If rock 'n' roll is about breaking all the rules, Christian music is rock's polar opposite. There are definite rules that need to be followed and lines that shouldn't be crossed. That doesn't mean there aren't artists who strain at those confines, eager to broaden horizons and get people thinking. Sometimes it's a single song in an otherwise conservative career, sometimes it's an artist's ongoing mission to shake things up. Either way, Christian music is better for these rebels who push the boundaries and continue to make us question our ideas of what's good or right or even "Christian."
Singer-songwriter Derek Webb doesn't court controversy so much as it just seems to pour out of him naturally. There's the black eye he sports on the cover of his album Stockholm Syndrome. Christians may be caught off guard by lines like "I am a whore, I do confess/ I put you on just like a wedding dress" ("Wedding Dress"). And there's plenty more thought-provoking, boundary-pushing music where that came from.
Talk about "Hands on a Hard Body": for a certain species of auto-shop student, back in 1995, tricked-out rides were raised to the level of an art form. And while all kinds of hip-hop fueled their subwoofers, surely the most potent strain was G-funk, with its slinky leads and suggestive bounce, rolling and purring like an El Dorado.
What is the cost of forgiveness? 
The American mod was very real, but he was a vastly different creature from those that spawned him. In 1965 and '66, after 
We could lay out a bunch of "women are awesome" quotes right about now, but the ladies we spotlight on this Cheat Sheet would likely cringe at such clichés; they'd cringe and then probably be inspired to create some sort of inexplicable masterpiece. Really, these sirens need no introduction. We've put them into rough categories, only to make the navigation a little easier, but all of them could easily slink under any of these groupings: the Femmes Fatales, the Edgy Eccentrics, the Brooding Romantics, the Quirky Thinkers, the Wistful Dreamers. All of these women have shaken up the music world (and plenty of men as well) — and thank heavens for that. Take a listen to our 
A major influence on a broad range of extreme-metal styles (though most felt in the metalcore moves of such bands as 
She's a survivor. Whatever else you're inclined to say about 
The last couple months have been a fantastic time for jazz, both in a general sense and here in the Rhapsody cosmos.
Gay men and female pop stars have always had a special relationship. For decades, the latter have spoken to (and sometimes for) a demographic that has endured a great deal of prejudice and abuse, providing a mainstream voice (or at least outlet) for those who historically have had none in mainstream society. To adore a particular diva has been, at times, a means of building community, articulating a dangerous desire or simply making friends. But gay men also have plenty to offer their beloved divas: long renowned as tastemakers and trendsetters, gay men have increasingly become a sought-after demographic for the pop diva, more than one of whom has the Friends of Dorothy (and, especially, their dance clubs) to thank for her latest hit or, sometimes, her entire career.
At the ripe old age of 29, 
Just as the East Coast hip-hop industry experienced its renaissance in the mid-'90s, so did the South's. The latter wasn't a musical revolution, at least in terms of beats. Southern artists still took their cues from the West Coast and producers like 
Chicago's Kranky label has had a handle on its aesthetic from the very beginning, when albums from 
The Latin pop world knows divas. Take 
A couple of years ago I was programming a new Rhapsody radio station to complement our New Wave channel. Since it was called ‘80s Alternative, I was loading it up with hundreds of songs from the 1980s (no duh!). Picking songs for this station was easy as can be — after all, this was the era I grew up in. But when I listened to the station I knew that something was wrong.
Celebrated author and music journalist 
Ten years ago, Luke Lewis, chairman of Universal Nashville, made his dream of a nurturing, singer-songwriter-oriented label into reality with the launch of Lost Highway. The aim was to create a label that, as he says, "might be a haven for artists that make enduring music not driven by hits on the radio," and Lost Highway put that dream to the test with their first release, the soundtrack to the quirky movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Five Grammy Awards and 7 million sales later, Lost Highway was up and running in the fast lane. Since then, the label has released gems from pioneers such as Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash as well as groundbreakers including Whiskeytown and the Jayhawks. Not to put too much emphasis on the numbers, but since its inception, the label has released 80 albums, sold 18 million units, and earned 53 Grammy nominations resulting in 15 wins.
It's once again time to round up the latest releases in the world of the rawk. In recent weeks, we here at Rhapsody have been singing the praises of new albums by Rise Against, R.E.M. and G. Love. In addition to these high-profile titles, Jeff Beck, new-breed Southern rockers Drive-By Truckers and sludge-metal lords Crowbar have all released records. Then there's the vintage stuff. These include quality retrospectives of wall-of-sound guru Phil Spector and his Ronettes, as well as a nice reissue of Thin Lizzy's debut album from 1971. Plus, we can't overlook Oh Me, Oh My: Aretha Live in Philly 1972, which is just sublime.
We caught up with
While you're reading, listen to the entire playlist: 
Nathaniel Dwayne "
Rap rock hasn't changed much since 
Is it just us or are the charts seriously blowing up lately? If someone's not setting off a "Firework" or some "Dynamite," they're making the place "Blow" or go "Boom." Even if they're not blowing stuff up, pop stars seem to be wallowing in a kind of dance-pop dystopia: drowning their sorrows in drink or relentless, brain-obliterating beats, singing about dancing away the pain or even "Till the World Ends," as Britney suggests in her new single. What the hellow is going on? 
While you're reading, listen to the entire playlist: 
Ah, the Grunge Jock. He was an odd fellow.
March. March madness. Twenty-odd days until spring officially starts. St. Patrick's Day. There's something hopeful and expectant about the month of March; it's hard to pin down, exactly, but it's certainly there.
Here's another roundup of new indie and alternative releases for you to enjoy. We've got nearly two dozen albums here, everything from alt-rock heroes R.E.M. to sassy Swede Lykke Li to equally sassy Dane Oh Land to Dinosaur Jr. mastermind J Mascis to Brit rockers Beady Eye (that'd be Oasis sans Noel). Plus, there are Dodos, Cave Singers and other casts of crazy, yet talented, characters. Dig in.
Ms. Avril Lavigne's latest, 
Christian and gospel music have a worshipful bent, but worship music is in a class by itself, focusing not just on faith intermingled with the stuff of our everyday lives but on celebrating the One who gave us those lives in the first place. Often vertical in nature — causing us to look up heavenward instead of around at our circumstances — the music celebrates God and His unending love for us. Each of these new releases fits this description perfectly, offering new expressions of the age-old story of the Bible. 
Austin turns into a live music behemoth (more so than it already is) every March with the advent of SXSW, which starts at the end of this week. We've sifted through a seemingly endless list of performers who are set to hit the Live Music Capital of the World to present you with 11 we're most excited about.
Released in 1969, 
The "Girls" in question refer to both the fans and the artists they loved. These are the girls who, depending on your sex (and sexual orientation), you either secretly drooled over or secretly wanted to be (or maybe both). A little (Emily the) strange, a lot artistic (or at least artsy), kind of aloof in an incredibly enticing way. Favorite activities included reading Sassy, doodling neo-feminist comic book characters, slathering on eyeliner, cutting bangs, seeing shows by quirky girl performers who looked a lot like them, and generally being cooler than you. Favorite bands encompassed the full range of indie girldom at the time — and it was quite a range in the early '90s, from twee pop to riot grrrl, from breathy hipster ingenues to screaming rockers, from 
Despite San Diego's reputation as a breeding ground for svelte, blond surfer types, it's also been home to plenty of musical misfits over the years — among them 
It would take record companies a few more years to take the phenomenon into account in their marketing endeavors, but one neat thing about New Wave at the dawn of the '80s was that if you didn't consider yourself one of the popular kids in your class — and were too much a square peg to identify with your older brother's hard rock and disco — it suddenly felt like there was music for you out there. 
The rap season has begun to heat up with this week's arrival of Raekwon and Lupe Fiasco's new albums. But the previous two months brought a handful of solid fare, too, from Saigon, Joell Ortiz and Slaughterhouse. Check out our Roundup for a sampler of the latest hip-hop discs.
Unless you've been living under a rock these past few weeks you know a few things about Charlie Sheen. You know because he's calling in to radio shows, appearing on Good Morning America and getting referenced every five seconds on ESPN. God knows what's happening on Twitter and Facebook. What you know is that he's been fired from his mega-popular show, Two And A Half Men, but it doesn't matter because he's got not just tiger blood but Adonis blood, too. He's got magic in his fingertips, naps like a F-14 and in case anyone is wondering, is "winning." Oh and he lives with two "goddesses." Let's just ignore the fact that his kids have been taken away and his beleagured sinuses have every right to press charges for, uh, let's just say reckless endangerment. Kidding aside, this public of a meltdown has never happened before and it's riveting. Let's just hope Charlie survives it. Below we offer a playlist in honor of the awesomeness of the whole thing.
Swedish pop presents an interesting conundrum — or, more accurately, a series of interesting conundrums — for American music fans. Older Swedish pop stars (like 
This week, we're running down some of the best and brightest new electronic releases from the past few weeks. Our roundup is heavy on left-field pop, whether it's the lyrical minimalism of James Blake and Nicolas Jaar, the dubby punk of Paris Suit Yourself, or the lush textures of Toro Y Moi, but there's also pipe-organ ambiance from Tim Hecker, thumping analog techno from Rude 66, and even garage-rock covers of Detroit techno classics, courtesy of the Dirtbombs. Fans of Radiohead at their most abstract should pay special attention to the winsome sounds of Stateless, a promising new act signed to Ninja Tune.
Last year, I 
Nominations for the 42nd annual Dove Awards were recently announced at Atlanta's historic Fox Theatre, with 