Pretenders

The story of the Pretenders is essentially that of Chrissie Hynde, who left the town of Akron, Ohio, for England in the early '70s, when punk, glam, and pop converged to form new wave. Her right-place-at-the-right-time situation served as the perfect petri dish for the Pretenders, who, decades later, still sound strikingly relevant.

Like most fairy tales, Chrissie Hynde's carries a subtext of tragedy. Her guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon died of drug overdoses in the early '80s. Somehow, the resilient Hynde managed to re-emerge with 1984's massively successful album Learning to Crawl. Our Next Steps recap this tumultuous time and the decade that followed.

Over time, Chrissie Hynde's songs have grown more personal, both musically and lyrically. Much of her '90s output reflects this, with a streamlined sound and an on-and-off presence in pop music that's symptomatic of Hynde's own reclusive ways. Some amazing tracks were lost in the plot; we've recovered them along with some key early cuts.

Over the last two decades of both pop and indie music, the influence of the Pretenders has been grossly understated. Yet you can hear and see it in numerous sounds and scenes, from the sugar-punk of Elastica to the riot-grrrl rock of Bikini Kill. You can credit the confidence and Bowie-like strut of vocalist/guitarist Chrissie Hynde for much of that, as the band was, and still is, very much her baby.