Biography G
Guns N' Roses
At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and
pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into
the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don't play rock & roll. They
were ugly, misogynist, and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and
occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, "Sweet Child O'
Mine," showed. While Slash and Izzy Stradlin ferociously spit out dueling
guitar riffs worthy of Aerosmith or the Stones, Axl Rose screeched out his tales
of sex, drugs, and apathy in the big city. Meanwhile, bassist Duff McKagan and
drummer Steven Adler were a limber rhythm section who kept the music loose and
powerful. Guns N' Roses' music was basic and gritty, with a solid hard, bluesy
base; they were dark, sleazy, dirty, and honest -- everything that good hard
rock and heavy metal should be. next
Genesis Biography
One
of the most successful rock acts of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Genesis enjoyed
a longevity exceeded only by the likes of the
Rolling Stones and the Kinks, in the process providing a launching pad for
the superstardom of members Peter
Gabriel and Phil
Collins. The group had its roots in the Garden Wall, a band founded by 15
year olds Peter
Gabriel and Tony
Banks in 1965 at Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey, where fellow
students Michael
Rutherford and Anthony
Phillips were members of another group called Anon. The two groups initially
merged out of expediency as the older members of each graduated; Gabriel,
Banks, Rutherford,
Phillips,
and drummer Chris
Stewart soon joined together as the New Anon, and recorded a six-song demo
featuring songs primarily written by Rutherford and Phillips. next
The Gipsy Kings
are largely responsible for bringing the joyful sounds of progressive pop-oriented flamenco, called Sevillana in Spain, to the world. The band started out in Arles, a village in southern France during the '70s when brothers Nicolas and Andre Reyes, the sons of renowned flamenco artist Jose Reyes, teamed up with their cousins Jacques, Maurice and Tonino Baliardo, whose father is Manitas de Plata. next
Gloria Estefan
As one of the biggest new stars to emerge during the
mid-'80s, singer Gloria Estefan predated the coming Latin pop explosion by a
decade, scoring a series of propulsive dance hits rooted in the rhythms of her
native Cuba before shifting her focus to softer, more ballad-oriented fare. Born
Gloria Fajardo in Havana on September 1, 1957, she was raised primarily in
Miami, FL, after her father, a bodyguard in the employ of Cuban president
Fulgencio Batista, was forced to flee the island following the 1959 coup helmed
by Fidel Castro. In the fall of 1975, Fajardo and her cousin Merci
Murciano auditioned for the Miami Latin Boys, a local wedding band headed by
keyboardist Emilio Estefan. next
Gorillaz
Conceived
as the first "virtual hip-hop group," Gorillaz blended the musical
talents of Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, Blur's
Damon
Albarn, Cibo
Matto's Miho
Hatori, and Tom
Tom Club's Tina
Weymouth and Chris
Frantz with the arresting visuals of Jamie
Hewlett, best known as the creator of the cult comic Tank Girl. Nakamura's
Deltron
3030 cohorts Kid
Koala and Del tha Funkee Homosapien rounded out the creative team behind the
Gorillaz quartet, which included 2-D, the cute but spacy singer/keyboardist;
Murdoc, the spooky, possibly Satanic bassist and the brains behind the group;
Russel, a drummer equally inspired by "Farrakhan and Chaka
Khan" and possessed by "funkyphantoms" that occasionally rise
up and provide some zombie-style rapping; and last but not least, Noodle, a
ten-year-old Japanese guitar virtuosa and martial arts master. The group's
website, /www.gorillaz.com, showcased Hewlett's
visuals and the group's music in eye- and ear-catching detail. next
Green Day
Out of all the post-Nirvana American alternative bands to break into the pop mainstream, Green Day was second only to Pearl Jam in terms of influence. At their core, Green Day was simply punk revivalists, recharging the energy of speedy, catchy three-chord punk-pop songs. Though their music wasn't particularly innovative, they brought the sound of late-'70s punk to a new, younger generation with Dookie, their 1994 major-label debut. Green Day wasn't always able to sustain their success -- Dookie sold over eight million, while its follow-up, Insomniac, only sold a quarter of its predecessor -- yet their influence was far-reaching because they opened the doors for a flood of American neo-punk, punk metal, and third wave ska revivalists. next