Music has been with me since childhood. I believe music should be listened to, and above all - heard. I hope everyone finds something new and worthwhile here. These are the artists I consider the very best, the ones I keep coming back to.
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An American alternative rock band that emerged in San Francisco in 1989, led by singer Linda Perry. It broke through with the 1992 hit "What's Up?" before splitting in the mid-1990s, after which Perry built a long career as a songwriter and producer.
Alternative rock
A Russian rock band founded in 1998 by Ivan Demyan. Melodic, emotional guitar rock that broke through in the early 2000s.
Rock
An Australian rock band founded in Sydney in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. A defining force in hard rock, built on pounding riffs, high-voltage live shows and Angus Young's schoolboy-uniform lead guitar; its best-known singers were Bon Scott and, after his death, Brian Johnson.
Hard rock
An American rock band formed in Boston in 1970, one of the best-selling hard rock acts of all time. Built on blues roots and a raw guitar swagger, it is fronted by singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry, with Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer completing the classic line-up.
Hard rock
A Russian rock band from Sverdlovsk led by brothers Vadim and Gleb Samoylov, active from the mid-1980s to 2010. They blended new wave, gothic rock and cabaret theatrics with dark, ironic lyrics, becoming one of the most popular Russian rock acts of the 1990s.
Gothic rock
The band founded by Boris Grebenshikov in Leningrad in 1972, the fountainhead of Russian rock. Fusing rock with folk, reggae, art-rock and Eastern mysticism, and carried by Grebenshikov's poetic lyrics, Aquarium shaped the sound and language of the underground and every generation of Russian rock since.
Rock
A Russian rock musician, bassist, singer and co-founder of Mashina Vremeni. Alongside the band he has pursued a solo career since the late 1980s - melodic pop-rock carried by his recognisable low voice.
Rock
A poet and singer, one of the key and most tragic figures of Russian rock. He lived only 27 years and released no official albums in his lifetime - almost all of his legacy survives in home and studio recordings issued posthumously.
Rock
The godfather of shock rock, born Vincent Furnier in 1948. Alice Cooper began as a band in the late 1960s and became Furnier's solo persona from 1975, pairing hard rock and metal with macabre horror theatrics - guillotines, snakes and mock executions - across a career of more than fifty years.
Shock rock
A Leningrad rock band that rose to fame in the mid-1980s under frontman Konstantin Kinchev. Their early records mix new wave and post-punk with fierce, rebellious energy; this selection covers only that classic 1980s core.
Post-punk
An American psychedelic rock band from Nashville, Tennessee, formed in 2012. Led by bassist and singer Charles Michael Parks Jr., they mix blues, stoner rock, space rock and jam-band improvisation into a heavy, atmospheric sound built up across a steady run of studio albums.
Psychedelic rock
A singer, songwriter and artist, leader of Mashina Vremeni and one of the patriarchs of Russian rock. His extensive solo discography spans original songs, bard lyricism, covers and jazz projects.
Rock
A Finnish band that grew out of the Sibelius Academy in 1993, when four classically trained cellists began playing Metallica songs on nothing but their instruments. What started as a novelty turned into a career: they moved from covers to their own symphonic, cello-driven metal, adding drums and guest singers along the way, and they are still touring and recording today.
Symphonic metal
A British indie-rock band that emerged in Sheffield in 2002, one of the defining guitar acts of the 2000s. Fronted by singer and songwriter Alex Turner, the band is known for its sharp, witty lyrics and a sound that has roamed from breakneck garage rock to lush, orchestral pop.
Indie rock
Aretha Franklin (1942-2018), the Queen of Soul, an American singer and pianist. A preacher's daughter from Detroit, she carried gospel fire into soul at Atlantic Records in the late sixties, where "Respect", "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" and "Chain of Fools" made her a voice of the era. Across five decades she moved through soul, gospel, R&B and pop and won eighteen Grammys.
Soul
A legendary Russian art-rock band from Leningrad, active since the early 1980s. Led by Leonid Fedorov and known for theatrical, experimental live shows and frontman Oleg Garkusha.
Art rock
A Russian alternative-rock band founded in 1988 by Alexander "Shura" Uman and Egor "Lyova" Bortnik. After years abroad they broke through in Russia in 2000 with "Полковнику никто не пишет", and grew into one of the country's biggest rock acts with an atmospheric, anthemic sound.
Alternative rock
A Canadian rock duo that came together in Toronto in 2009 and later settled in Austin, Texas - guitarist and singer Kevin McKeever alongside drummer Eric Owen. They play raw, high-energy blues and garage rock built on a lean two-man attack.
Blues rock
An American rock band that came together in San Francisco in 1998, built around Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been, with Leah Shapiro on drums since 2008. They pair fuzzed-out garage rock and psychedelia with blues and Americana, trading a wall of feedback for acoustic textures whenever the mood calls for it.
Garage rock
A British metal band formed in Birmingham in 1968, pioneers of heavy metal. The classic line-up was Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward, and their heavy, dark sound shaped the genre for decades to come.
Heavy metal
The frontman of Aquarium and the acknowledged godfather of Russian rock, born in Leningrad in 1953. Beyond Aquarium he has released a distinct body of solo work, from his English-language Radio Silence to Russian spiritual song cycles, shaping the language of Russian rock for half a century.
Rock
A Russian rock'n'roll band founded in 1983 by guitarist Evgeny Havtan. It launched Zhanna Aguzarova and later Valery Syutkin, reviving bright 1950s-60s retro sound for the Soviet and Russian stage.
Rock and roll
A British street musician and one-man band from London, born in 1992. Alone on stage he stacks slide guitar, a set of foot drums worked under his heels and a harmonica into heavy blues rock. He started on the street corners of Camden, and passer-by videos that ran to millions of views carried him from the underpass to stages around the world.
Blues rock
A Russian blues-rock band led by singer-songwriter Sergei "Chizh" Chigrakov, formed in 1993. Their warm, melodic blend of blues, rock'n'roll and reggae with plain-spoken, heartfelt lyrics made them one of the most beloved acts of 1990s Russian rock.
Blues rock
A British singer, guitarist and songwriter born in 1951, known for his gravelly voice and expressive slide guitar. He rose to fame in the eighties with polished rock hits like "On the Beach" and "The Road to Hell", then spent his later career following his true love, the blues.
Soft rock
An American glam metal band that came together in Philadelphia in 1982, fronted by singer and guitarist Tom Keifer. After the platinum debut Night Songs in 1986 it steadily traded polished hair metal for a bluesier, roots-rock sound across the records that followed.
Glam metal
Clutch is an American hard-rock band formed in 1991 in Germantown, Maryland, known for its groove-heavy riffs and the distinctive vocals of frontman Neil Fallon. Across more than a dozen studio albums the quartet has become a cornerstone of the stoner and blues-rock scene.
Hard rock
David Bowie (1947-2016) was an English singer, songwriter and actor whose career spanned over five decades. Celebrated for constant reinvention and striking visual presentation, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
Rock
A British guitarist and singer, the lead guitar and one of the voices of Pink Floyd, born in 1946. Alongside the band he has kept a solo career going since 1978, releasing five studio albums up to Luck and Strange in 2024.
Rock
A Russian indie-rock band from Voronezh led by Dmitry Mozzhukhin. Known for witty wordplay, warm melodic guitars and clever, self-aware lyrics.
Indie rock
A Russian rock band formed in Ufa in 1980 and led by singer-songwriter Yuri Shevchuk, later based in Leningrad. Across four decades they have paired anthemic, guitar-driven rock with socially and politically outspoken lyrics, becoming one of the most respected voices in Russian rock.
Rock
One of the pioneers of hard rock, this British band came together in Hertford in 1968 and helped shape the heavy sound of the 1970s. Its classic Mark II line-up paired Ian Gillan's vocals with Ritchie Blackmore's guitar, and the group remains active to this day.
Hard rock
A Russian musician (Andrey Lysikov). After 1990s rave beginnings he turned to dark, poetic art-rock and trip-hop, with introspective, literary lyrics that made him a cult solo artist.
Alternative rock
A British electronic band that came together in Basildon, Essex, in 1980 and grew into one of the most influential acts in synth-pop and electronic music. Fronted by Dave Gahan with Martin Gore as chief songwriter, it is known for its dark, emotive sound and a vast, devoted following built over four decades.
Synth-pop
A British rock band that Mark Knopfler started in London in 1977. Built around his understated fingerpicked guitar and storytelling lyrics, they moved from pub-rock beginnings to global stadium success with Brothers in Arms before splitting in 1995.
Rock
An American progressive metal band that grew out of Berklee College of Music in Boston in 1985, where John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy first played together under the name Majesty. Known for virtuoso musicianship, long compositions and concept albums; its long-running voice is singer James LaBrie, with Jordan Rudess on keyboards.
Progressive metal
A poet and musician, founder of Grazhdanskaya Oborona and the central figure of Siberian punk. Under the name Egor i Opizdenevshie and on his own he recorded psychedelic punk - raw, furious and metaphysical.
Punk rock
An American jazz singer (1917-1996), the First Lady of Song. She was famous for her pure tone, flawless sense of swing and virtuoso scat singing - wordless vocal improvisation. In the late fifties she recorded the Song Book series for Verve, working through the catalogues of the great American songwriters from Cole Porter to George Gershwin, and turned popular standards into a jazz canon.
Jazz
A British guitarist and singer, born in 1945 and revered as one of rock's greatest blues players. After Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos he went solo in 1970, and across half a century has moved between electric blues, laid-back rock and quiet, personal songwriting - from '461 Ocean Boulevard' and 'Slowhand' to the all-blues 'From the Cradle'.
Blues rock
A Russian acoustic folk-punk project formed around 2010, built around singer Anna Ezhovaya, with musicians from Saint Petersburg and Volgograd. Warm, prickly songs on acoustic guitars.
Folk punk
British singer and songwriter, the frontman and voice of Queen, born in 1946 and died in 1991. Away from the band he made two solo albums - the pop-driven Mr. Bad Guy and Barcelona, an opera collaboration with Montserrat Caballe.
Rock
An American blues-rock guitarist and singer from Austin, Texas, born in 1984. He fuses blues and rock with soul, R&B and hip-hop, and is widely regarded as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, a multiple Grammy winner who has shared stages with the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and B.B. King.
Blues rock
A Northern Irish rock and blues guitarist, born in Belfast in 1952. A virtuoso player, he came up through Skid Row and Thin Lizzy before a long solo career that ran from eighties hard rock to the blues that made his name, on albums like Still Got the Blues. He died in 2011.
Blues rock
A British rock band formed in Godalming in 1967, one of the leading names in progressive rock. Its early line-up with Peter Gabriel was known for elaborate concept pieces; after his departure Phil Collins took over vocals and the band moved toward tighter songs and worldwide success.
Progressive rock
An English rock musician and songwriter, the lead guitarist of The Beatles, born in 1943. He built a solo career from 1968, and its peak was the 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass; his music often drew on Indian classical traditions and his own spiritual outlook. He died in 2001.
Rock
The Siberian punk band founded in Omsk in 1984 by Egor Letov, the founding figure of Russian underground punk. Recording lo-fi, ferocious, poetically nihilistic albums by the dozen, Letov made GrOb a byword for uncompromising anti-authoritarian rock until his death in 2008.
Punk rock
An American punk rock band from the East Bay of California, started in 1987 by Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, with Tré Cool on drums since 1990. Its 1994 breakthrough Dookie carried pop-punk into the mainstream, and the 2004 rock opera American Idiot turned the trio into one of the era's defining rock acts.
Punk rock
An American rock band from Frankenmuth, Michigan, started in 2012 by the Kiszka brothers - twin frontman Josh (vocals) and Jake (guitar) with younger brother Sam (bass) - alongside drummer Danny Wagner. Their throwback hard rock revives the swagger and blues-rock roar of the classic 1970s bands.
Hard rock
An American rock band that came together in Los Angeles in 1985. Its classic line-up was Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler, mixing hard rock with punk and blues. The 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction became one of the best-selling debut albums ever.
Hard rock
Hanni El Khatib is an American garage-rock and blues singer, guitarist and songwriter, and co-owner of the Los Angeles independent label Innovative Leisure. He released his debut album Will the Guns Come Out in 2011.
Garage rock
A Finnish rock band from Helsinki, formed in 1991 and led by vocalist Ville Valo. They coined the term "love metal" for their blend of gothic rock, metal and melancholy romance, becoming one of Finland's most successful musical exports before disbanding in 2017.
Gothic rock
A British rock singer, born in 1945 and best known as the voice of Deep Purple. Between and around his spells with the band he built a solo catalogue of his own, moving from melodic hard rock in the early nineties to the bluesy, soulful grooves of his later records.
Hard rock
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter and proto-punk pioneer who launched his solo career in 1977 after fronting The Stooges. His solo work spans art rock, punk and hard rock across nearly two dozen albums from The Idiot to Every Loser.
Rock
An American rock band formed in Las Vegas in 2008 and one of the defining pop-rock acts of the 2010s. Fronted by Dan Reynolds alongside Wayne Sermon, Ben McKee and Daniel Platzman, it broke through with the debut Night Visions and its anthemic, arena-sized singles.
Alternative rock
An American rock musician born in 1975 in Detroit, the leader of The White Stripes and co-founder of The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather. He launched a solo career in 2012, mixing garage and blues rock with restless studio experiments, and runs his own label, Third Man Records.
Garage rock
An American singer, the raw electric voice of the 1960s counterculture, born in Texas in 1943. She broke out with Big Brother and the Holding Company, then went solo, blending blues, soul and psychedelic rock. After a searing set at Woodstock she was recording Pearl when she died in 1970 at twenty-seven, before the album was finished.
Blues rock
A British rock band formed in Blackpool in 1967 around singer, flautist and guitarist Ian Anderson, whose amplified flute and one-legged stage stance became the group's signature. Over the years they roamed from blues to hard rock, folk and progressive suites, with guitarist Martin Barre the long-serving foil at Anderson's side.
Progressive rock
A British rock guitarist, founder and guitarist of Led Zeppelin. Outside the band he recorded the solo album Outrider and the Death Wish II film score, and worked in collaborations with David Coverdale, Robert Plant and The Black Crowes.
Rock
A British rock and soul singer, born in Sheffield in 1944, famous for his gritty, powerful voice and convulsive stage presence. His raw, slowed-down rework of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" topped the UK chart and became a Woodstock highlight in 1969. Across a long career he scored hits like "You Are So Beautiful", "Up Where We Belong" and "Unchain My Heart", and kept touring until his death in 2014.
Blues rock
A British rock musician, co-founder of The Beatles, born in 1940. After the band broke up he built a solo career through the 1970s, from the raw Plastic Ono Band to Imagine and Double Fantasy, and was shot dead in New York in 1980.
Rock
Kate Bush is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer who topped the UK chart at age 19 with her 1978 debut single 'Wuthering Heights'. Known for her theatrical, literary art pop, she became the first British female artist to reach number one on the UK albums chart with self-written material.
Art pop
A British rock band formed in London in 1968, one of the cornerstones of progressive rock. Guitarist Robert Fripp is its only constant member and driving force; over the decades its ranks included Greg Lake, John Wetton, Bill Bruford, Adrian Belew and Tony Levin. Known for complex rhythms, restless improvisation and a constantly shifting line-up.
Progressive rock
A German-American hard rock band founded in 1987 by singer Lenny Wolf. Its gold-selling debut and the hit "Get It On" made an immediate mark, and after the original line-up dissolved Wolf carried the name forward, writing and recording much of the later music himself.
Hard rock
A Soviet rock band formed in Leningrad in 1982 and led by singer-songwriter Viktor Tsoi. Blending post-punk and new wave with plain, striking lyrics, they became the defining voice of late-Soviet youth; the band ended in 1990 when Tsoi died in a car crash at 28.
Post-punk
A Russian heavy-metal band formed in 2002 by singer Valery Kipelov after he left Aria. Built around his powerful, soaring vocals, the band plays epic, melodic power and heavy metal and remains one of the leading names in Russian metal.
Heavy metal
A Russian horror-punk band formed in Leningrad in 1988, led by vocalists Mikhail "Gorshok" Gorshenyov and Andrei "Knyaz" Knyazev. Their theatrical mix of punk rock and dark fairy tales — foresters, vampires, ghouls and grotesques — made them one of the most popular Russian rock acts, culminating in the two-part rock opera TODD.
Horror punk
A Russian rock band from Moscow, formed in 1983 and led by singer-songwriter Armen Grigoryan. They pair acoustic-flavored, folk-tinged rock with wry, bohemian, often surreal lyrics, and remain a fixture of Russian rock four decades on.
Rock
A British rock band formed in London in 1968: Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (vocals), John Paul Jones (bass, keyboards) and John Bonham (drums). One of the founders of hard rock and heavy metal; the band broke up in 1980 after Bonham's death.
Hard rock
Left Lane Cruiser is an American blues-punk duo from Fort Wayne, Indiana, formed in 2004. They play a raw, hard-driving take on North Mississippi hill country blues.
Blues punk
An American rock band that emerged in Southern California in 1996 and broke through with a fusion of nu metal, rap and electronics. Its classic line-up was fronted by Chester Bennington alongside Mike Shinoda; after Bennington's death in 2017 the band went quiet, then returned in 2024 with new vocalist Emily Armstrong and the album From Zero.
Nu metal
A pioneering American jazz trumpeter and singer, born in New Orleans in 1901. With his warm gravel voice and inventive playing he shaped the sound of jazz and popularized scat singing, becoming one of its lasting icons. His late hit "What a Wonderful World" is known around the world.
Jazz
A British rock band formed in Aylesbury in 1979, the most successful of the neo-progressive wave. Their story splits in two: the Fish years, when literate concept albums like Misplaced Childhood made them chart stars, and the long Steve Hogarth era from 1989 on, marked by pioneering fan-funded releases and a devoted following.
Neo-prog rock
An American rock band founded in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1989, one of the best-known acts in industrial metal. Built around frontman Brian Warner, who performs under the stage name Marilyn Manson, the group is noted for concept albums and theatrical stage shows.
Industrial metal
Mark Lanegan (1964-2022) was an American singer-songwriter and former frontman of the grunge band Screaming Trees who built an acclaimed solo career marked by his weathered baritone and a blend of blues, folk, and alternative rock. Recording both under his own name and as the Mark Lanegan Band, he released eleven solo studio albums between 1990 and 2020.
Alternative rock
One of the oldest and most influential Russian rock bands, founded in Moscow in 1969 and led by singer-songwriter Andrei Makarevich. Their melodic, lyric-driven rock shaped several generations of Soviet and Russian music.
Rock
An American metal band, one of the leading acts in thrash metal. It was founded in Los Angeles in 1981 by guitarist and singer James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich; the long-running line-up is completed by guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo.
Thrash metal
Ministry is an American industrial metal band formed in Chicago in 1981 by frontman Al Jourgensen. Pioneers of the genre, they broke through with albums such as The Land of Rape and Honey (1988) and Psalm 69 (1992).
Industrial metal
A Russian indie-pop singer-songwriter (Elizaveta Gyrdymova). Sharp, ironic lyrics over bright lo-fi pop made her one of the voices of her generation.
Indie pop
A Russian rock band founded in Moscow in 1989, fronted by Sergey Mazaev. Polished, brass-tinged rock and pop-rock.
Rock
An American alternative rock band that emerged in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1989 around singer and bassist Mark Sandman. Its self-styled 'low rock' rested on an unusual guitar-less line-up - Sandman's two-string slide bass, Dana Colley's baritone saxophone and drums - until Sandman collapsed and died on stage in 1999, ending the band.
Alternative rock
An American blues singer and guitarist, born in Mississippi in 1913, widely called the father of modern Chicago blues. He took the Delta blues north and plugged it in, and his amplified, band-driven sound reshaped the music and pointed the way to rock and roll. Songs like "Hoochie Coochie Man" and "Mannish Boy" remain blues standards.
Blues
A Russian rock band from Vladivostok led by Ilya Lagutenko. Its "rockapops" sound and Lagutenko's playful crooning defined Russian alt-rock from the late 1990s on.
Rock
A British rock band formed in Teignmouth in 1994, built around Matt Bellamy (vocals, guitar, keys), Chris Wolstenholme (bass) and Dominic Howard (drums). Known for a grandiose fusion of alternative rock, progressive rock and electronica, operatic vocals and spectacular arena shows.
Alternative rock
A Russian alternative-rock singer-songwriter who broke through around 2000 with "Лошадка" and "Три слова". Melodic, guitar-driven songs with a dreamy, offbeat edge.
Alternative rock
A Soviet and Russian rock band from Sverdlovsk, formed in 1982 and led by singer Vyacheslav Butusov. Their brooding new wave and post-punk, with poetry by Ilya Kormiltsev, made them one of the defining bands of late-Soviet rock before Butusov dissolved the group in 1997.
Post-punk
A Russian rock band founded in 1983 by Alexei Kortnev. Witty, theatrical and genre-playful, moving between rock, jazz, ska and cabaret.
Rock
An Australian musician and poet, born in 1957. Beyond his main band, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, he records with the violinist and longtime collaborator Warren Ellis; these releases take his voice into quieter, more meditative territory of spoken word, loops and ambient textures.
Art rock
An Australian rock band that Nick Cave started in 1983 after the breakup of The Birthday Party. It plays dark, literary post-punk - ballads about love, faith, guilt and death; its long-standing core is Nick Cave and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, and its sound has moved from ferocious early records to the hushed later albums such as Ghosteen and Wild God.
Post-punk
The industrial-rock project of Trent Reznor, formed in Cleveland in 1988. Reznor took the abrasion of industrial music into the mainstream and became one of rock's most influential figures, later winning an Academy Award for film scoring alongside Atticus Ross.
Industrial rock
An American rock band from Aberdeen, Washington, that came together in 1987 around Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. With drummer Dave Grohl they carried grunge to a global audience, and Nevermind pulled underground rock into the mainstream. The band came to an end in 1994 after Cobain's death.
Grunge
A Russian art/alternative-rock band founded in 1988 by singer Maxim Pokrovsky. Theatrical, ironic and restlessly genre-hopping, from tribal chants to pop hooks.
Alternative rock
A Russian rapper and musician (Ivan Alekseev) who fuses hip-hop with rock. Famous for virtuoso wordplay and sharp social and political lyrics.
Hip-hop
A Russian alternative-metal band fronted by singer Daria Stavrovich (Nuki), formerly of Slot. Blends nu-metal heaviness with melodic, emotionally raw vocals.
Alternative metal
A Russian rapper (Miron Fyodorov), one of the most influential figures in Russian hip-hop. Known for dense, literary lyrics, battle-rap prowess and the concept album Gorgorod.
Hip-hop
A British heavy metal singer, born in 1948, the original voice of Black Sabbath. His solo career, launched in 1980 with guitarist Randy Rhoads, made him one of the defining figures of the genre - the self-styled godfather of heavy metal. He died in 2025.
Heavy metal
An American rock band that started in Las Vegas in 2004 and, after many line-up changes, narrowed down to Brendon Urie, who steered it as a solo vehicle through its later, most successful years. Known for its theatrical pop-rock, sweeping vocals and a sound that moved from an emo-tinged debut to brass-driven pop; Urie ended the project in 2023.
Pop rock
A British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, born in 1942, a co-founder of The Beatles. After the band broke up he began a solo career in 1970 and led the group Wings through the seventies, then returned to solo work that continues to this day.
Rock
A British drummer and singer, the drummer and later voice of Genesis, born in 1951. He built a hugely successful solo career in the 1980s on polished pop and soul, from the debut Face Value to the Grammy-winning No Jacket Required, and kept recording into the 2010s.
Pop rock
A Russian rock band from Leningrad, formed in 1978 and led since the early '80s by singer, guitarist and songwriter Edmund Shklyarsky. Their theatrical, symphonic art rock, full of mysticism and Eastern colour, has kept them touring and recording for over four decades.
Art rock
A British rock band formed in London in 1965, one of the central acts in progressive and psychedelic rock. Known for concept albums and elaborate live shows; its best-known line-up was Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, with Syd Barrett the founding frontman.
Progressive rock
PJ Harvey (Polly Jean Harvey, born 1969) is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for her raw, ever-evolving take on alternative rock. She is the only artist to have won the Mercury Prize twice, for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea and Let England Shake.
Alternative rock
A Russian punk-rock band formed in Dubna in 2008, fronted by Vladimir Kotlyarov. Energetic, melodic punk with sharp political and social lyrics.
Punk rock
A British rock band formed in London in 1970: Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor. It fused hard rock with operatic scale, layered harmonies and theatrical flair, becoming one of the most successful bands in history.
Rock
An American rock band that Josh Homme started in Palm Desert, California, in 1996 after leaving Kyuss. Built on hypnotic, groove-heavy riffs and a rotating cast of collaborators, it became one of the defining acts of modern hard and stoner rock.
Stoner rock
An American rock band that came together in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 around singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. Pioneers of alternative and college rock, they moved from jangly indie beginnings to global stardom, staying together until 2011.
Alternative rock
An American psychedelic blues-rock band from Iowa, formed by guitarist, singer and songwriter Parker Griggs. Rooted in the fuzzed-out power-trio sound of Cream, Hendrix and Blue Cheer, they built a cult following through relentless touring and a run of raw, guitar-driven albums that began with a debut produced by Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys.
Psychedelic rock
A German band formed in Berlin in 1994, pioneers of Neue Deutsche Härte, fronted by Till Lindemann. They pair crushing, precise industrial-metal riffs with theatrical, pyrotechnic-heavy live shows and lyrics sung almost entirely in German, becoming one of the biggest rock acts to emerge from Europe.
Industrial metal
Reignwolf is the raw blues-rock project of Canadian guitarist and singer Jordan Cook. Raised in Saskatoon, he made his name with ferocious one-man-band shows before growing the act into a full touring trio. The sound stays heavy, loud and rooted in the blues, carried by Cook's guitar and voice.
Blues rock
A British rock drummer, the beat of the Beatles, born in 1940. He started a solo career in 1970 and has kept it going for decades, moving from pop and rock toward country and roots music on his recent albums.
Rock
An American rock band formed in Long Beach, California, in 2009, fronted by singer Jay Buchanan and guitarist Scott Holiday. They revive the swagger of '70s hard rock and blues with modern muscle, and have toured the world with Black Sabbath and won a Grammy nomination for their album Feral Roots.
Hard rock
An American musician and filmmaker, born in 1965, who fronted White Zombie before launching a solo career in 1998. His music fuses industrial and groove metal with horror-movie imagery and B-movie samples, and he has become an acclaimed horror director alongside his stage work.
Industrial metal
A British rock singer, the voice of Led Zeppelin, born in 1948. He launched a solo career in 1982 and has since moved from hard rock toward folk and roots music, including two acclaimed duet albums with Alison Krauss.
Rock
A British musician, co-founder, bassist and principal songwriter of Pink Floyd, born in 1943. He left the band in 1985 and built a solo career of concept albums, from The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking to Amused to Death and the political records that followed.
Rock
A British rock duo from Brighton, formed in 2013 by bassist and singer Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher. With no guitarist, they build a massive, riff-heavy sound from bass and drums alone; their chart-topping debut won them a Brit Award for Best British Group.
Hard rock
A Russian indie-pop band led by Kirill Ivanov, formed in Saint Petersburg in 2006. Warm, wordy, melodic pop with a literary, everyday sensibility.
Indie pop
A German rock band formed in Hannover in 1965, one of the most successful hard rock acts to come out of Europe. Known for its power ballads and driving rockers; the band's signature voice is singer Klaus Meine, with guitarist Rudolf Schenker its constant leader and founder.
Hard rock
An American rock musician of Armenian descent, born in 1967, best known as the lead singer of System of a Down. Alongside the band he has built a wide-ranging solo career, moving from rock into orchestral, electronic and jazz experiments.
Alternative rock
An American blues singer and one of the greatest harmonica players in the music's history, born around 1912 in Mississippi and died in 1965. Under the name Sonny Boy Williamson he became a legend on the King Biscuit Time radio show, then recorded for Chess and its Checker label - "Don't Start Me Talkin'", "Help Me", "Bring It On Home" - and toured Europe, where he inspired a generation of British blues-rock musicians.
Blues
A new-wave duo from Yekaterinburg formed in 2013 by Taras Ovsyannikov and Pavel Shtondenko. Lyrical music on the edge of indie and post-punk.
New wave
An American guitar virtuoso from Texas who almost single-handedly revived electric blues in the 1980s. With his band Double Trouble he built a huge, fiery Stratocaster sound before dying in a helicopter crash in 1990, aged 35.
Blues rock
An English singer, bassist and songwriter, born Gordon Sumner in 1951. After fronting The Police he went solo in 1985 and has ranged freely across rock, jazz, world music and even Elizabethan lute songs, winning a shelf of Grammys along the way.
Pop rock
Swans are an American experimental rock band formed in New York City in 1982 by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. Emerging from the city's no-wave scene, they became known for a punishing, ever-changing sound spanning noise rock, post-punk, industrial and post-rock across a career of monumental studio albums.
Experimental rock
An Armenian-American rock band formed in Glendale, California in 1994. It mixes alternative and heavy metal with Armenian and folk touches; the line-up is singer Serj Tankian, guitarist Daron Malakian, bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan.
Alternative metal
A Leningrad post-punk band formed in 1984 by Mikhail Borzykin. Its sharp, politically charged lyrics and nervy new-wave energy made it one of the most uncompromising acts in Russian rock.
Post-punk
An English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960, made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Across the 1960s they moved from beat and pop to studio experiment, and they remain among the most influential acts in popular music.
Rock
An American blues-rock duo from Akron, Ohio, started in 2001 by guitarist and singer Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. They began with a raw, garage-recorded sound made by just the two of them and grew into arenas and Grammy wins by the late 2000s, keeping a signature of heavy guitar riffs over a gritty blues foundation.
Blues rock
An Australian blues-rock duo from Brisbane, trading in raw, swampy, riff-driven blues wrung from guitar and drums alone. Across a string of self-made albums they built a fierce live reputation and a cult following on the roots-rock circuit.
Blues rock
The Cramps were an American band formed in 1976 in New York, led by the couple of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy, who were its only constant members until the group ended with Lux Interior's death in 2009. Fusing punk rock with rockabilly and 1950s-1960s garage and horror-movie kitsch, they are widely credited as pioneers of the psychobilly genre.
Psychobilly
A Canadian bluegrass and folk quartet that came together in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 2012. Playing acoustic folk-bluegrass with cello, banjo, mandolin and guitar, they broke through with the song "In Hell I'll Be in Good Company" and built a devoted following far beyond the roots scene.
Bluegrass
An American rock supergroup that came together in Nashville in 2009, drawing its blues-heavy garage rock from four established acts. Jack White traded his usual guitar for the drum kit, Alison Mosshart of The Kills took lead vocals, with Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs filling out the sound.
Garage rock
An American trio that came together in Santa Cruz, California, in 2002, with roots reaching back to Vermont. Led by Pete Bernhart, with Cooper McBean and Lucia Turino, the band blends folk, ragtime, country blues and bluegrass into a raw acoustic sound that leans on guitar, banjo and upright bass rather than drums.
Americana
An American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. One of the central acts of psychedelic rock, known for its dark, organ-driven sound and the poetry of frontman Jim Morrison. Its classic line-up was Morrison, Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore.
Rock
The recording project of Newfoundland songwriter Justin Mahoney, working under a band name. Rooted in old-country tradition and the 1970s outlaw movement, its dark folk turns to murder ballads and songs about outlaws, love and loss, carried by guitar and a stark, black-and-white mood.
Country
A blues-rock trio from Toronto, Canada, that came together in 1985 around the blind guitarist Jeff Healey. Healey played the electric guitar flat on his lap, fingering the fretboard from above - a technique all his own that gave the band an instantly recognisable sound. Their breakthrough ballad "Angel Eyes" reached a wide audience, while the live shows leaned on raw, blazing guitar work.
Blues rock
An American rock band that Jack White and Brendan Benson started together in Detroit in 2005, rounded out by Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler of The Greenhornes. Two songwriters trading off lead vocals give it a loose, garage-rock kick; the band later based itself in Nashville around White's Third Man Records.
Garage rock
A British rock band formed in London in 1962, one of the defining acts of blues-based rock. Its core line-up of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts, later joined by Ronnie Wood, kept the band working for more than six decades.
Rock
An American rock band that came together in San Diego in 2005 around brothers Joshua and Jeremiah Zimmerman. Their sound welds folk and rock and roll to the grit of blues and gospel - foot-stomping rhythms and shouted refrains; the single "Bartholomew" from Common Faults became their calling card.
Folk rock
An American rock duo that emerged in Detroit in 1997, one of the leading acts of the 2000s garage rock revival. Jack White handled guitar and vocals, Meg White the drums; their stripped-down sound and strict red, white and black look became instantly recognisable.
Garage rock
An American rock band that grew out of a project by brothers Jared and Shannon Leto in Los Angeles in 1998. Known for anthemic alternative rock, elaborate concept albums and a devoted fan base built through relentless touring; Jared writes and fronts the group while Shannon plays drums.
Alternative rock
A German musician, the singer of Rammstein, born in 1963. Away from the band he recorded two albums as the duo Lindemann with Peter Tagtgren, and later released solo work under his own name.
Industrial
An American singer, songwriter and actor, born in 1949, known for a growling, gravelly voice and a theatrical, junkyard sound. He began in the seventies as a barroom balladeer, then reinvented himself with clattering percussion and cabaret drama, becoming one of the most singular figures in music.
Experimental rock
Tori Amos is an American singer-songwriter and pianist known for her confessional lyrics and piano-driven arrangements. Her 1992 debut, Little Earthquakes, established her as one of the most distinctive voices in alternative rock.
Alternative rock
A Russian rock band founded in 1995 by Maxim Kucherenko and Vladimir Tkachenko. Literate, melodic guitar rock with witty, poetic lyrics.
Rock
A Russian singer-songwriter (Alexander Litvinov), a cult figure of the bard-rock underground. His mystical, fairy-tale songs survive mostly in home and concert tapes released after his early death in 1999.
Bard rock
A Russian poet and performer born in 1986. Her recordings set her verse to music, largely in collaboration with composer Alexander Manotskov.
Poetry
A British rock band that David Coverdale started in 1978 after leaving Deep Purple. It plays hard rock and heavy blues; over the decades many well-known musicians passed through the line-up, while Coverdale's voice stayed its signature. Worldwide fame came with the 1987 album Whitesnake and its hits 'Here I Go Again' and 'Is This Love'.
Hard rock
One of the defining British progressive rock bands, at work since 1968 and still touring today. Yes built its name on long, intricate compositions, soaring harmony vocals and virtuoso playing; its classic line-up centred on Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford, and guitarist Steve Howe still leads the group.
Progressive rock
A Swedish guitar virtuoso, born in 1963, who brought classical music into heavy metal. In the early 1980s he pioneered the neoclassical metal style, fusing the speed of hard rock with the harmony and phrasing of Bach and Paganini. His lightning-fast playing on the Fender Stratocaster made him one of the most influential and imitated guitarists of his generation.
Neoclassical metal
A Russian singer-songwriter from Ufa (Zemfira Ramazanova), one of the most influential rock artists of her generation. Raw, emotional alt-rock with confessional lyrics.
Rock
A Russian singer, first famous as the frontwoman of Bravo and then a solo artist. Known for her otherworldly "alien" persona and a powerful jazzy rock'n'roll voice.
Rock and roll