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TV Girl makes hypnotic pop.

In 1992, the U.S. Postal Service conducted a nationwide vote on a crucial subject: Should their upcoming stamp feature Young Elvis or Older Elvis? More than 75 percent of the million-plus ballots voted for Young Elvis, but the fact that the question was asked at all speaks to the difficulty of pinning down just who the man was and how he should be remembered: Boundary-breaking R&B singer or Hollywood crooner? Rock pioneer or Vegas showman? An artist who legitimized blues for white audiences or appropriated it from black performers? In truth, Elvis Presley was all these things and more, a prism through which just about every myth we have about race, pop culture, and the American dream can be refracted. Born in 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a two-room shotgun house built by his father, Presley moved to Memphis as a teenager, recording his first sides for Sun Records a couple of months after he finished high school. He liked country, but also blues; he liked ballads, but played with an irrepressible energy that helped shape the feel of rock and roll. (His breakthrough, an uptempo cover of the blues singer Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right,” reportedly started as a goof Presley was killing time with between takes of something more subdued.) In addition to becoming one of the first artists to successfully make R&B for white audiences, Presley was also one of the first performers whose fame (good and bad) came in large part from television—you can’t see hips move in the newspaper. (The New York Times, reporting on Presley’s Milton Berle Show performance in June 1956: “His one specialty is an accented movement of the body that heretofore has been primarily identified with the repertoire of the blonde bombshells of the burlesque runway.”) Presley parlayed his screen appeal into a successful movie career, spending most of the '60s in Hollywood. (A handful of his most indelible songs—including “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Return to Sender”—started life on soundtracks to movies in which he also starred.) In 1968, he ventured to recapture the jolt of his early years, staging a television special (Elvis, a.k.a. the ’68 Comeback Special) that constituted his first live performance since 1961. The following year, he released From Elvis in Memphis, an album that found him suddenly, effortlessly, in step with contemporary pop and soul. Though Presley toured almost relentlessly until his death from a heart attack in 1977, he became increasingly cloistered, at one point giving up recording studios in favor of using a mobile studio RCA Records sent to his Memphis mansion, Graceland. A car aficionado with no shortage of spending money, he was known to occasionally approach strangers outside Cadillac showrooms and ask which model and color they liked best before offering—out of the blue—to pick up the bill. Nearly 80,000 people were estimated to have attended the procession for his funeral, where he was buried next to his mother.

Lynyrd Skynyrd didn’t invent Southern rock, but they defined it with the five albums they released in the ’70s. Combining bluesy riffs, a touch of country twang, and a three-guitar rock ’n’ roll onslaught, they perfected the template. Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarists Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, and drummer Bob Burns started playing together around their hometown of Jacksonville, FL, in 1964. Bassist Leon Wilkeson and keyboardist Billy Powell were aboard when producer/musician Al Kooper discovered Skynyrd in 1972. Kooper produced their 1973 debut album, adding Ed King to the band’s signature “guitar army.” While Skynyrd lived up to their bluesy, boozy swagger, there were deeper levels to be discovered, like the reflective balladry of “Tuesday’s Gone,” and “Gimme Three Steps,” in which the narrator does his damnedest to talk his way out of a bar brawl. Skynyrd found swift success, but 1974’s Second Helping really made them rock stars via “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird,” the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful” of Southern rock. The epic, 10-minute-plus, jam-frenzied live version of "Free Bird" released in 1976 became one of the most ubiquitous anthems in the classic-rock canon. The band seemed to be peaking on 1977’s Street Survivors, but fate had other ideas. Days after its release, Skynyrd’s plane crashed in Baton Rouge, killing Van Zant, new guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve’s sister), and several others, and severely wounding the rest of the band. In 1987, most of the surviving members reunited to tour, with Van Zant’s little brother Johnny as the singer. Johnny’s vocal and visual resemblance to his brother helped revitalize the band, which released a new album in ’91. Skynyrd Mk. II continued to record and tour for decades.

Self-produced British composer and recording artist for over 20 years, Imogen Heap has released five solo albums, another as one half of Frou Frou and collaborated with countless and varied artists including Taylor Swift, Nitin Sawhney, Deadmau5, Jeff Beck and Jon Hopkins. Her compositions and songs pop up in blockbuster and indie films as well as countless TV shows, are featured in underground rap and dance music and covered by the likes of Ariana Grande. As composer and arranger for one of the biggest hits in theatrical history, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, Imogen won the Drama Desk Outstanding Music in a Play award. As a sought-after speaker and performer, Heap hosted 2020’s Grammys Premiere Ceremony. Heap’s collaborative and multi-dimensional workflow attracts companies for commissioned works, leading to songs such as Tiny Human, the first song to distribute payments via a Smart Contract, and The Happy Song, a highly successful song for children in their early-years. Heap, recognised as an artist's artist, has won two Grammys and an Ivor Novello award. In recognition of her pioneering work at the intersection of music and tech, Heap has a hat trick of three honorary doctorates for the gestural music-ware 'MI.MU gloves' system and recently for ’The Creative Passport’, an integrated digital ID solution, empowering music makers to be the change toward a fair and flourishing music ecosystem.

Sublime, was founded in 1988 by Eric Wilson, Bud Gaugh and Bradley Nowell. Their first self-produced album, 40oz. to Freedom, was released in 1992 and its success secured Sublime signing to MCA Records in time for the band’s 1994 sophomore album, Robbin’ the Hood, and later their self-titled third album. On May 25, 1996, however, lead vocalist and guitarist Nowell tragically passed away and the band collapsed, but the eponymous SUBLIME was still slated for a July 1996 release. On the strength of the chart-topping alternative radio hit “What I Got,” the album was certified gold by the end of 1996, selling more than 7M copies, and becoming one of the most popular reggae-punk albums in history. Sublime has gone on to sell over 18 million RIAA certified albums in the US, and their genre-defining music and their cultural influence is stronger today than ever before. In late 2023, Bradley Nowell’s son Jakob Nowell joined original Sublime members Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson on stage for the first time to perform at a benefit concert for Bad Brains’ H.R. With an undeniable musical synergy between Nowell, Gaugh and Wilson, and overwhelming reaction and support from fans across the world, the trio decided to move forward and continue the Sublime legacy, starting a new chapter of the band with Jakob Nowell as front man. "Garden Grove // Ebin" out now