In the spotlight since the age of four, Michael Jackson rose to fame as the lead vocalist for the Jackson Five. In the late 1970s, Jackson embarked on a solo career as a young adult with the Quincy Jones-produced OFF THE WALL. With one hit album unde…

From 12-year-old multi-instrumentalist prodigy to groundbreaking adult songwriter and producer, Stevie Wonder is one of the handful of pop musicians who just about everybody agrees is possessed of genius. His 1960s recordings were great straight-up R…

Marvin Gaye began his career in the late 1950s, singing with various R&B vocal groups. Soon he moved on to work as a session drummer and vocalist at Motown. Gaye's own '60s albums are marked by propulsive, high-energy R&B, and duets with Mary Wells a…

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 …

At the dawn of the 1980s, Duran Duran was part of Britain's "futurist" or "new romantic" scene, which merged glam-rock attitude with disco beats and synthesizers to form an intensely fashion-conscious variant on new wave. With their good looks and po…

Earth, Wind & Fire was the brainchild of musical Renaissance man Maurice White, a successful ex-session drummer who recorded with everyone from Chuck Berry to John Coltrane. Essentially an R&B group, Earth, Wind & Fire expanded its sound to include e…

Madonna is arguably the most popular female pop singer in American musical history. Although she began her career in the late 1970s as a dancer and as drummer for new wave group the Breakfast Club, Madonna has touched upon many different styles throu…

George Michael rose to worldwide superstardom as part of the cheery dance pop duo Wham! in the 1980s, before going solo after three hit albums. Michael enjoyed even more success on his own, updating older dance styles (soul, '70s disco, etc.) and eve…

The mercurial David Bowie is the original pop chameleon. He's been everything from inoffensive pop singer to glam icon to white soul man to art-rocker and more in the course of his long, prolific career. Although Bowie's first hit was 1969's "Space O…

Atlanta-based hip-hop duo Outkast succeeded in bringing an unorthodox rhyme style and quirky, P-Funk-influenced sound and presentation into the rap mainstream. Successful since their 1994 debut, Outkast have gotten progressively more idiosyncratic. T…

Their innovative rock/reggae fusion, superb songwriting, and crossover appeal put the Police light-years ahead of many of their 1980s new-wave colleagues in terms of artistic resonance. Emerging just after the punk explosion of the late '70s, the tri…

Kool & The Gang were one of the most popular outfits to emerge from the '70s funk/R&B movement. They began as a hard-grooving funk band, hitting big with "Jungle Boogie," but they later incorporated disco and pop into their sound. Their greatest succ…

Originally part of the early 1960s British blues/R&B scene, the Rolling Stones rapidly ascended the heights of fame with a perfect combination of hit singles and media-grabbing scandals. By the '70s, Keith Richards had become a bona fide guitar hero,…

Rick James got an early start on his music career, forming the Mynah Birds with future Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Bruce Palmer while still in his teens. Though signed to Motown, the group fell apart when James got in trouble for draf…

Proving you could rock despite having attended the Rhode Island School of Design, Talking Heads' innovative brand of downtown art-pop featured David Byrne's manic yelp, pointed lyrics about mundane subjects, and R&B-meets-Velvet Underground grooves, …

Cyndi Lauper started her recording career in 1980 as the singer for retro-'50s group Blue Angel. In 1983, her first solo album SHE'S SO UNUSUAL made the big-voiced New Yorker a superstar. Her impressive pipes and colorful image should have shot her i…

A singer whose music is as exotic and elegant as her image, Sade utilized sultry, jazz-tinged vocals and smooth pop arrangements to become, deservedly, one of the most successful international stars of the 1980s. Her voice is a subtle thing, breathy …

After getting his start with '70s punks Generation X, singer Billy Idol left the band for a solo career in the early '80s. An early MTV darling (with his peroxide-blond spikey hair and "rough boy" looks), Idol merged his punk roots with top-40 hooks,…

In the wake of Michael Jackson's monster success with THRILLER, most of his brothers and sisters tried their hands at launching similarly styled solo careers, with varying degrees of success. But the only one to become a major recording figure on her…

This Athens band's initial mix of Velvet Underground strum, Byrds-like Rickenbacker jangle, and charismatically oblique singing, became the sound of the 1980s as legions of bands followed suit. But even as imitators codified R.E.M.'s approach into th…