Beck

Beck is one of the most innovative artists of his generation, ransacking every genre he can and collating them into his own eclectic style. Son of Bibbe Hansen - one of Andy Warhol's youngest film starlets - and composer/arranger David Campbell, he busked through Europe before returning to the US to play coffee houses and punk clubs. Championed by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, he finally realised his plan to play folk music over hip hop beats on major label debut Mellow Gold (1994). His ragamuffin, post-modern take on pop culture arrived in the collision of samples, drum loops and slide guitars bearing breakthrough hit, the brilliant slacker anthem, Loser. That was followed by landmark album Odelay (1996) and hit singles Where It's At and Devil's Haircut. He experimented with 1960s psychedelia and Brazilian bossa nova on Mutations (1998), funk and disco on Midnite Vultures (1999) and alt.country on Sea Change (2002). Reuniting with Odelay producers the Dust Brothers, Guero (2005) - including a Jack White cameo - was a US smash, before he teamed up with Danger Mouse and Cat Power on Modern Guilt (2008).