First off, the Byrds were the first credible American answer to the British Invasion. All of folk rock — for lack of a better term — descends directly from the music the Byrds made. They were certainly the first to introduce any sort of country element into rock music. As if all that...
Carlos has sold more than 120 million albums around the world. By the late 1970s he had become the best-selling Brazilian musician in history. In the 1990s, Carlos became the first Latin American artist to sell more albums than The Beatles. ...
Penned by Jiménez, one of the great mariachi singers of all time, the track came to epitomize the symbol of the macho mariachi singer: King, lover, hero, man of the hour. Later recorded by Pedro Vargas and Vicente Fernández (plus Luis Miguel and others), it may be the most emblematic...
Fela Kuti’s iconicsongs of the 1970s and 1980s are sprawling orchestral instrumentals, an innovative swirl of African highlife, American soul, and jazz. Through his music, he shared an anti-colonialist, Pan-African vision and challenged Nigeria’s corrupt military government, which routinely subj...
Bessie Smith dies aged just 43 (car accident) yet her work paved the way for future generations of African American women in entertainment. She has been noted as a musical influence of a vast range of singers including Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin and even Janis Joplin. ...
Eminem has a jolly time pretending to be an arrogant lil' prick who lords over the other members in his "band," the term itself a swipe at not only hated boy bands, but the type of clueless fans who call rappers "singers." The D12 fellas try to get some shine—like when Bizarre ...
At their peak in the mid-1960s, the Supremes rivaled the Beatles in worldwide popularity, and it is said that their success made it possible for future African American R&B and soul musicians to find mainstream success.Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross, and Betty McGlown, the ...
Though her life was cut short aged 43 by a car accident, Bessie Smith paved the way for many other African American women in entertainment and has been cited as a musical influence of a huge range of artists including Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and even Janis Joplin. ...
One of the best-known Balkan singers of all time, with a discography spanning over four decades. Boom boom boom boom boom!Goran Bregović | Bucharest
then the hallowed haven of classical music, but also pioneered one of the first racially integrated groups. (His group featured the African American guitar pioneer, Charlie Christian). When the popularity of big band swing music faded fast after the end of World War II, Goodman wasn’t afraid...