TLC's massive '90s chart success proved to be a huge influence on many up-and-coming female singers, most notably Pink. The lady whose hair matches her name found fame quickly with her debut release. CAN'T TAKE ME HOME spawned huge hits and featured …

This Orlando, California, USA-based teen pop outfit rose to fame on the back of the ABC network's documentary about the creation of a boy band, Making The Band, a series which could be viewed as either a savage indictment of the state of pop music or…

Sometimes a little Madness can help a lot Jack Allsopp -- better known as Just Jack -- had worked as a flower arranger gardener and cleaner anything to put crust on the table before he landed a job at RGRecords Allsopp casually handed over a copy of …

The Belgian ambient pop band Hooverphonic featured vocalist Liesje Sadonius guitaristprogrammer Alex Callier keyboardist Frank Duchne and guitarist Raymond Geerts Known simply as Hoover across Europe the group made their initial splash contributing t…

b. New Jersey, USA. Waters' enjoys one of the more colourful backgrounds among dance music's modern female exponents. She majored in Computer Science at Howard University. Her father was jazz musician Junior Waters, and her great-aunt Ethel Waters. I…

Born in Madrid on December 28 1959 in Madrid Spain Ana Torroja was more strongly encouraged to further her academic pursuits than her musical ones Her studies at the School for Economic Sciences paid off most however when a faculty party allowed her …

acoustic urban folk-rock and blues

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 …

The late 1990s saw the emergence of several notable female singer/songwriters, including Beth Orton, Jewel, and Dido. Combining elements of folk, pop, and alt-electronica, Dido scored a surprise hit with her debut effort NO ANGEL, which raced up the …

Italian Euro-pop vocalist Nek b Filippo Neviani began playing guitar and drums at the age of nine and studied music for several years in the early 80s By the later half of the decade he had begun singing professionally and two of his early singles Wi…

If you attended a major sporting event in the late '90s/early 2000s, chances are you heard either (or both) of Smash Mouth's smash hits "Walkin' On the Sun" and "All Star" blaring over the sound system. Although they have roots in California punk roc…

Inspirational pop!

This long-running Philadelphia, USA-based band became well versed in the fickle nature of fame since their formation in 1978. Originally a quintet fusing folk, rock and ska, they spent the early 80s building a formidable live reputation throughout su…

b. Heather Frith, 6 July 1968, Bermuda. This singer-songwriter's early childhood was spent on her family's yacht, sailing around the Caribbean (her brother is the reggae singer, Mishka). Frith's early interest in music intensified when, aged 19, she …

U.K. pop-rock phenomenon James Blunt was an officer in the British Army (serving four years in Kosovo) before taking the British music world by storm with his 2005 single "You're Beautiful." Blunt's shimmering, piano-based singer-songwriter approach …

Influenced in equal measure by Tracy Chapman, the Indigo Girls, and Natalie Merchant, modern-day folk-rock singer Jewel hit it big in the late-'90s with her confessional and stark songwriting. Jewel has also branched out into other fields besides mus…

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…

Best known for the iPod commercial-soundtracking single Jerk It Out Swedens Caesars -- originally known as Caesars Palace -- formed in 1995 Singer Csar Vidal and guitarist Joakim Ahlund who had known each other since kindergarten began playing with b…

French pop group Phoenix play an irony-heavy, 1980s brand of breezy soft-rock that's given a crisp, contemporary sheen with an electronic-leaning production style. Though the band plays fairly straightforward rock-influenced pop music, it was born ou…

Issakar offers an original sound, blending lyrically charged vocals and modern rock with a twist. Driving pianos and rhythmic guitars accompany solid drums to create a unique new sound.

b. Christopher Geppert, 3 May 1951, San Antonio, Texas, USA. Formerly a member of Texas heavy rock band Flash, Cross was signed to Warner Brothers Records on the strength of his songwriting talents. His 1980 debut, full of smooth AOR songs ideal for …

Singersongwriter David DeMaria hails from Jerez Spain Thanks to his melodic writing and strong Andalusian influence the region credited with birthing flamenco famous for its Middle Eastern melodic overtones DeMaria has become one of Spains most preva…

What began as random jams between friends Bob Morris guitar and Greta Salpeter pianoguitar eventually grew into the Chicago indie pop quartet the Hush Sound A classically trained pianist since age three Salpeter was introduced to Morris by mutual fri…

b. 23 June 1977, Mechanicsville, Virginia, USA. The pop rock singer-songwriter Jason Mraz grew up in Virginia where he first developed an interest in musical theatre. He left his home state to attend the American Musical And Dramatic Academy in New Y…

Maverick Danish pop quartet Aqua could hardly have earned a higher profile than that achieved by their third UK single, "Barbie Girl". A tribute-cum-pastiche of the American toy favoured by pre-adolescent girls, it received extensive television and r…

Like Harry Connick in the 1980s and '90s, Canada's Michael Buble stood apart from most of his generation in forsaking contemporary rock and pop for the swing sounds of the '40s and '50s. A Sinatra-style crooner, Buble already had plenty of performing…

The Flaming Lips started out in the 1980s creating an anarchic, punky din, but eventually the psychedelic influences that had always been a major element of the band's sound became more prevalent. In 1994, after significant lineup changes, the Oklaho…