Born in 1980 to a New Zealander father and a Scottish mother Lucie Silverman spent her childhood years between her parents native countries as well as England where she was born Always interested in music by five she had started playing the piano and…

These New York art shock-rockers, formed in 2003, take camp icons like Elton John, the Bee Gees, and Billy Joel as their musical foundation for a sound that's rooted in the dance clubs of their hometown. On their debut, self-titled album they reinter…

The roots of Los Angeles band Maroon 5 lay in the late-1990s Weezer-influenced alt-rock outfit Kara's Flowers. After that group disbanded, the members eventually started a new band (along with a second guitarist). Rechristening themselves Maroon 5, t…

British trio Keane, who trade in the sort of grandiose, melancholy Britpop that was the chief domain of Coldplay for much of the early 2000s, broke big with their 2004 debut album, HOPES AND FEARS. While many hear the band's sound as yet another wate…

Borrowing from such flamboyant pop stars as Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and George Michael, British singer Robbie Williams started out in the boy band Take That, but soon split and launched a solo career. By the late 1990s he had become a dance/pop …

U2's Bono was one of the few real rock heroes of the 1980s, leading the Irish band to international recognition with a charged, political approach to music. The band's early efforts brought a stadium-size presence to alt-rock, with Bono's expressive …

Few expected that the best soul singer to emerge in 2003 would be a 16-year-old British girl, but that was exactly the case when Joss Stone released her debut album THE SOUL SESSIONS. Mentored by legendary R&B vocalist Betty Wright, Stone covered bot…

London pop trio Sugababes displayed grit and determination in overcoming obstacles that would have felled countless others, deftly negotiating three potentially career-threatening line-up changes and being dropped by their first label. Their fusion o…

A soulful and poppy sensation from the U.K., Natasha Bedingfield outdid her older brother Daniel's pop success when her debut album went triple platinum in her homeland, and her single "These Words" became a huge charter in the U.S. Born into a music…

Coming out of the grass-roots Gilman St. punk scene of the early-1990s Bay Area, Green Day exploded into the mainstream with their third album, 1994's DOOKIE. The trio's punk energy and pop hooks, influenced by first-generation punks like the Buzzcoc…

Mike Skinner, better known under his hip-hop sobriquet, the Streets, burst onto the British music scene in a big way with his 2002 debut album ORIGINAL PIRATE MATERIAL. Coming off like a hip-hop version of Ian Dury, Skinner raps in a thick British ac…

The South London foursome Athlete was comprised of childhood friends Carey Willets bass Joel Pott vocals guitar Steve Roberts drums and Tim Wanstall keyboards Athlete formed in early 2000 after several Oasis-tailored incarnations and arrived at an ex…

Though the band's detractors consider them derivative at best and a direct knock-off of fellow agro-rockers Incubus at worst, Hoobastank's many fans couldn't disagree more. The California-based trio has built an impressive following and an equally im…

Glasgow-via-Belfast indie-rock ensemble Snow Patrol have played everything from shambolic noise-pop a la Pavement, to a slightly droney post-rock in the vein of Mogwai, to epic lovelorn anthems modeled after Coldplay. While the band's influences are …

Young singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado, who hails from Victoria, BC, emerged seemingly from out of nowhere with her debut album WHOA NELLY in 2000, sporting an eclectic, genre-defying sound and winsome tone. Furtado's hugely popular work incorporates …

The origins of Train's widescreen, Americana-tinged rock lay in the coffeehouse acoustic duo that singer/songwriter Pat Monahan inaugurated with guitarist Rob Hotchkiss after the two left the L.A. band the Apostles. Eventually they expanded to a full…

The winners of the 2002 reality TV show POP STARS: THE RIVALS--the show adopted a new twist on the Popstars theme, picking opposing boy and girl bands to battle it out in the U.K. charts--Girls Aloud triumphed when the single "Sound Of The Undergroun…