Unlike most in the electronic music scene, Prodigy knows how to put on a show. Their sound is big and loud, but that's not the half of it. They also blast audiences with arena-sized performances, complete with strobe lights, the occasional pyrotechnic display, a professional dancer named Leeroy, and
Bessie Smith, the 6-foot, 200-pound Empress of the Blues, commanded stage and
street with a fierce violence and a resonant, endless well of a voice. Born
in Chattanooga, Tennesee, in 1894, Smith began her career singing on
street corners. Under the mentorship of "Ma" Rainey, one of the most popular p
The Sex Pistols stepped on to the London stage in 1975 fit to offend. The sneering, spitting brats sent the mainstream listening audience, the media, and even the London rock-hall owners screaming for safety from the band's raw, corruptive sound and brutal image. The Sex Pistols marked the rise of pu