Contemporary country singer Martina McBride rose to stardom in the late '90s, starting out with a more traditionalist approach and moving into pop-friendlier territory. She was born Martina Mariea Schiff in Sharon, KS, in 1966, and discovered country music through her father, who led a local band called the Schifters.

Pop and classical singer Josh Groban made his debut in the seventh grade, but then put music aside for a few years until he enrolled at the Interlochen Arts Program. In late 1998, he hooked up with a friend of his vocal coach, producer/writer/arranger David Foster...

Rising from humble beginnings in the small town of Charlemagne, Quebec, Celine Dion became one of the biggest international stars in pop music history, selling more than 100 million albums worldwide. The youngest in Adhemar and Therese Dion's family of 14 children, Dion grew up in an environment full of the inherent chaos and material austerity that comes with such a large working-class family...

Born in New Zealand, Keith Urban learned to play guitar as a six-year-old in Australia, after a young woman asked to place an ad in his dad's shop window offering guitar lessons...

Upon the release of their debut album, Yourself or Someone Like You, in the fall of 1996, Matchbox Twenty were pigeonholed as one of the legions of post-grunge guitar bands that roamed the American pop scene in the middle of the '90s...

With her blend of folk melodies, synthesized backdrops, and classical motifs, Enya created a distinctive style that more closely resembled new age than the folk and Celtic music that provided her initial influences...

According to Billboard chart statistics, Chicago is second only to the Beach Boys as the most successful American rock band of all time, in terms of both albums and singles.

Although Billy Joel never was a critic's favorite, the pianist emerged as one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the latter half of the '70s. Joel's music consistently demonstrates an affection for Beatlesque hooks and a flair for Tin Pan Alley and Broadway melodies...

Though classically trained, pianist Jim Brickman prefers to play more pop-flavored gently lyrical New Age music. His unique compositions are emotional and structured, but not rigidly so...

The winner of Fox TV's first American Idol: The Search for a Superstar competition during the summer of 2002, Kelly Clarkson went from an anonymous talent to a nationally known singer, performing for an audience of millions of viewers. One of the show's most naturally gifted singers, the 20-year-old Burleson, TX native's vocal talents were discovered when she was in seventh grade, when her school's choir teacher heard her singing and urged Clarkson to join the choir...

When Tim McGraw debuted in the early '90s, few would have predicted that he would eventually take over Garth Brooks' position as the most popular male singer in country music. Yet that's exactly what he did, thanks to a string of multi-platinum albums, a high-profile marriage to fellow superstar Faith Hill, and Brooks' own inevitable decline. His sound epitomized the strain of commercial country that dominated his era: updated honky tonk and Southern-fried country-rock on the uptempo tunes, well-polished, adult contemporary-tinged pop on the ballads...

Electronic pop chanteuse Dido entered London's Guildhall School of Music at age six, and by the time she reached her teens had already mastered piano, violin, and recorder. After touring with a British classical ensemble, she accepted a publishing job, in the meanwhile singing in a series of local groups before joining the trip-hop outfit Faithless -- helmed by her older brother, the noted DJ and producer Rollo -- in 1995...

Before he released his first album, Richard Marx sang on commercials and was a backing vocalist for Lionel Richie. It was here that he learned the commercial pop skills that made him an adult contemporary radio star in the late '80s...

Sheryl Crow's fresh, updated spin on classic roots rock made her one of the most popular mainstream rockers of the '90s. Her albums were loose and eclectic on the surface, yet were generally tied together by polished, professional songcraft...

Although Amy Grant cannot claim to have invented the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) style of gospel music, she did the most to popularize it in the 1970s and 1980s before successfully crossing over to pop music in the '80s and early '90s...

In terms of sales and lasting popularity, Elton John was the biggest pop superstar of the early '70s. Initially marketed as a singer/songwriter, John soon revealed he could craft Beatlesque pop and pound out rockers with equal aplomb...

Emerging in the mid-'90s, Shania Twain became the most popular country music artist since Garth Brooks. Skillfully fusing mainstream, AOR rock production with country-pop, Twain and her producer/husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange created a commercial juggernaut with her second album, The Woman in Me. The record became a multi-platinum phenomenon, peaking at number five on the pop charts and eventually selling over nine million copies in America alone. Twain might have sold a lot of records, but like other mega-selling acts before her, she earned few good reviews -- most critics accused her of diluting country with bland, anthemic hard rock techniques and of shamelessly selling her records with sexy videos...

Sultry vocalist and pianist Norah Jones developed her unique blend of jazz and traditional vocal pop with hints of bluesy country and contemporary folk due in large part to her unique upbringing. Born March 30, 1979, in New York City, the daughter of Ravi Shankar quietly grew up in Texas with her mother...

Whitney Houston is arguably one of the of the biggest female pop stars of all time. Her accomplishments as a hitmaker are extraordinary; just to scratch the surface, she became the first artist ever to have seven consecutive singles hit number one, and her 1993 Dolly Parton cover "I Will Always Love You" became nothing less than the biggest hit single in rock history. Houston was able to handle big adult contemporary ballads, effervescent, stylish dance-pop, and slick urban contemporary soul with equal dexterity; the result was an across-the-board appeal that was matched by scant few artists of her era, and helped her become one of the first black artists to find success on MTV in Michael Jackson's wake...

While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade...