Rzewski (pronounced zheff-skee) began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt. In 1960, he went to Italy, a trip which was formative in his future musical development. I

Political

Something wonderful happened in Brazil in the late 1960s. Stevie Wonder's soul-funk, Bob Marley's revolutionary reggae, and the smooth bossa nova of Joao Gilberto came together in one person: Brazil's irreplaceable Gilberto Gil. As a youth raised in rural Bahia, Gil was intoxicated by the bossa

Bright, Charming, Ebullient, Eclectic, Joyful, Playful, Political, Rebel, Rhythmic

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