The Anniversary

There should be a word for it: The thing before the thing. In the summer of 2000, rock music was in a weird place. If…

Arcade Fire were already anointed. By 2010, their 2004 debut Funeral was already regarded as a modern classic, a flag in the ground for a…

Bethany Cosentino knew what was up. On "Everything Has Changed," a song from Best Coast's latest album Always Tomorrow, she looks back on her early…

The Baha Men’s "Who Let The Dogs Out" has existed for 20 years. There are adults of voting age who have never lived on a…

While blonde teenybopper prima donnas ruled MTV’s Total Request Live during the early 2000s, the era also ushered in a North Philadelphia-based R&B powerhouse who…

Raise your hand if you remember when Coldplay were the new Travis. Before the U2-for-millennials arena rock, the Grey's Anatomy tearjerker power ballads, the old-timey…

M.I.A. was right. Well, she ended up being wrong about a lot (vaccines especially), but she was on the money about the internet, the focal…

In 2016, when he was 18 years old, the Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes shared some thoughts about his personal evolution since parlaying viral fame…

Nobody can take credit for "Down Down Baby." "Down Down Baby" is a part of American folkloric tradition, a clapping-game chant that goes back, at…

You have to be ready. That's the lesson. An upstart two-piece garage-blues band from Detroit, one that has a couple of records out on a…

Sunny Day Real Estate is often held up as the greatest emo band of all time, or at least the most definitive. I won’t argue…

Deftones were different. With their second album, 1997's Around The Fur, the punishingly heavy Sacramento band had established themselves as a unique presence under the…

Drake had already changed the game. Technically, Thank Me Later, released 10 years ago, was his debut album. But with his 2009 mixtape So Far…

Modest Mouse were epic before they signed to Epic. Both of the Issaquah, Washington indie band's first two proper LPs pushed the limits of the…

The following is excerpted from Bring That Beat Back: How Sampling Built Hip-Hop by Nate Patrin. Copyright 2020 by Nate Patrin. Available from the University…