Sometimes sublime and tender, sometimes raving and frightening, Janis Joplin's vocals had a raw energy unmatched by any white blues singer of her time. And Joplin lived as wildly as she sang. Although she was born into a comfortable, middle-class family in Port Arthur, Texas, she always seemed to be

Bombast, Classic rock, Gritty, Primal, Psychedelic music, Visceral

A generation mourned the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, but the mania surrounding his suicide threatened to eclipse the truncated but notable career of his band, Nirvana. Raw, angry, and phenomenally loud, Nirvana was formed in 1987 by guitarist/vocalist Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic, two disillu

Angry, Dark, Grunge, Pathos, Profane, Rebel

Jimi Hendrix was a leftie. But rather than use a left-handed guitar, he simply used a right-handed one upside down. Perhaps this is an appropriate figure for his approach to music: Hendrix took matters in hand and twisted them to meet his very personal vision of the world. When he revisits a blues cl

Classic rock, Intimate, Kaleidoscopic, Kinetic, Moody, Psychedelic, Psychedelic music, Spiritual

Yes, the band does take its name from the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep, the phase in which we dream. This is totally appropriate, for the band's sound has a muffled texture, the lyrics are not quite distinguishable, and when decipherable, are opaque in meaning. This creates a dreamy yet cr

Alternative rock, Eclectic, Intimate, Kaleidoscopic, Saturated, Sincere, Smarty arty pop