The honey-voiced Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan has ascended from modest success in the U.S. and her native Nova Scotia to international stardom. Her music is accessible enough for the masses, yet serious enough to strike a strong chord w…

Rising from the ashes of the amusingly named rock band Y Kant Tori Read, Tori Amos debuted with LITTLE EARTHQUAKES in 1992, a stunning set of brutally honest and emotionally wrought songs that recalled Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush without being slavis…

With her hook-filled pop tunes, highly developed melodic sensibility, and pin-up girl looks, Sheryl Crow appealed to a wide audience in the 1990s. Garnering platinum albums, hit singles, and even the tacit approval of rock's old guard, Crow proved to…

Getting her start with Canadian bubblegum pop in the early-1990s, Alanis Morissette reinvented herself as an angst-ridden hippie/alternative rocker by the middle of the decade. The makeover paid off splendidly, as Morissette scored one of the best-se…

First appearing on the scene in the mid 1980s, the Indigo Girls were the first lesbian alternative folk duo. Their drop-dead-gorgeous harmonies and uncompromising DIY aesthetic garnered many fans who normally wouldn't have been caught dead listening …

It may have been tempting to dismiss the 19-year-old Fiona Apple as flavor of the month when her 1996 debut record, TIDAL, earned raves from critics and scores of articles about her appeared in the press. But the outspoken Apple, heavily influenced b…

Melissa Etheridge made waves in 1988 as one of the few female rockers on the scene; in 1993, she made headlines by coming out as a lesbian. Etheridge's confessional lyrics and raspy voice earned her comparisons to Springsteen and Janis Joplin; she br…

U2's Bono was one of the few real rock heroes of the 1980s, leading the Irish band to international recognition with a charged, political approach to music. The band's early efforts brought a stadium-size presence to alt-rock, with Bono's expressive …

This Athens band's initial mix of Velvet Underground strum, Byrds-like Rickenbacker jangle, and charismatically oblique singing, became the sound of the 1980s as legions of bands followed suit. But even as imitators codified R.E.M.'s approach into th…

b. 26 October 1963, Jamestown, New York, USA. Having originally sung in a church choir, Merchant joined the highly regarded 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 while studying at Jamestown Community College in New York. She would eventually leave that band over a …

Influenced in equal measure by Tracy Chapman, the Indigo Girls, and Natalie Merchant, modern-day folk-rock singer Jewel hit it big in the late-'90s with her confessional and stark songwriting. Jewel has also branched out into other fields besides mus…

Grammy-winner Shawn Colvin came up on the East Coast folk scene in the '80s, finally scoring a major label deal toward the end of that decade. Despite consistently strong work centered around her resilient voice and folk-rock songwriting, she didn't …

Singer/guitarist Bonnie Raitt emerged from the Cambridge, MA, coffeehouse scene with a soulful and sexy sound that mixed blues, folk, and rock. After almost two decades in near-obscurity, her impassioned breakthrough into the pop world--1989's NICK O…

When she first emerged in the '80s, Canadian singer k.d. Lang was heavily inspired by the swooping, crystalline vocal style of country queen Patsy Cline. She quickly showed herself to be a writer of considerable depth, simultaneously forward-looking …

In the midst of the early 1990s grunge boom, Counting Crows emerged as an alternative to the heavy, alienated sounds of the Kurt Cobain crowd. The California band harked back to the classic '60s folk-rock sounds of the Band, Bob Dylan, and Van Morris…

During her early career, the androgynous, smoky-voiced diva was best known as one half of the hugely successful pop duo the Eurythmics. However, after parting ways with her collaborator Dave Stewart in 1991, Lennox emerged as a successful and critica…

Part Cyndi Lauper and part Madness, No Doubt came out of nowhere in 1995 and exploded on the alt-rock scene with their special brand of mainstream ska-rock. While the focal point of the group was unmistakably the sexy and hyperactive singer Gwen Stef…

The ultimate expression of the DIY ethic, iconoclastic singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco burst onto the contemporary folk scene while still in her teens. Her confrontational lyrics, aggressive, percussive acoustic guitar playing, and unconventional imag…

Irish alt-rockers the Cranberries became Top 40 superstars following the stateside release of their debut album, 1993's EVERYBODY'S DOING IT SO WHY CAN'T WE? The band's blend of alternative rock and dreamy pop was the perfect musical backdrop for lea…

After rising to prominence as the leader of Boston's Til Tuesday and scoring a huge hit with "Voices Carry," Aimee Mann left behind her old band for a solo career that typified the struggles of musicians to survive in an increasingly market-driven in…