Cyndi Lauper was one of the biggest stars of the early MTV era, selling five million copies of her debut album, She's So Unusual, as well as scoring a string of four Top Ten hits from the record, including the major hits "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and "Time After Time." Lauper's thin, girlish voic

80s synthpop, Punk

Drawing from a tradition that embraces excess -- whether it be in poetry, rock 'n' roll, life, or all of the above -- Patti Smith brings passion and wit to her rough-edged, anarchist music. Her songs recall the lives of such debauched, ecstatic souls as Rimbaud, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and James

Agitated, Bombast, Dissonant, Gritty, Hard rock, Punk, Religious, Rough

The Asian Dub Foundation is England's answer to America's Rage Against the Machine -- without all the hard-ass guitars and screechy posturing. They're a group of young, politically driven musicians of Asian descent out to change social and political agendas through music. Though Asian Dub Foundation

Agitated, In-your-face, Pioneering, Political, Punk, Rebel, Ska revival, Social revolution

The Sex Pistols may have provided the shock-value dynamite for the punk explosion in 1970s Britain, but it was the Clash who channeled the energy of that explosion into a discrete form of music. Or rather, they channeled it into several forms simultaneously; they diversified the space of punk. The Cl

Bombast, Pioneering, Political, Punk, Slangy