The next time someone says they were "down back in the day," be sure to hit random on our Hip-Hop's Golden Age Essentials set and take them on a tour that starts with Run-DMC's Raising …

While there's no denying the hardcore hip-hop legacy of N.W.A. (even the lesser-known piano lines and restless soul loops of "I Ain't Tha 1" sound stupid-fresh decades later), gangsta rap's roots can b …

Elvis Presley. Jerry Lee Lewis. Johnny Cash. Carl Perkins. These and many more icons of American music started their journey in Sam Phillips' little studio at Memphis' 706 Union Ave. From "I Walk the L …

From Elvis Presley to Roy Orbison, a jaw-dropping crew of American music's masters got their start at Sun Records. But the label's regal roster is also full of less famous names whose contributions to  …

Few bands have been as instrumental in modernizing salsa and speeding up its tempo as Colombia's Sonora Carruseles. In the U.S., the Spanish Harlem Orchestra has engaged in a crusade to preserve the fu …

Disco is in full flower, and 1979 yields some of its (and karaoke's) all-time classics: Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," Sister Sledge's "We Are Family," Donna Summer's "Bad Girls," and the Village Pe …

A Latin jazz classic penned by Cuban conguero Mongo Santamarfa, the classic "Afro-Blue" illustrates the kind of bewitching grooves that result when you mix African rhythm with a Latin sensibilit …

Country music was in transition during the immediately pre-Urban Cowboy era. Angry white-guy anthems, such as Johnny Paycheck's "Take This Job and Shove It" and Merle Haggard's "The Fightin' Sid …

The punk movement of the late '70s was a breath of pure oxygen, wedging itself between the bloated self-importance of progressive rock and the mindless inanity of disco. The Brits' take on it came from …