Ever since they made their debut back in 2005, Calle 13 turned heads their way, and not necessarily just because of their music.  Although they were put under the reggaeton umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh, they were and still are anything but reggaeton.  Trying to classify Calle 13 in one particular genre is as hard as trying to tell apart Mary-Kate from Ashley Olsen.  With every album they step further away from reggaeton, yet they are still considered to be reggaeton, so it’s a bit strange to find such music among Ivy Queen, Don Omar, Wisin & Yandel and all those reggaetoneros.  Calle 13 doesn’t seem to mind the labeling and instead of dissing it, they embrace it and take pride into being part of the “género urbano”.

After a five-year hiatus from the limelight UK trip-hop/ rock/ alternative/ pop singer and songwriter Dido returns to the music scene with her third album “Safe Trip Home”.  While Eminem helped launch her career in the U.S. by sampling “Thank You” from her debut album. Regardless of her surprising debut, Dido is anything but hip-hop, or mainstream for that matter. Sure, a couple of her singles have managed to make their way to commercial radio stations and even reached Top 40 status, but she is however anything but commercial. Ever since she first started recording, she made it clear that she was in the music business for the music itself- not the glamour, the awards and all the perks that come with being a musician, Dido only wanted to make music.  And so she did and has been doing since her debut in 1999.

Back in 2000, Russian music mogul Ivan Shapovalov took the music industry for a hell of a ride when he introduced his latest project.  A lesbian duo called T.a.T.u., which started their career with a bang.  When Lena Katina and Yulia Volkova ventured into this project they had no idea the amount of buzz they would create, an international ruckus came as a surprise with their single “All the Things She Said”.  From the beginning, they led everyone to believe they were a couple.  Steamy videos for their singles and even steamier live performances that usually climaxed with both of them making out on stage- sure, two girls kissing has been done in television--- but all this happened way before the Britney/ Madonna/ Christina MTV lip-locking ménage á troi. T.a.T.u. was definitely turning heads their ways because of their controversial lifestyle and attitude. 

The late 1990’s/ early 2000’s represented a “good” era for pop music.  It spawned many of today’s biggest pop acts: Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, and P!nk, among others. Of the whole bunch, most of them opted to stay inside the pop stratosphere, while others decided to explore other terrains.  Alecia Moore, famously known as P!nk took quite an unexpected path.  While she always sported a badass attitude, it didn’t quite connect with her dancey/ hip-hopish/ bubblegum pop tunes from her first couple of albums.  For her third album “Try This” le dejó claro a todos que eso del bubblegum pop was not the real her- she teamed up with Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and presented a rock tinged album that earned her a Grammy but poor sells.  For her follow-up album “I’m Not Dead” she kept her rocker chic attitude but this time decided to throw a couple catchy hooks here and there.  Now with “Funhouse”, P!nk is back with a broken heart but with plenty of attitude, emotion and songs to rock the shiz out of everyone.