Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music and culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the UK's own shoegaze music scene. The movement brought British alternative rock into the mainstream and formed the backbone of a larger British popular cultural movement, Cool Britannia, which evoked the Swinging Sixties and the British guitar pop of that decade.
Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker (vocals), Jonathan Donahue, Sean Mackowiak, known as "Grasshopper", Dave Fridmann, Suzanne Thorpe (flute) and Jimy Chambers (drums).
My Bloody Valentine are an Irish-English band formed in Dublin in 1983. Since 1987, its lineup has consisted of founding members Kevin Shields and Colm Ó Cíosóig with Bilinda Butcher and Debbie Googe (bass). Their music is best known for its merging of dissonant guitar textures, androgynous vocals, and unorthodox, experimental production techniques. They helped to pioneer the alternative rock subgenre known as shoegaze during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the 1970s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock or "guitar pop rock". In the 1980s, the use of the term "indie" started to shift from its reference to recording companies to describe the style of music produced on punk and post-punk labels. During the 1990s, grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream, and the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. By the end of the 1990s, indie rock developed several subgenres and related styles, including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock, and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the music industry and a growing importance of the internet enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.
Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band from Reykjavík, active since 1994. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals, and their use of bowed guitar, the band's music incorporates classical and minimal aesthetic elements.
Shoegaze is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume. It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s among neo-psychedelic groups who stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state. The name comes from the heavy use of effects pedals, as the performers were often looking down at their pedals during concerts.
Wisconsin was settled largely by European immigrants in the late 19th century. This immigration led to the popularization of galops, schottisches, waltzes, and, especially, polkas. Classical composers and conductors from Wisconsin include Hans Balatka, Hugo Kaun, Eugene Luening, Theodore Steinmetz and Sarge Boyd. Among Wisconsin's contributions to rock music were Les Paul, an electric guitar pioneer known as the "Wizard of Waukesha". The Steve Miller Band, with Milwaukee's Steve Miller, had three #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1973 to 1982. The Chordettes from Sheboygan, Bon Iver from Eau Claire, and Garbage from Madison all had albums on the Billboard 200.
The music of Iceland includes vibrant folk and pop traditions, as well as an active classical and contemporary music scene. Well-known artists from Iceland include medieval music group Voces Thules, alternative rock band The Sugarcubes, singers Björk, Hafdís Huld and Emiliana Torrini, post-rock band Sigur Rós, post-metal band Sólstafir, indie folk/indie pop band Of Monsters and Men, blues/rock band Kaleo, metal band Skálmöld and techno-industrial band Hatari. Iceland's traditional music is related to Nordic music forms. Although Iceland has a very small population, it is home to many famous and praised bands and musicians.
Jyoti Prakash Mishra, better known by his stage name White Town, is a British-Indian singer and musician. He is best known for his 1997 hit song "Your Woman".
Ian McFarlane is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017.
The Album Leaf is an American solo musical project founded in San Diego, California in 1998 by Jimmy LaValle. He is known for his use of electronics, synthesizer, and Rhodes piano. His performances often feature projected visual art.
Echo Orbiter is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, based indie rock band founded by brothers Justin Emerle and Colin Emerle, described by Philadelphia Weekly as being "Widely considered two of the most inventive songwriters on the Philadelphia scene."
Adam Drucker, better known by his stage name Doseone, is an American rapper, producer, poet and artist. He is a co-founder of the indie hip hop record label Anticon. He has also been a member of numerous groups including Deep Puddle Dynamics, Greenthink, Clouddead, Themselves, Subtle, 13 & God, Go Dark, Nevermen, and A7pha.
Gimme Fiction is the fifth studio album by American indie rock band Spoon. It was released on May 10, 2005, through Merge Records in the US and Matador Records in Europe. It debuted at number 44 on the Billboard 200. "I Turn My Camera On" was released as a single, and has become one of the band's biggest hits to date. A deluxe reissue of the album was released on December 11, 2015 to commemorate its 10th anniversary.
The Western State Hurricanes was a short-lived Seattle-based indie rock band in the late 1990s. It is best known as a precursor to the more successful group The Long Winters—both bands were fronted by songwriter John Roderick, and many Western State Hurricanes songs were later revamped into Long Winters songs.
Masters of the Hemisphere are an American indie pop group, founded by Bren Mead and Sean Rawls. The two moved to Athens, Georgia, to attend college in 1996. There they met Ryan Lewis, co-founder of Kindercore Records, who played drums at the first Masters of the Hemisphere show. Jeff Griggs soon replaced Lewis. In 1997 Kindercore released their debut seven-inch ep, Going on a Trek to Iceland. The group then recorded their first full-length album, the eponymous Masters of the Hemisphere, which was released on Kindercore Records in 1998. The band soon expanded to a four-piece, adding multi-instrumentalist Adrian Finch. Several singles and compilation appearances followed, including a release on the Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records singles club, before the band released their second full length, the concept album I Am Not a Freemdoom, also on Kindercore. The record garnered mixed reviews, which in part was likely due to the album's rather complicated concept, regarding an island of reservoir-dwelling creatures being enslaved by an evil dog. The Permanent Stranger EP followed in 2002, on the dcBaltimore2012 label. The band split up after their next album, 2002's well received Protest a Dark Anniversary. A recording of their then-final show at Athens, Georgia's 40 Watt Club was later released as The Last Show Ever.
Plow United is an American punk rock formed in Wilmington, Delaware in 1992. They play fast punk rock with pop, thrashcore and hardcore influences. Their lyrics are sometimes labeled "emo" postfact. Band members are Brian McGee, Sean Rule (drums) and Joel Tannenbaum (bass).
Ampop is an Icelandic melodic-pop/rock band from Reykjavík, Iceland. Founded in 1998 by Kjartan F. Olafsson and Biggi Hilmarsson, the name of the band is actually the name of the first song they ever wrote, and is made from the words ambient and pop, which they thought was the definition of the music they were making at that time.
Gregory Alan Isakov is a South African-American singer-songwriter currently based in Boulder, Colorado. He and his family immigrated to the United States in 1986 and he was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
British pop music is popular music, produced commercially in the United Kingdom. It emerged in the mid-to late 1950s as a softer alternative to American rock 'n' roll. Like American pop music it has a focus on commercial recording, often orientated towards a youth market, as well as that of the Singles Chart usually through the medium of relatively short and simple love songs. While these basic elements of the genre have remained fairly constant, pop music has absorbed influences from most other forms of popular music, particularly borrowing from the development of rock music, and utilising key technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes. From the British Invasion of rock bands in the 1960s, led by The Beatles, British pop music has alternated between acts and genres with national appeal and those with international success that have had a considerable impact on the development of the wider genre and on popular music in general.
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