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Michele DesRochers


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Michele Des Rochers

With Black Sabbath now consisting of Iommi and his employees, personnel changes were rapid. The Eternal Idol (November 1987), which failed to crack the U.K. Top 50 or the U.S. Top 100, featured a returning Bev Bevan, bassist Bob Daisley, and singer Tony Martin. Bevan and Daisley didn't stay long, and there were several replacements in the bass and drum positions over the next couple of years. Headless Cross (April 1989), the band's first album for I.R.S. Records, found veteran drummer Cozy Powell (b. Dec 29, 1947, d. Apr 5, 1998) and bassist Laurence Cottle joining Iommi and Martin. It marked a slight uptick in Black Sabbath's fortunes at home, with the title song managing a week in the singles charts. Shortly after its release, Cottle was replaced by bassist Neil Murray. With Geoff Nichols back on keyboards, this lineup made Tyr (August 1990), which charted in the Top 40 in the U.K. but became Black Sabbath's first regular album to miss the U.S. charts.

"What we did in the past doesn't even count to n---as no more," G-Unit member Tony Yayo told us recently. "You gotta stay on n---as' necks now. [The fans,] they wanna hear some new sh--. Hip-hop changes, man.

"Ain't no love in the industry," Yayo added, addressing the reception to the G-Unit group effort T.O.S.: Terminate on Sight. "You just have to be business-orientated. T.O.S. was a good album. The streets loved it. It wasn't commercial. And basically, it's something on the catalog; we go to the next project. I feel like a new artist right now. I feel like we're starting all over."

Yayo said that the low sales for Terminate on Sight have only driven the Unit's captain to make some of his best work to date. Still, Yayo said the meager SoundScan showing last time around had nothing to do with his camp's musical quality.

Michele DesRochers

Moving to Copenhagen to kick-start their career, The Blue Van got to work on a demo that it could distribute to booking agents, record labels and the like. In an old garage with no heat and the band members wearing jackets to keep warm, they captured early recordings on a disc they dubbed A Session with the Blue Van.

Following the breakup of the group, Björk moved to London, where she began pursuing a dance-oriented solo career. The previous year, she had sung on 808 State's "Ooops," which sparked her interest in club and house music. Björk struck up a working relationship with Nellee Hooper, a producer who had formerly worked with Soul II Soul and Massive Attack. The first result of their partnership was "Human Behaviour," which was released in June of 1993. "Human Behaviour" became a Top 40 hit in the U.K., setting the stage for the surprising number three debut of the full-length album, Debut. Throughout 1993, Björk had hit U.K. singles -- including "Venus as a Boy," "Big Time Sensuality," and the non-LP "Play Dead," a collaboration with David Arnold taken from the film Young Americans -- as well as modern rock radio hits in the U.S., and in both countries she earned rave reviews. At the end of the year, NME magazine named Debut the album of the year, while she won International Female Solo Artist and Newcomer at the BRIT Awards; Debut went gold in the U.S. and platinum in the U.K.

When the band went in to record their debut EP, the aforementioned purity was the goal. They wanted the drums, for example, to sound as powerful and thunderous as those produced by Shel Talmy on The Who's My Generation. And just before hitting the studio the band actually played that album, among others, for their producer, noting, "That's the sound we want: a live sound."

And it comes through. The sound of a gritty, Mandrax-fueled rock band caught on disc -- leaping from stomp 'n' shout rockers ("Revelation of Love,") to melodic, Beatles-inflected balladry ("Baby, I've Got Time") and extended power-jamming ("New Slough.") It's the culmination of years of hard work and persistence.

Michele DesRochers After Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera was the most popular female singer of the late-'90s teen pop revival. Unlike many of her contemporaries, Aguilera was a technically skilled singer with a genuinely powerful voice, belting out her uptempo dance numbers and ballads with a diva's panache. Born Christina Maria Aguilera on December 18, 1980, on Staten Island, her parents were of Irish and Ecuadorian stock and her father's military career meant the family moved quite a bit during her childhood. They eventually settled in Pittsburgh, PA, where Aguilera began performing in talent shows at age six, with considerable success. She appeared on Star Search in 1988 (though she didn't win) and in 1992 joined the cast of the Disney Channel's The New Mickey Mouse Club, which also included Spears, future *NSYNC members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez, and Felicity star Keri Russell.

Born in Houston in September 1981, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles began performing at age seven, winning upwards of 30 local competitions for her dancing and vocal abilities. She also joined her cousin Kelly Rowland and classmates LaTavia Roberson and LeToya Luckett in forming an adolescent vocal group. Mathew Knowles, Beyoncé's father and Rowland's legal guardian, signed on to be the girls' manager, eventually quitting his full-time job to focus on their efforts. This situation would ultimately lead to the creation of one of the most popular female R&B groups of all time -- Destiny's Child.

In September 2000, seeking a place in that year's Latin pop boom, the part-Ecuadorian Aguilera recorded a Spanish-language album called Mi Reflejo, learning the lyrics phonetically since she didn't speak Spanish. It was followed quickly by the holiday album My Kind of Christmas; both sold extremely well, a testament to Aguilera's popularity. In the spring of 2001, Aguilera was featured -- along with Pink, Mya, and Lil' Kim -- on the chart-topping blockbuster remake of Patti LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade" featured on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Aguilera was by now a fixture at music industry awards shows; as she enjoyed her celebrity, a collection of old demos -- recorded when she was 14 and 15 -- was released under the title Just Be Free, despite Aguilera's vehement objections.


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