Joseph Edgar Foreman grew up in South Central LA. In eighth grade, he recorded a song about his teacher, who kicked him out of school for wearing saggy pants, and sold 400 copies of it to classmates and other teachers. He recorded his deubt in 1998 at age 24 and moved to Mississippi where he met a drummer, keyboardist, and producer Headfridge, who produced 2000's Because I Got High. It was one of the earliest examples of a song shooting to fame through the Internet. The album was mainly shared on Napster until Howard Stern played the title track on his show. The song became a runaway hit, was featured in movies Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and others, and was nominated for a Grammy.
Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland and four other tween girls formed group Girl's Tyme in Houston in 1990. They auditioned on Ed McMahon's Star Search but lost, perhaps focusing too much on rapping and dancing over singing. Beyonce's dad Mathew decided to manage them, cut their lineup down to four, and instituted a "boot camp" practice schedule. Mathew quit his day job in sales, family income dwindled, and he briefly separated from Beyonce's mother. After several iterations, they settled on Destiny's Child, taking the name in part from a Bible passage. Their 1997 self-titled debut went platinum in the US and scored several hits including "No, No, No." The follow up, 1999's The Writing's on the Wall, was their breakthrough album and gave their first #1 single ("Bills, Bills, Bills"). The other two members felt Mathew was unfairly focusing promotion and profits on Beyonce and Kelly, left the group, and sued Mathew and their former bandmates. Two others joined and one, Michele Williams, stayed for the duration. Their third album, Survivor, debuted at #1 and sold 6 million copies.
Wes Scantlin and three friends formed Puddle of Mudd in 1991 in Kansas City, taking the name from the mucky Rissouri River levee they had to walk through to get to their practice space. After releasing a lackluster 1997 debut, they broke up due to creative differences and only Scantlin remained. Fred Durst discovered their demo tape and helped the band reform. Their major label debut Come Clean went triple platinum and had four top 10 hits including "Control", the theme to a WWE Survivor Series, and "Blurry". The band grew to resent their connection to Durst and the suggestion that he made them famous.
Jack Gillis met Meg White at a Memphis BBQ restaurant where she worked and where he read poetry at open mic nights. They married in 1996 and unconventionally, Jack took Meg's last name. Jack bounced around different bands and when Meg started to learn drums, they decided to form their own band. They were going to be named the Peppermints, after Meg's favorite candy, but settled on the White Stripes after their last name. Jack and Meg publicly pretended to be brother and sister and would only wear white, red, and black. Their first singles only pressed a thousand copies and their eponymous debut remained underground. Jack and Meg divorced in 2000 but Meg convinced them to keep the band alive. Their third album, 2001's White Blood Cells, was their breakthrough. The Daily Mirror called them "the greatest band since The Sex Pistols".
Quentin Cook was born in Kent and, while studying at Brighton Polytechnic, started DJing and laid the base for Brighton's hip-hop scene of the early 80s. Cook formed various groups of combinations of studio musicians, producers, and DJs and in 1996 adopted the name Fatboy Slim ("It's just an oxymoron - a word that can't exist. It kind of suits me - it's kind of goofy and ironic.") The first album under that name, Better Living Through Chemistry, went gold in the US and had two huge cultural hits: "The Rockafeller Skank" and "Praise You". 2000's "Weapon of Choice" featured lead vocal from Bootsy Collins, samples of Sly & The Family Stone, The Chambers Brohers, and The X-Ecutioners, an adaptation of the chorus from a Black Sheep song, a quote from the film Dune ("Walk without rhythm and it won't attract the worm"), and an award-winning, unforgettable music video featuring Christopher Walken dancing in a hotel lobby.
The son of an acclaimed surfer, Jack Johnson grew up surfing in Oahu. He made it to the finals of the Pipeline Masters but had a surfing accident that left him with 100 stitches in his forehead and several missing teeth. He started collaborating with G. Love and wrote and sang on a track that became a big 1999 single for them. Ben Harper's producer caught Johnson's demo and agreed to produce his debut album Brushfire Fairytales. Jack opened for Ben Harper on the last 23 cities of his 2001 tour and "Flake" became his first hit single.
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