b. 2 July 1983, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. This US singer-songwriter was raised in Sedona, a small town in Arizona. After receiving a guitar for her fourteenth birthday, Branch began writing her own songs and playing live gigs around her home-town. Bef…

As the very first winner of the AMERICAN IDOL television show competition, Kelly Clarkson was inevitably pegged as little more than a manufactured pop commodity. The surprisingly versatile singer managed to survive against expectations, however, and …

In 2002 one of the biggest stories in the music business was the ascendance of 17-year old Canadian singer Avril LaVigne. In an era dominated by pre-fabricated teen-pop, Avril was seen as a teen star with an edge. Instead of carefully crafted, studio…

Ashlee Simpson, younger sister of singer Jessica Simpson, is one of the most fascinating pop-culture phenomena of the early 2000s. Following a stint on the squeaky-clean television drama "7th Heaven," the prefabricated sensation's singing career was …

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…

b. 18 July 1982, Dallas, Texas, USA. Pop rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Cabrera dropped out of a course at the University of Texas to concentrate on music. He had previously played in punk bands but switched direction as a member of the Dallas-…

In the late 1990s, Madonna had long since become a mature artist, turning her back on the carefree dance-pop of her early days ("Like A Virgin," "Holiday," etc.). Teenage singer Britney Spears picked up on this specific Madonna era, albeit with a mor…

Hilary Duff, along with her one-time rival Lindsay Lohan, is a product of the Disney idol machine and the star of the long-running LIZZIE MCGUIRE television series. Duff's image has gone from squeaky-clean teenybopper to slightly vampy teenybopper si…

The punk pop craze continued to sweep across US shopping malls and MTV during the early twenty-first century, owing to the emergence of acts such as Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based Simple Plan. Following in the footsteps of fellow Canadians Sum 41, Si…

Of all the teen queens of the early 2000s, Lindsay Lohan seems to be both the most troubled (drug rumors, family strife, and the like) and the most likely to succeed, as her film and recording careers have slowly moved beyond bubblegum boundaries. Wh…

Five for Fighting is the pseudonym of John Ondrasik, one of the most successful figures in the wave of lite-rock singer-songwriters that emerged in the early 2000s. Singing in the heartfelt lilt popularized by Dave Matthews, Ondrasik plays amiable, r…

As the lead singer of California neo-ska pop-punks No Doubt, Gwen Stefani gained notoriety for her spunky, riot grrrl-lite approach to fronting a rock band. On her 2004 solo debut, LOVE. ANGEL. MUSIC. BABY., Stefani pulled a musical about-face and fu…

b. USA. Viewed in many quarters as an Elton John for the twenty-first century, this pop rock singer-songwriter made his much-hyped entrance on the US music scene in 2003 with his debut, Chariot. DeGraw grew up in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New…

John Mayer emerged in 2001 as the fresh young face for a new generation of earnest singer-songwriters. While Mayer's work is as confessional, intimate, and acoustic-guitar-based as that of old-schoolers like James Taylor and Jackson Browne, his appro…

b. Joanna Noelle Levesque, 20 December 1990, Foxboro, Massachusetts, USA. Teen pop starlet JoJo made her way into the music business via the high-profile world of children's television. The daughter of musical parents (her father is a blues singer wh…

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…

Pop singer and actor Jesse McCartney was a child performer dynamo singing on Broadway and landing an acting gig on All My Children before even joining his first boy band a feat that came at the age of 12 Teen poppers Dream Street scored a platinum al…

Starting out in the late 1990s, pop-punk band Yellowcard got together in Jacksonville, FL, but eventually migrated to California, where they built a grass-roots following through their indie releases. One thing in particular that set Yellowcard apart…

Formed in Wichita Falls, Texas, USA, this pop punk quartet was formed in 1994, with its roots reaching back to a two-man music comedy team (vocalist/guitarist Jaret Reddick aka Jaret Von Erich and bass player Erik Chandler aka Erik Rodham Clinton), t…

The Los Angeles-based hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas has made a name for itself by taking an eclectic and organic approach to rap, R&B, and funk. Led by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Will.I.Am., the band also includes two other MCs, Apl.de.Ap. and Ta…