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

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

"If you'll gather 'round me, children, a story I will tell." So began many a Woody Guthrie ballad, invoking the huddle around the campfire, the community of the road, the generation that rode the rails during the Depression. Guthrie's songs gave a voice to that uprooted generation and to the struggle

Gritty, Pioneering, Political, Spiritual

The electrifying artistic force that was Elvis Presley can't be contained in a single account. Variously thought of as the King, Elvis the Pelvis, a degenerate, and a teen icon, Presley was the living confluence of America's multiple cultures. Born to poor parents in Tupelo, Mississippi, he lived w

Charming, Cool, Lush, Masculine, Mythic, Oldies rock, Pioneering, Pop, Sexy