Roxette was a Swedish pop rock duo, consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. Formed in 1986, the duo became an international act in the late 1980s, when they released their breakthrough second album Look Sharp! Their third album Joyride, which was released in 1991, became just as successful as its predecessor. Roxette went on to achieve nineteen UK Top 40 hits and several US Hot 100 hits, including four US number-ones with "The Look", "Listen to Your Heart", "It Must Have Been Love", featured on the soundtrack of Pretty Woman, and "Joyride". Their other hits include "Dressed for Success", "Dangerous", and "Fading Like a Flower".
Synth-pop is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of synthesizers in progressive rock, electronic, art rock, disco, and particularly the Krautrock of bands like Kraftwerk. It arose as a distinct genre in Japan and the United Kingdom in the post-punk era as part of the new wave movement of the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.
Alecia Beth Moore, known professionally as Pink, is an American singer and songwriter. She was originally a member of the girl group Choice. In 1995, LaFace Records saw potential in Pink and offered her a solo recording contract. Her R&B-influenced debut studio album Can't Take Me Home (2000) was certified double-platinum in the United States and spawned two Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs: "There You Go" and "Most Girls". She gained further recognition with the collaborative single "Lady Marmalade" from the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack, which topped many charts worldwide. Refocusing her sound to pop rock with her second studio album Missundaztood (2001), the album sold more than 13 million copies worldwide and yielded the international number-one songs "Get the Party Started", "Don't Let Me Get Me", and "Just Like a Pill".
Melanie Jayne Chisholm, better known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer, best known as one of the five members of the Spice Girls, during which time she was nicknamed Sporty Spice.
Michelle Jacquet DeSevren Branch is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. During the early 2000s, she released two top-selling albums: The Spirit Room and Hotel Paper. She won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals with Santana for "The Game of Love".
Room Service is the seventh studio album by Swedish pop duo Roxette, released worldwide from 2 April 2001. A planned release in the United States failed to materialise, as the duo's label there, Edel Records America, had been disbanded the previous month due to financial difficulties. Marie Fredriksson was not as involved in the album's production as she had been on previous records, taking part in the composition of just two songs. The album was remastered and reissued with bonus tracks in 2009.
Kim Wilde is an English pop singer, DJ and television presenter. She first saw success in 1981 with her debut single "Kids in America", which reached number two in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award for Best British Female solo artist. In 1986, she had a UK number two hit with a reworked version of the Supremes' song "You Keep Me Hangin' On", which also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1987. Between 1981 and 1996, she had 25 singles reach the Top 50 of the UK singles chart. Her other hits include "Chequered Love" (1981), "You Came" (1988) and "Never Trust a Stranger" (1988). In 2003, she collaborated with Nena on the song "Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime", which topped the Dutch charts.
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records. It was produced by Quincy Jones, who had previously worked with Jackson on his 1979 album Off the Wall. Jackson wanted to create an album where "every song was a killer". With the ongoing backlash against disco, he moved in a new musical direction, resulting in a mix of pop, post-disco, rock, funk, and R&B sounds. Thriller foreshadows the contradictory themes of Jackson's personal life, as he began using a motif of paranoia and darker themes. The album features a single guest appearance, with Paul McCartney becoming the first artist to be featured on one of Jackson's albums. Recording took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, with a production budget of $750,000.
...But Seriously is the fourth solo studio album by English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins. It was released on 7 November 1989 in the United States by Atlantic Records and on 24 November 1989 in the United Kingdom by Virgin Records. After Collins finished touring commitments with the rock band Genesis in 1987 the group entered a four-year hiatus, during which Collins starred in the feature film Buster (1988). By the spring of 1989 Collins had written material for a new solo album which addressed more serious lyrical themes like socio-economic and political issues as opposed to his previous dance-oriented album, No Jacket Required (1985).
Room Service is the tenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Bryan Adams. The album was released by Polydor Records on September 10, 2004. Room Service was the first release of new Adams material since the soundtrack album Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron in 2002 and the first studio album in six years since On a Day Like Today. Adams produced the album and co-wrote the songs with various co-writers, the themes of the songs being varied between street life, touring, truth, love and relationships.
M2M were a Norwegian pop duo comprising Marit Larsen and Marion Raven. Larsen and Raven had been friends since the age of five, and formed a music duo when they were eight. They released a children's album in 1996 when Larsen was 12 and Raven was 11, under the name "Marit & Marion". The album was nominated for a Spellemannprisen award and the band changed their name to M2M after signing a record deal with Atlantic Records in 1998. M2M were frequently praised for writing most of their songs and performing their own instruments, something which was considered to set them aside from the majority of teen pop music artists.
Jason Charles Beck, professionally known as Chilly Gonzales, is a Grammy-winning Canadian musician, songwriter, and producer. Currently based in Cologne, Germany, he previously lived for several years in Paris. Gonzales is a true musical polymath, known for his MC rap albums, his collaborations with pop musicians like Feist and Drake, his albums of classical piano compositions, and also for his collaborations with electronic musicians like Daft Punk and Boys Noize, the latter with whom he produces as Octave Minds.
Tokio Hotel is a German rock band, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer, and bassist Georg Listing. Their sound encompasses multiple genres, including pop rock, alternative rock, and electronic rock. They have had four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country. The band has sold more than 10 million records worldwide. After recording an unreleased demo-album under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, Schrei, as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. Schrei sold more than half-a-million copies worldwide and spawned four top-five singles in both Germany and Austria.
"What Hurts the Most" is a song written by American songwriter Jeffrey Steele and English songwriter Steve Robson. Initially recorded by country music artist Mark Wills in 2003 on his album And the Crowd Goes Wild, it was covered by Bellefire a year later. The first version to be released as a single was by pop singer Jo O'Meara in 2005, from the album Relentless. Later that year, country band Rascal Flatts covered the song as well, releasing it as the first single from the 2006 album Me and My Gang, topping the U.S country and adult contemporary charts with it. German band Cascada later had international chart success with the song in 2007. It was also covered by Eden in 2008.
Revolverheld is a German rock band from Hamburg, Germany. Originally formed under the name Manga in 2002, the band renamed in 2004 to "Tsunamikiller" and later decided upon the current name after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
"Stop and Stare" is the second single by American band OneRepublic from their debut studio album, Dreaming Out Loud (2007). "Stop and Stare" was released to American radio on November 27, 2007. It was later solicited to British radio on December 16, 2007, reaching number-one and to Australian radio on December 17, 2007, reaching number one as well following up on the global success of the previous top ten single "Apologize". The single was released on March 3, 2008, in the United Kingdom. "Stop and Stare" has sold over two million digital downloads worldwide.
"21 Guns" is a song by American rock band Green Day. It was released as the second single from their eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown (2009), and serves as the sixteenth track from the album. The single was released through Reprise Records on May 25, 2009 as a digital download and July 14, 2009 as a CD single.
Ólafur Arnalds is an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbær, Iceland. He mixes strings and piano with loops and beats, a sound ranging from ambient/electronic to atmospheric pop. He is also the former drummer for hardcore and metal bands Fighting Shit, Celestine, and others.
"How We Do (Party)" is the first solo single by the British singer Rita Ora, from her debut studio album, Ora. It was released as the lead single from the album in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on 20 March 2012. On release, "How We Do (Party)" peaked inside the top-ten in Australia and New Zealand. It was released as the album's second single in Ireland on 10 August 2012 and in the United Kingdom on 12 August 2012, and reached number-one in both regions. It also reached number five in Japan and was the second-most played song of 2012 in clubs in the US.
Bloodhound Gang was an American rock band which began as a hip hop group before branching out into other genres, including punk rock, alternative hip hop, rapcore, funk metal, and electronic rock, as their career progressed.
