The livingmemoryof music.

Cream

1966–1968

The first supergroup in history: Clapton, Bruce and Baker pushed electric blues to the edge of improvisation.

The Yardbirds

1963–1968

The ultimate guitar school: Clapton, Beck and Page all passed through its ranks before changing rock forever.

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers

1963–2008

The nursery of British blues: Mayall trained Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor in his band-school.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

1978–1990

The Texan who resurrected electric blues in the eighties with a Stratocaster and superhuman intensity.

The Doors

1965–1973

Jim Morrison and company turned rock into shamanic theater: dark poetry over hypnotic organs.

Jefferson Airplane

1965–1972

Grace Slick's voice on 'White Rabbit' defined the sound of San Francisco and the Summer of Love.

Grateful Dead

1965–1995

Thirty years of endless improvisation: the band that turned the concert into a communal ritual.

13th Floor Elevators

1965–1969

The Texas pioneers who coined the term 'psychedelic rock' before anyone else, with Roky Erickson up front.

Led Zeppelin

1968–1980

The biggest band of the seventies: Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham built the mold for stadium rock.

Deep Purple

1968–1976

The 'Smoke on the Water' riff and the virtuosity of Blackmore and Lord defined classic hard rock.

AC/DC

1973–presente

The Australians who boiled rock down to its essence: granite riffs and zero compromise across five decades.

Aerosmith

1970–2024

Boston's 'Toxic Twins' mixed blues, glamour and danger to create American hard rock par excellence.

Ramones

1974–1996

Four guys from Queens in leather jackets who invented punk in two-minute songs.

Sex Pistols

1975–1978

They lasted three years and one album, enough to terrify England and change music forever.

The Clash

1976–1986

'The only band that matters': they took punk from nihilism to political commitment and every possible genre.

Dead Kennedys

1978–1986

Jello Biafra's fierce satire turned Californian punk into a sharpened political weapon.

Black Sabbath

1968–2017

The founding fathers: with their 1970 debut they invented heavy metal in forty minutes of darkness.

Judas Priest

1969–presente

They gave metal its leather-and-studs uniform and its twin guitars: the genre owes them its entire aesthetic.

Iron Maiden

1975–presente

Galloping bass, historical epics and Eddie: the British machine that took metal to five continents.

Metallica

1981–presente

From garage thrash to stadiums: the band that made metal the most massive genre on the planet.

King Crimson

1968–2021

Robert Fripp founded and re-founded the band across five decades: each incarnation redefined what 'progressive' means.

Yes

1968–presente

Luminous virtuosity and cosmic suites: 'Close to the Edge' remains the genre's technical peak.

Genesis

1967–2022

With Peter Gabriel dressed as a flower and Phil Collins on drums, they turned prog into surrealist theater.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer

1970–1998

The trio that stabbed Hammond organs on stage and turned Mussorgsky into stadium rock.

Nirvana

1987–1994

Three albums were enough: Kurt Cobain turned teenage anguish into the cultural phenomenon of the nineties.

Pearl Jam

1990–presente

Seattle's survivors: thirty years turning integrity into a career and stadiums into gatherings.

Soundgarden

1984–2017

Chris Cornell's impossible voice over leaden riffs: the link between Zeppelin and Seattle.

Alice in Chains

1987–presente

Staley and Cantrell's ghostly harmonies gave grunge its darkest, most painful side.

The Sonics

1960–1968

The wild men of Tacoma: their 1965 'Here Are The Sonics' is the rawest record of its decade.

The Kingsmen

1959–1968

They recorded 'Louie Louie' in one take for 50 dollars, and the FBI spent two years investigating the lyrics.

The Seeds

1965–1972

Sky Saxon and his 'Pushin' Too Hard': two chords out of Los Angeles that anticipated punk by a decade.

The Standells

1962–1970

'Dirty Water' gave Boston an eternal anthem and gave garage its neighborhood bad-boy attitude.

The Smiths

1982–1987

Johnny Marr weaving guitars while Morrissey sang about shyness as if it were a cause.

Sonic Youth

1985–1992

Invented tunings and screwdrivers under the strings: noise turned into method.

Pixies

1987–1991

Quiet and scream, calm and explosion: the formula Cobain admitted he copied.

Pavement

1992–1999

Going out of tune on purpose until it sounds better than in tune. Nobody did it with more grace.

Blur

1993–1997

Damon Albarn painting portraits of the English middle class over a funfair synth.

Oasis

1994–1997

Two brothers from Manchester fighting in public and writing anthems in between.

Pulp

1994–1998

Jarvis Cocker had waited fifteen years; when his turn came, he wrote «Common People».

Suede

1992–1996

They got there before everyone else, with glam, ambiguity and suburban London.

Michael Jackson

1979–1991

From child prodigy to King of Pop: 'Thriller' is still the best-selling album ever.

Madonna

1983–1990

Reinvention as strategy: she made provocation a craft and the music video her canvas.

ABBA

1974–1982

Swedish melancholy dressed as euphoria: perfect songs hiding a broken heart.

Aretha Franklin

1967–1972

The Queen of Soul: a voice that turned any song into her own gospel.

Marvin Gaye

1971–1973

With 'What's Going On' he made soul a record of social conscience without losing its sensuality.

Otis Redding

1965–1967

Stax soul laid bare: pure intensity until his death at 26.

James Brown

1965–1974

The Godfather of Soul who invented funk by moving the accent to the downbeat.

Sly & the Family Stone

1968–1971

A mixed, multiracial band fusing soul, rock and psychedelia into pure optimistic groove.

Parliament-Funkadelic

1975–1978

George Clinton's collective took funk into a cosmic, unhinged mythology.

Donna Summer

1975–1979

The Queen of Disco: 'I Feel Love' with Moroder opened the door to all electronic dance music.

Chic

1977–1979

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards: rhythmic elegance that half of hip-hop would later sample.

Bee Gees

1977–1979

With 'Saturday Night Fever' they made the whole planet dance in falsetto.

Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five

1979–1982

'The Message' took rap from the party to the social chronicle of the ghetto.

Public Enemy

1987–1990

Chuck D and a demolishing production: hip-hop as revolutionary pamphlet.

N.W.A

1988

Out of Compton, the gangsta rap that put street reality at the center of the debate.

Bob Marley & The Wailers

1973–1980

The global face of reggae: Rastafari message and melodies that circled the planet.

Toots & the Maytals

1968–1972

They named the genre with 'Do the Reggay' and a voice of pure soul fire.

Lee "Scratch" Perry

1973–1976

Eccentric studio genius: he invented dub and rewrote the rules of production.

Bob Dylan

1962–1965

He borrowed the tradition, filled it with his own images and then plugged it in.

Joan Baez

1960–1968

A soprano voice and a protester's record: she sang at Selma and in Washington.

Fairport Convention

1969–1971

They electrified seventeenth-century English ballads and founded British folk rock.