P!nk

Check out the sleek dance-soul single "Most Girls" from P!nk's 2000 debut, and you get but a glimmer of the girl's revolutionary spirit — which irked the young up-and-comer no end . . . so, by the time her next album dropped, she made sure to pull away from the teen-pop pack she'd been lumped with, grabbing the world firmly by the ears (and hips) with her musical mission statement, "Get the Party Started." From there, it was all purely P!nk, whether she's cranking up her 2010 pop-rockin' Max Martin/Shellback collab, "Raise Your Glass," or defiantly baring her broken heart (and huge-hook prowess) on "So What" (2008).

P!nk's raw emotional strength saturates the ballads in Next Steps.

If there's one thing that's constant about P!nk's ever-evolving music, it's that she's not afraid of a challenge, taking the twists and turns of her career like a Ferrari on a winding mountain road, yet always hugging those curves with fierce energy and precision. That's the case whether she's opening up a painful past on the wrenching "Family Portrait," or hooking up with electronic wiz William Orbit on "Feel Good Time," a highly reactive pop-rock cocktail recorded for the 2003 movie Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Fancy a bit more of P!nk in a celluloid context? Then cue up the Moulin Rouge superstar-sisterhood single, "Lady Marmalade."

In Deep Cuts, P!nk more than holds her own alongside Eminem.

Many female artists, when offered a guest slot with Eminem, would crumble under the pressure, and lack the presence to anchor a bedrock chorus for the hip-hop heavyweight. Not P!nk — her vocal strength and natural-born gift for defiance shine through on "Won't Back Down" from 2010's Recovery. Like she boldly sings on "Humble Neighborhoods" from third studio album Try This, "The world can be my enemy/the world can be my lover." With all the tricks P!nk has up her sleeve, it's easy to forget that the girl's got knock-out chops — that is, until you hear the potent power ballad "Nobody Knows."

The former Alecia Moore seemed destined for a colourful life early on, writing songs and performing in local Pennsylvania clubs by the time she'd hit her teens. Yet, when P!nk finally emerged with her 2000 solo debut, she came dangerously close (despite the decidedly in-your-face quality of tracks like "You Make Me Sick") to being washed away in a sea of smiling teen queens. Her response? "Don't Let Me Get Me," a snarl-pop anthem of individuality and a straight-up sonic announcement that P!nk was going to be P!nk and nothing — or no one — was going to stand in her way. Our P!nk Essentials playlist reads like a manifesto of independent music-making, from the brutal rock-pop kiss-off "U + Ur Hand," to the startlingly sensitive, harmony drenched protest song "Dear Mr. President" with none other than the Indigo Girls.