Curated playlist
American pop guitarists
- MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
- Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
- Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a home where the word "luck" was banned. Her pastor mother said it reminded her of Lucifer.
- Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen threw the first acetate of his own album Born to Run into the swimming pool of his hotel in 1975. The record was being mastered while the band toured, and he was furious at what he heard. He briefly considered scrapping…
- Prince (musician)Prince once changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol to protest his record label.
- Paul SimonPaul Simon, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, nearly gave one of his best-known songs the wrong name. While writing music for the film The Graduate, he toyed with calling a new song "Mrs. Roosevelt." Art Garfunkel passed the…
- Lana Del ReyLana Del Rey was born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, and for years she performed under names that almost nobody remembers. One of them was Sparkle Jump Rope Queen. Another was May Jailer. These were the stage identities of a young American…
- Neil DiamondNeil Diamond, born on the 24th of January 1941, once stretched his food budget to just 35 cents a day. Decades later, the American singer-songwriter had sold more than 56.5 million records in the United States alone. That total places him…
- James TaylorJames Taylor, the American singer-songwriter and guitarist, was the last act on the bill at the Newport Folk Festival on the 20th of July 1969. Thousands of fans had stayed through the rain just to hear him. He got through only 15 minutes.…
- Halsey (singer)Halsey, the stage name of Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, once looked at a bank account holding nine dollars. She spent it on a four-pack of Red Bull. The caffeine kept her awake for two or three days, because she judged sleeping somewhere…
- Hayley WilliamsHayley Williams was 16 years old when her band Paramore released its debut album, All We Know Is Falling, in 2005. Readers of Alternative Press later voted her second in a poll of the five greatest pop-punk vocalists of all time. Yet…