The heart of the Mississippi Delta has brought the world a lot of great musicians, and one of its best has to be the left handed Blues guitarist, Albert King. Normally it isn’t a big deal to be left handed, but when you didn’t restring your guitar and essentially played it upside down, it is definitely worth mentioning.

There are many artists on this list who are easy to categorize. If you were take one look at Billy Idol, you would assume he was a Punk Rock star, and while he was initially one (with his band Generation X), musically it would be difficult to say that he was the first Punk star of the MTV generation. It would be more accurate to say he was the first star of MTV who “looked” like a Punk superstar.

It has been said that the Velvet Underground was the Ground Zero for Alternative music. There are levels of truths to that and the disciples they spawned via vinyl were incalculable. Jonathan Richman was a man who was greatly influenced by the Velvets, so much so, it could be argued that he literally picked up where they left off. 

Once again, we are faced with a group that may not belong on this list as they may be better placed in the Early Influences category and could very well get into the Hall under that umbrella. For now we will discuss the merits of The “5” Royales, a group that may have been one of the first vital cogs in Soul music.