Curated playlist

NME Awards winners

ColdplayColdplay's first release was 500 copies of a self-financed EP. The band later grossed a billion dollars on one tour.
Lady GagaLady Gaga's name may have come from a phone typo. Producer Rob Fusari said autocorrect turned "Radio Ga Ga" into "Lady".
Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
MetallicaIn 1986, a tour bus overturned in Sweden and killed Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.
Kanye WestKanye West recorded "Through the Wire" with his jaw still wired shut. A 2002 car accident had shattered it.
BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
AdeleA friend posted Adele's three-song class demo on Myspace, and a record label phoned.
Blondie (band)The band Blondie got its break when Australian TV played the B-side of a single instead of the A-side.
Paul McCartneyPaul McCartney traded a trumpet for a guitar and wrote his first song on it. His father had given him the trumpet.
Oasis (band)Oasis, the rock band from Manchester, once drew applications for 2.5 million tickets to a pair of shows at Knebworth. Only 250,000 tickets were actually sold, which meant the band could in theory have filled twenty nights. Instead they…
Blur (band)Blur's 1995 chart battle with Oasis became a story on national news. Both bands released singles on the same day.
BTSBTS debuted in 2013 from a small label outside K-pop's three dominant agencies. They practiced up to 15 hours a day.
Foo FightersThe Foo Fighters began in October 1994, when Dave Grohl walked into Robert Lang Studios with 15 songs of his own. He played every instrument and sang every vocal. The single exception was a guitar part on "X-Static," played by Greg Dulli…
Dua LipaIn the week beginning the 15th of May 2020, Dua Lipa's album Future Nostalgia sat at number one on the UK chart with only 7,317 sales. No chart-topping album this century has sold fewer copies in a single week. That modest number belongs…
Rage Against the MachineRage Against the Machine, a rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1991, had sold more than 16 million records worldwide by 2010. On the 3rd of November 2023, Ice-T inducted the group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Barclays Center in…
Charli XCXCharli XCX once drew about 37,000 RSVPs to a single club set in Brooklyn, and only 400 of those people were allowed inside. The set was called PARTYGIRL, and it took place on the 22nd of February 2024. It was her second Boiler Room set…
One DirectionOne Direction began on the 23rd of July 2010, when five young singers who had each been knocked out of a talent show were put together as a group. Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson had all auditioned…
M.I.A. (rapper)M.I.A. arrived in London as an eleven-year-old refugee speaking no English. She later became a Grammy and Oscar nominee.
My Chemical RomanceMy Chemical Romance, an American rock band from New Jersey, began with an act of witnessing. Gerard Way watched the World Trade Center towers fall during the attacks of the 11th of September 2001. The sight changed his life so thoroughly…
ParamoreParamore is an American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, and its story begins with a doubtful bass player. When Jeremy Davis arrived for the first practice, he was stunned to learn that the drummer, Zac Farro, was only fourteen years…
Billie EilishBillie Eilish was 18 years old when she left the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020 holding all four of the ceremony's general field prizes. Only one person had done that before her, and no woman had. Not long before, she had been a…
Dave GrohlDave Grohl, born David Eric Grohl on the 14th of January 1969, once sat at number one on the modern rock charts for 17 of 18 consecutive weeks. The run stretched from the 26th of October 2002 to the 1st of March 2003. He managed it as a…
Jared LetoOn the 9th of November 2023, Jared Leto became the first person to legally scale the Empire State Building. He climbed it to promote a worldwide concert run called the Seasons Tour. Few actors would hang from a skyscraper to sell tickets,…
Idris ElbaIdris Elba spent a night locked alone in a cell on Robben Island. He did it to prepare to play Nelson Mandela.
Kylie MinogueKylie Minogue's hit "I Should Be So Lucky" was written in under 40 minutes.
Damon AlbarnDamon Albarn was due to speak at a rally in Hyde Park in February 2003. A million people had taken to the streets of London to protest the coming war in Iraq. He never gave the speech, because he was too emotional. Afterwards he explained…
Harry StylesHarry Styles ran the Berlin Marathon in 2:59:13, a personal best, while entered under the pseudonym Sted Sarandos. The singer, songwriter and actor, born in 1994, also finished the Tokyo marathon in 2025, completing two of the six World…
Lily AllenIn the months before her debut album, almost nobody outside her record label's A&R department knew who Lily Allen was. Even so, 500 limited edition 7-inch vinyl copies of her song "LDN" were rush-released, and they resold for as much as…
Iggy AzaleaIggy Azalea, born Amethyst Amelia Kelly on the 7th of June 1990, told her parents in 2006 that she was going to the United States on a holiday with a friend. She was shortly before her sixteenth birthday. The holiday never ended. She…
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…
Amy LeeAmy Lee was thirteen in 1994 when she sat down at a piano at a Christian youth camp while the other campers played sports. Nearby, a guitarist named Ben Moody picked up an acoustic guitar, and Lee thought the two of them could make music…