Boston

Boston may be known as the home of superstar sports teams and a haven of higher learning, but the city’s streets beat with a rock ’n’ roll heart. Nobody knew this better than the band that took the town’s name soaring to power-chord paradise and multiplatinum glory on the wings of “More Than a Feeling.” Of course, a bunch of Beantown boys had already thrown down the hard-rock gauntlet by becoming America’s answer to Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones put together, and Aerosmith’s mighty “Dream On” remains the original lighter-waving power-ballad. Boston was even ahead of the curve when the tide turned to new wave, as the Cars donned their wraparound shades and skinny ties and put a futuristic spin on classic rock ’n’ roll riffs with “Good Times Roll.”

The Boston underground comes up for air in Next Steps.

Besides its status as a starting point for so many stadium rockers, Boston has always been a hotspot for artists that snuck up from the indie underground. Mark Sandman started out firing up the bluesy burn of Treat Her Right (you’ll meet them in Deep Cuts) before booming out the bass-heavy, barebones “Buena” as Morphine’s main man. Juliana Hatfield didn’t simply start out as an alt-rock empress — first she blended punky edge and poppy bounce with the Blake Babies on off-kilter but ear-catching tracks like “Downtime.” And when Dinosaur Jr.’s Lou Barlow stepped out from behind the shadow of J Mascis to start Sebadoh, he became a lo-fi hero, turning murmurs into memories with the sweetly smoldering ashes of “On Fire.”

Do the Boston boogie with disco treats and new-jack beats, in Deep Cuts.

Never mind New York and L.A. — some of music’s heaviest hit-men made their way to the world from the cradle of New England’s capital city. Behind the relentless riffs, hammerhead beats, and sassy snarl of the ’82 smash “Everybody Wants You” was Boston boy Billy Squier. The R&B band of New Bedford-born brothers who worked under their family name of Tavares took “It Only Takes a Minute Girl” to the Top 10 in 1975, right on the cusp of the disco revolution. And 15 years after that, Bell Biv Devoe — three New Edition kids all grown up — showed the R&B world a new way to move with the jumpin’ new-jack groove of “Poison.”

Boston’s got a lot more to cheer about than the Celts, Pats, and Sox — it’s a town with decades of musical milestones to celebrate. The proto-punk white-line fever of the Modern Lovers’ “Roadrunner,” the tuneful tension of ’Til Tuesday’s new-wave domestic drama “Voices Carry,” the fleet-fingered fusion licks of jazz keyboard king Chick Corea’s “Spain” — none of them would be possible if the Boston scene hadn’t birthed so many amazing artists. From folk balladeers to R&B belters, power-pop upstarts to arena-rock icons, we’ve gathered the greatest moments of Beantown’s most talented sons and daughters — along with songs that salute the city itself — right here in our big, beat-happy bow to the sounds bounding out of Boston town.