MTV went on the air on August 1, 1981, and produced its first Video Music Awards just three years later. That makes for almost three decades of marrying the most popular pop music with televised spectacle. In assembling this guide, we picked albums that in our minds were inextricably linked to the videos they spawned, such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from Nevermind, "Waterfalls" from CrazySexyCool, and "Stan" from The Marshall Mathers LP. Including every last album was impossible, and so we tried instead for a pan-genre, multi-era sampling of the impact this once-upstart network has had on both pop music and pop culture. Enjoy.
The most well-known jazz label in history, Blue Note is famous for its amazing roster, the vibrant, full-bodied sound of its recordings and for its iconic record sleeves. The label's greatest period is considered to be the '50s and '60s, when it practically defined the hard bop and soul jazz movements. Blue Note is still going strong today, cultivating new talent as it celebrates its 70th anniversary, which we commemorate with this selection of the coolest jazz sides you'll ever hear. And dig those classy album covers... Girls! Cars! Saxophones! Sweaty foreheads!
Back in the '80s, 
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When the world works the way it's supposed to, don't question it. Just accept it and say, "Amen."
Editor's Note: The news from Pakistan is bad. One-fifth of the country's landmass has been flooded and 20 million Pakistanis have been affected. To date, the international response has been, at best, tepid. Rhapsody has compiled a list of credible organizations working on the ground in Pakistan who can make a difference in the lives of people who've lost everything and are now threatened with homelessness, disease and (potentially) starvation. If you're moved to, please donate to one of the charities below. And read on to learn more about Pakistan's rich and enduring musical culture.
What can we say about 
If Hurricane Katrina was one of the great tragedies of modern America, then New Orleans’ resurrection in its aftermath is one of our greatest triumphs. The road hasn’t been an easy one, but the Crescent City has returned to its rightful place as one of the cultural capitols of the world. It’s a place that is one of the key birthplaces of modern music and, on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, we pay tribute to the great city with a selection of the best it has to offer - past, present and future.
Her days of 
It may be a bit of an overstatement, but in many ways 
The concept of youth as a metaphor — for love, for fun, for emotional turmoil — couched in an '80s teen movie aesthetic suits 
Excessive. Over the top. Larger than life. Camp is almost impossible to define without delving into its propensity for blowing culture up into massive, magnificent, drag-queenly proportions. But camp is about more than just overblown parody — or, rather, it hinges on the notion that the very act of spectacle itself can have significance. Camp can often be a strategy of social critique. Susan Sontag famously defined camp as a "sensibility that converts the serious into the frivolous" — in other words, a tactic of taking some of the wind out of the sails of culture that takes itself a bit too seriously. But camp isn't all snark and sass either: it can also be a loving homage to something very near and dear to the camper's heart, an example of teasing as loving. What camp does is make something so big and so silly that its flaws can't be hidden, but it also can't help but look fabulous.
The 1980s had it all -- big hair, big shoulder pads and big sounds. All the '70s art-rock weirdos -- from Bowie to Roxy to Eno to Waits -- and the survivors from the punk movement converged in the '80s to come up with post-punk, synth pop, indie rock, the paisley underground and more. It all got lumped together as alternative rock and we had a fun week fighting over each of the finalists for this 25 essential albums list. The screams of pain were so loud when the Specials, the Psych Furs, and Jesus & Mary Chain were knocked off the final list that we're already planning a sequel.
August is always a slow news cycle, so it's somehow fitting that this month's big viral sensation was about a really slow song.
Ever wonder where 
Call it what you will -- folk-pop, blue-eyed soul, lite/jazz/yacht rock, whatever -- but soft rock was the ruler of the airwaves during the 1970s. Scaling back the endless guitar solos and putting the song front-and-center, this oft-maligned genre came from noble roots: Dylan, the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, soul and L.A.'s country rock scene. Sometimes soft rock was just escapist fun but the best music often contained '70s confusion, emotional grit and (at times) bitter lyrics -- Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon and Elton John describe the decade as well as any author or filmmaker. Lasting art aside, you can just dip into soft rock as if it was the condo Jacuzzi from the singles community of your dreams.
Editor's Note: Listen to a selection of the songs mentioned here on a playlist at the end of this post, or click through to listen to all of these artists on Rhapsody. If you're not a member, 
I was probably 12 or 13 when I first discovered 
In our constant search for an imagined golden age of hip-hop, the early '90s shines particularly brightly in our imaginations. It was a rough period for artists, though. Major labels regularly tossed albums onto the market with no clue how to promote them and then summarily dropped those artists when the albums didn't yield results. The multiplatinum success of 
Put to tape in just a few days, in 
Ladies love 
As fall approaches, things are heating up in the world of country music, and not a minute too soon. This summer has been sluggish in terms of landmark releases, but things are definitely picking up! We're talking new releases from Trace Adkins, Taylor Swift, Zac Brown Band, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Reba and plenty more. Let's call it this the music industry's Indian summer, shall we, because these releases are HOT.
For whatever reason, the endlessly tortured combination of blues and punk that The Gun Club bummed the world out with in the early '80s often gets forgotten. Their first record, Fire of Love — with demonic, tribal drums, scritchity-scratchity guitars and Jeffrey Lee Pierce's talent for doomed-man poetry — was representative of the earliest shots in the alternative-rock wars. Unfortunately, Pierce's rock-star behavior (lots of booze and drugs, acting like an a-hole) submarined the band after only three records, and Pierce himself tragically died of a brain hemorrhage in 1996. Still, their gothic aesthetic had a major effect on the downer attitude of the alternative music that came after them, culminating in the pervasive depression that marked grunge. Fire of Love is the rare record whose influence can be detected throughout the range of alternative rock — from garage punk to major-label indie rock. Below, we've compiled a list of some of the albums more heavily influence by The Gun Club, whether musically or thematically.
Outside Lands holds the distinction as the coldest "summer" music festival in the country. An August day in San Francisco is generally a dicey (and cold) proposition, and an afternoon spent at the furthest edges of Golden Gate Park requires some bundling. But for those who braved the conditions were treated to a pretty awesome show of spectacular music, surprisingly amazing food and general good-spirited revelry. Below you'll find exclusive interviews, blow-by-blow accounts of each day's activities, and incredible pictures of some of the day's best live sets.
Life is a bit of an expectations game. If you're thinking filet mignon and they bring you a hamburger, you're going to be bummed. But if you're expecting gruel, and out comes a nice, juicy Niman Ranch burger, you'll probably be pretty stoked. I'd only been to one previous Outside Lands - the festival's 2008 bow that was plagued by poor organization, gate crashers, bad sound and generally bad vibes. Combine that with a 2010 line-up that had been cause for 
Thomas Mars of 
