SPIN 35
The Most Influential Artists: #13 Dr. Dre
As part of our 35th anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #13. From Compton, California, here is Dr. Dre. Credit: Raymond Boyd / Contributor Dr. Dre had predecessors and peers, but he’s the sonic architect of West Coast rap: Integral to its inception, he shaped and then reimagined the contours of its sound. His influence extends from the ‘80s to the unlikely day that people stop playing “Nuthin But a G Thang” and “California Love.” In the mid-’80s, Dre was “in surgery” at Compton roller rinks, cutting records for electro-rap paragons World Class Wreckin’ Cru. After ditching the shiny suits, he donned all black with N.W.A. and dropped Straight Outta Compton, bringing L.A. gangsta rap to the masses. Dre (and DJ Yella and Arabian Prince)...
The 35 Most Excellent Movies of the Last 35 Years
It’s that film that shook up the genre or trail-blazed a new one. Or maybe its uniqueness defies definition. These movies didn’t always do great at the box office, and some confused critics. And then there are those that broke through the cinematic stratosphere. We’ve chosen the 35 Most Excellent Films of the Last 35 Years that have burned their way into our cultural landscape and onto our — if we do say so ourselves—most kick-ass list. 35. 24-Hour Party People (2002) Credit: Revolution Film If you’ve ever wondered what it may have been like to live through one of the most essential moments of alternative-music history, here’s your chance. The film starts out in Manchester in 1976 and is seen through the eyes of real-life Factory Music Founder Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan) in a fant...
The Most Influential Artists: #14 U2
As part of our 35th anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #14. From Dublin, Ireland here is U2. Credit: Kevin Mazur / Contributor A sad cultural truth: Some Gen Z-ers only know Dublin’s finest for inspiring headlines like “Here’s how to remove U2’s new album from your iPhone.” But we can’t blame Bono and company for dreaming big: Decades before they pissed off thousands of Apple users with their “free album” gambit, they were testing out risky creative concepts in the studio and onstage. The quartet — guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and their perpetually sunglass-ed frontman — emerged with 1980’s Boy as a stadium-tailored tweak on post-punk. But t...
AC/DC Flick the Switch on Power Up
The elephant in the room has a name: Axl Rose. AC/DC singer Brian Johnson’s actual room is illuminated by standing lamps on either side of a long, dark couch; he perches in the middle with his trademark cap and in his jolly British brogue begins the Zoom interview with an a capella tune. It incorporates my name and concludes with the lyrics “I’ll see you in my dreams.” Disarming, charming and voluble, my chat with the AC/DC singer is a relief. Rose, the Guns N’ Roses frontman, had replaced Johnson on the band’s European tour in May 2016, after Johnson’s exit the previous month due to worsening hearing issues. Ironically, Rose himself was infirm; he performed some AC/DC shows seated and in a leg cast. Four years and a ton of hearsay later it was confirmed: Johnson was officially back with...
The Most Influential Artists: #15 Pearl Jam
As part of our 35th anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #15. From Seattle, Washington here is Pearl Jam. Credit: Brian Rasic/Getty Images Three decades deep, Pearl Jam are now officially old enough to be known as “classic rock.” But on a sonic level, they’ve always sort of been classic rock, right? With Eddie Vedder roaring over the guitars of Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, the Seattle quintet carried the torch for the Who and Led Zeppelin during the ’90s and beyond. Their first masterpiece, 1991’s Ten, happened to arrive one month before Nirvana’s Nevermind, forever intertwining the two albums as tent poles of a movement everyone else called “grunge.” But their similarities were most...
Dear Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame: Induct the Go-Go’s Already!
Dear RRHOF (and anyone else who overlooked The Go-Go’s), Once upon a time in L.A.’s late-’70s punk scene, a bunch of young women found each other and decided to do something no all-girl group had done yet: write their own songs and play their own instruments. Last on that goal list? Become one of the biggest bands of the early-mid 80s. They did that. They are Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin. They had bigger dreams than the punk universe would allow. Once Charlotte Caffey wrote “We Got the Beat” in all of five minutes she pretty much sealed their destiny. Credit: Kerstin Rodgers/Redferns/Getty Images Early on, when they went to England to tour with The Specials and Madness, the white nationalists (a.k.a. The National Front) who loved s...
The Most Influential Artists: #16 The Neptunes
As part of our 35th anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #16. From Virginia Beach, Virginia, here are the Neptunes. Credit: Johnny Nunez / Contributor Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams have been popular music’s phone-a-friend since the turn of the century. Ever since they first linked up at a Virginia Beach summer camp in the early ‘90s, the pair have produced signature songs for some of the world’s biggest artists. From the late ’90s until today, the Neptunes’ DNA is present in many of pop’s biggest songs. When Britney Spears was ready to reinvent herself with her 2001’s Britney, she called up the boys and received “I’m a Slave 4 U,” a demo they initially intended for Janet Jackson. When Justin Timberlake needed his...
The Struggle for DIY: The Resilience of Marginalized Groups During the Pandemic
When the U.S. went into an economic shutdown to slow the spread of COVID-19 earlier this year, Shawna Shawnté — an Oakland musician and community organizer now based in Avondale, Arizona — didn’t take it seriously or believe it would affect the underground DIY music scene. “I — like everyone at the beginning — was like, ‘They’re exaggerating,’” Shawnté tells SPIN. “And then as time went on, I had an awakening where I was like, ‘Oh, this is how people feel about racism or transphobia. Because it’s something they can’t see or don’t see, they don’t think it’s real, and a lot of people who are in disability justice or are living with chronic illness or other issues, they’re like, ‘this is real.’” Business closures have been widespread and unrelenting throughout every industry, especially music...
Common’s Mission for Peace in America
Most celebrity interviews I’ve conducted usually included the runaround from publicists of their client’s ultra-small window of availability. When it came to interviewing Common, he quickly was on board to speak with me, but then the scheduling conflicts arose. For weeks, I went back and forth with his publicist over scheduling a telephonic, and every time we had a date on the calendar she emailed saying, and very apologetically, that Common needed to reschedule. He wasn’t giving me the cold shoulder. He didn’t decide to hop on a private jet to throw himself a birthday party on a private island during a pandemic. Common was doing good. He was traveling the country campaigning for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and perhaps more importantly, talking with people to get out the vote. The week be...
The Most Influential Artists: #17 The Notorious B.I.G.
As part of our 35th anniversary, we’re naming the most influential artists of the past 35 years. Today, we’re at #17. From Brooklyn, here is the Notorious B.I.G. Credit: New York Daily News Archive / Contributor For all the recording artists who died far too young in the “27 club,” it’s staggering that Christopher Wallace was even younger when he passed — and that he’d accomplished so much by age 24. Granted, his second solo album hadn’t yet landed in stores when he was shot on March 9, 1997. But that project, Life After Death, was the rare hip-hop double-LP where not a moment was wasted: spinning off multiple #1 singles, reaching Diamond certification, fleshing out one of the most impactful small discographies in rap history. The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1994 debut, Ready To Die, had a se...
Eddie Murphy and Spike Lee in Conversation: Our 1990 Cover Story
This article originally appeared in the October 1990 issue of SPIN. In the five years I’ve known Eddie Murphy, this interview was our first opportunity to site down and talk for any real length of time. Whose fault is it? Both of ours—we were too busy, too far apart, and too, too different (so we thought). After finishing, we were two young African-American males from Brooklyn. SPIKE: This is gonna be painless. Some of these questions I know the answers to already, but we’re just not going to assume anything. So the first question is: Why do you think we haven’t worked together yet? People always come up to me and ask me, “When are you and Eddy gonna hook up?” EDDIE: I don’t know. This weird thing happened, and I don’t even know if it’s somet...
Finneas on COVID-Era Creativity, Why He Has ‘More Than Enough’ Grammys
“When I’m in the room with another artist, I’m only there because I’m an admirer of their work, so I’m just trying to help them make something good,” Finneas O’Connell tells SPIN. “When I’m in a room alone, it’s about expressing myself and making sure that I am honest and exacting when I finish stuff. I don’t like to make sloppy work.” And he now finds himself in high demand — on both fronts. After the success of his sister Billie Eilish’s 2019 debut, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, which hit No. 1 and won him a Producer of the Year Grammy, Finneas has been slammed with work from pop monoliths like Halsey, Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello and Justin Bieber. And he’s somehow making time for his own solo projects — including his first EP, 2019’s Blood Harmony, and timely 2020 sin...
