Sonic Youth & Jim O'Rourke

As they redefined what noise meant within rock & roll -- and what success meant for a band with experimental roots -- Sonic Youth became one of the most influential, and popular, acts to emerge from the American underground. Their inventive use of alternate tunings, dissonance, and feedback, which they combined with the intensity of hardcore punk and the performance art aesthetic of New York's avant-garde, created a new sonic landscape with an impact that lasted for decades. While 1983's Confusion Is Sex reflected the height of no wave's harsh yet hypnotic influence on their m...