the tail end of the '90s. Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr., was born on June 20, 1949, in Tuskegee, AL, and grew up on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute, where...  READ MORE

Author: William Ruhlmann

Bio: Luther Vandross was one of the most successful R&B artists of the 1980s and '90s. Not only did he score a series of multi-million-selling albums containing chart-topping hit singles and perform in sold-out tours in the U.S. and around the world, but he also took charge of his music creatively, writing or co-writing most of his songs and arranging and producing his records. He also performed these functions for other artists, providing them with hits as well. He was, however, equally well known for his distinctive interpretations of classic pop and R&B songs, reflecting his knowledge and appreciation of the popular music of his youth. Possessed of a smooth, versatile tenor voice, he charmed millions with his romantic music.Vandross was born in New York City on April 20, 1951, and grew up in...  READ MORE

Author: Jason Ankeny

Bio: The best-selling female performer of the 1990s, Mariah Carey rose to superstardom on the strength of her stunning five-octave voice; an elastic talent who moved easily from glossy ballads to hip-hop-inspired dance-pop, she earned frequent comparison to rivals Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, but did them both one better by composing all of her own material. Born in Long Island, NY, on March 27, 1970, Carey moved to New York City at the age of 17 - just one day after graduating high school - to pursue a music career; there she befriended keyboardist Ben Margulies, with whom she began writing songs. Her big break came as a backing vocalist on a studio session with dance-pop singer Brenda K. Starr, who handed Carey's demo tape to Columbia Records head Tommy Mottola at a party. According to legend,...  READ MORE

Author: Andy Kellman

Bio: A member of Immature/IMx, Marques "Batman" Houston debuted as a solo artist in 2003 with MH (Interscope). Since joining Immature as a young adolescent in the early '90s, Houston has crossed over into television as a recurring cast member of Sister Sister, and he has taken on production duties with some of his IMx mates (as Platinum Status) for B2K and Destiny's Child. Along with producing some of his own material on MH, he enlisted the services of Kowan "Q" Paul, Kenny Whitehead, and Platinum Status member Troy Taylor. Naked followed in April of 2005. During the interim, he appeared in Fat Albert, continued songwriting and production work (Omarion, N2U, O'Ryan, Young Rome), and popped up on a mix of 50 Cent's "Candy Shop."

Author: Stacia Proefrock

Bio: When her debut album, What's the 411?, hit the street in 1992, critics and fans alike were floored by its powerful combination of modern R&B with an edgy rap sound that glanced off of the pain and grit of Mary J. Blige's Yonkers, NY, childhood. Called alternately the new Chaka Khan or new Aretha Franklin, Blige had little in common stylistically with either of those artists, but like them helped adorn soul music with new textures and flavors that inspired a whole generation of musicians. With her blonde hair, self-preserving slouch, and combat boots, Blige was street-tough and beautiful all at once, and the record company execs who profited off of her early releases did little to dispel the bad-girl image that she earned as she stumbled through the dizzying first days of her career. As...  READ MORE

Author: Marisa Brown

Bio: Born in Eugene, OR, singer/songwriter Mat Kearney began his musical career at California State University, Chico, where he studied literature and played on the soccer team. After completing his junior year, Kearney went to Nashville with friend and producer Robert Marvin, with the intention of only staying the summer to lay down a few songs. However, after the offers for recording deals began coming in, Kearney decided to remain in Tennessee to seriously pursue music. His interesting blend of hip-hop and folk intrigued Inpop Records, which offered Kearney the deal he was looking for and released his debut album, Bullet,...  READ MORE

Author: Johnny Loftus

Bio: Originally from New Zealand, Natasha Bedingfield grew up in Southeast London, where she and her siblings were raised around music. By their teens, Natasha, brother Daniel, and sister Nikola had formed an R&B-based singing group. It didn't last, but the experience encouraged the Bedingfields to keep pursuing music. In 2001 and 2002 Daniel Bedingfield scored a hit with the single "Gotta Get Through This," and the following year it was Natasha's turn. Leaving university to sign with BMG, Natasha immediately started working on her first record. Buoyed by advance singles like "These Words" and "Single," READ MORE

Author: Andy Kellman

Bio: Songwriter, arranger, and vocalist Ne-Yo - born Shaffer Smith - was born in Arkansas and raised in Las Vegas, NV. His start in the music industry came as a songwriter. Prior to exiting his teenage years, he penned material for Youngstown and broke through in 2004 with Mario's "Let Me Love You," one of the most-played songs on urban radio stations across the U.S. In My Own Words, the second album he recorded but the first one to be released, came out in early 2006 and reached the top of the charts, supported by the number one hit "So Sick." During the same year, he appeared on Remy Ma's There's Something About Remy and Ghostface Killah's Fishscale. He has also written for Marques Houston, Cassidy, and Heather Headley.

Author: Ed Nimmervoll

Bio: Canada's Nickelback started life as a cover band in Hanna, 215 kilometers northeast of Calgary. Eventually, they tired of playing other people's songs, and singer/guitarist Chad Kroeger put together a collection of original songs, borrowed money from his stepfather, and went to Vancouver to record the band in a friend's studio. Based on the results, Kroeger's guitarist brother, Mike, and pal bassist Ryan Vikedal all relocated...  READ MORE

Author: MacKenzie Wilson

Bio: As the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC redefined pop music for the masses upon the closing of the 1990s, 98° were also making girls scream and swoon with their darling good looks and delightsome harmonies. Fronting the vocal group was the svelte charmer Nick Lachey. This onetime sports medicine major was a bona fide star thanks to his sensitive performance style, and a career in Hollywood seemed destined for Lachey.

Born Nicholas Scott Lachey on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee in fall 1973, he and his...  READ MORE

Author: Andy Kellman

Bio: Pharrell Williams didn't only help change the face of pop music during the late '90s and early 2000s. He also was one of the faces of pop music - as a charismatic star who often stole the show when producing and/or guesting on other artists' hit singles. His presence was unfading, whether he was in front of a music video or behind a beat. To trace the beginning of his ascent, you have to go back to 1992, when Teddy Riley tapped him to write a verse for Wreckx-n-Effect's "Rump Shaker." Since the late '90s, Williams and longtime friend Chad Hugo - known together as the Neptunes - began scoring songwriting and production assignments that slowly but steadily infiltrated mainstream music, whether it was via dance-pop (Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U"), hardcore rap (Clipse's "Grindin'"), or contemporary...  READ MORE

Author: Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Bio: Few artists have created a body of work as rich and varied as Prince. During the '80s, he emerged as one of the most singular talents of the rock & roll era, capable of seamlessly tying together pop, funk, folk, and rock. Not only did he release a series of groundbreaking albums; he toured frequently, produced albums and wrote songs for many other artists, and recorded hundreds of songs that still lie unreleased in his vaults. With each album he released, Prince has shown remarkable stylistic growth and musical diversity, constantly experimenting with different sounds, textures, and genres. Occasionally, his music can be maddeningly inconsistent because of this eclecticism, but his experiments frequently succeed; no other contemporary artist can blend so many diverse styles into a cohesive...  READ MORE

Author: Andy Kellman

Bio: The son of jazz cellist Abdul Wadud, Maryland-based R&B vocalist Raheem DeVaughn kicked his career into gear after initiating a series of independent releases, aided in part by the cash reward earned from winning a talent contest. Jive became interested, signed him, and released The Love Experience in June of 2005.

Author: Rick Cohoon

Bio: Rascal Flatts, a country trio known primarily for its pleasing harmony, is comprised of Gary Levox, Jay Demarcus, and Joe Don Rooney. Demarcus and Levox, both from Columbus, OH, founded the group and later added Rooney, a Picher, OK, native....  READ MORE

Author: Greg Prato

Bio: Few rock groups of the '80s broke down as many musical barriers and were as original as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Creating an intoxicating new musical style by combining funk and punk rock together (with an explosive stage show, to boot), the Chili Peppers spawned a slew of imitators in their wake, but still managed to be the leaders of the pack by the dawn of the 21st century. The roots of the band lay in a friendship forged by three school chums, Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary, and Hillel Slovak, while they attended...  READ MORE

Author: Jason Birchmeier

Bio: Since the turn of the century, every American summer has seemed to produce one or two Caribbean-styled dance-pop hit sensations, and the summer of 2005 was no different, as the relentless dancehall-lite booming rhythms of Rihanna's "Pon de Replay" seemed as omnipresent as sunshine. Like Daddy Yankee ("Gasolina") and Sean Paul ("Get Busy") in summers prior, Rihanna emerged initially as an unknown superstar, known far more for her song than for herself. Unlike Daddy Yankee and READ MORE

Author: Johnny Loftus

Bio: Rob Thomas was the singer and principal songwriter for Matchbox Twenty, a Florida-based adult alternative combo that found success with a blend of '70s rock influences, slick hooks, and 1990s post-grunge crunch. The band broke through in 1996 with "Push" and never looked back, issuing single after single, scoring hits in various radio formats, and watching its debut LP, Yourself or Someone Like You, go platinum 12 times over in the U.S. Thomas himself won numerous songwriting awards as the scribe of such Matchbox...  READ MORE

Author: Steve Huey

Bio: After achieving superstardom throughout Latin America, Colombian-born Shakira became Latin pop's biggest female crossover artist since Jennifer Lopez broke down the doors to English-language success. Noted for her aggressive, rock-influenced approach, Shakira maintained an extraordinary degree of creative control over her music, especially for a female artist; she wrote or co-wrote nearly all of her own material, and in the process gained a reputation as one of Latin music's most ambitiously poetic lyricists. When she released her first English material in late 2001, she became an instant pop sensation, thanks to her quirky poetic sense and a sexy video image built on her hip-shaking belly dance moves.READ MORE

Author: Jason Ankeny

Bio: A member of the Motown label roster during the 1990s, R&B singer Shanice was best known for her infectious smash "I Love Your Smile." Born May 14, 1973, Shanice Wilson entered show business virtually as a toddler, appearing in a number of musicals and television commercials; by 1984 she was a regular on the series Kids Incorporated, and soon after performed on the program Star Search. Her appearance there caught the eye of A&M Records, and at the age of 11 Shanice was under contract to the label. She issued her debut Discovery in 1987, scoring a pair of minor hits with the singles "(Baby Tell Me) Can You Dance" and "No 1/2 Steppin'." Signing to Motown in 1990, she teamed with producer Narada Michael Walden and recorded Inner Child, scoring with the hit "I Love Your Smile" as well as "I'm Cryin'"...  READ MORE

Author: John Bush

Bio: A novelty rock band in the same vein as Presidents of the United States of America, but with surf and garage influences instead of the Presidents' punk/thrash background, Smash Mouth found a hit in 1997 with the '50s-influenced "Walkin' on the Sun." The group was formed in 1994 in San Jose, CA, by vocalist Steve Harwell, a former rapper with the group F.O.S. After that group disintegrated, he began jamming with an old friend, drummer Kevin...  READ MORE

Author: Mario Mesquita Borges

Bio: Featuring a dynamic fusion of several alternative stylistic touchstones, Snow Patrol's compositions combine songwriting aptitude with guitar rock's sharpest strains. Originally from Northern Ireland, Gary Lightbody (vocals, guitar) and Mark McClelland (bass, keyboards) first got together in Dundee, Scotland, where they were studying, prior to the addition of John Quinn (drums), who completed the lineup. Signed to the U.K.'s Jeepster label in 1998, they released their debut album, READ MORE

Author: Alex Henderson

Bio: No white artist has sang R&B more convincingly than Teena Marie, whose big, robust vocals are so black-sounding that when she was starting out, some listeners wondered if she was a light-skinned African-American. Not to be confused with Brazilian jazz singer Tânia Maria, Marie grew up in west Los Angeles in a neighborhood that was nicknamed "Venice Harlem" because of its heavy black population. The singer/songwriter/producer was in her early twenties when, around 1977, she landed a job at Motown Records. It was at Motown that she met her mentor and paramour-to-be, Rick James, who ended up doing all of the writing and producing for her debut album of 1979, Wild and Peaceful. That LP, which boasted her hit duet with James, "I'm Just a Sucker for Your Love," didn't show Marie's picture - so many...  READ MORE

Author: Tim Sendra

Bio: Denver-based band the Fray was formed in 2002 by Isaac Slade (vocals, piano) and Joe King (guitar, vocals) when the two former school friends met up again in a local music store. They soon began regular two-man jam sessions that led to writing songs and devising a style pitched between the arena-friendly style of U2 and the authentic rock of bands like Counting Crows. Rounding out the lineup with two former bandmates of READ MORE

Author: Jason Birchmeier

Bio: Contemporary R&B upstart Urban Mystic, the son of a church minister, grew up in a world of music and made his jump into the industry while still a teenager. Born and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, as the youngest of four children, Brandon Williams developed his passion for music at his father's church, where he began performing at a very young age. By the time he reached his teens, he knew he wanted to make music his life, and under the tutelage of his brother Christopher, he began preparing for a career in the industry. In addition to his God-given talent for singing, Brandon developed himself into a likewise talented songwriter and also a studious producer. Under the moniker Urban Mystic - a name that reflects both his street mentality and his heavenly singing - he signed to SoBe Entertainment,...  READ MORE