Detroit

The hits herein are similar only in location, validating the vast musical history of Detroit. Alice Cooper coined shock rock when Marilyn Manson was still a toddler, Parliament sent funk spiraling into the stratosphere, Ted Nugent reeked of whiskey rock and barroom brawls, and Motown found some of its stars in the Four Tops and Supremes.

These Next Steps jump decades and genres like a decent documentary. Was (Not Was) score a novelty hit about "walking the dinosaur," the Aladdin Sane side of David Bowie declares "Panic In Detroit," Dwele lays a lover down over a bed of futuristic soul, and the jazzy hip-hop of Slum Village heads underground.

Now that the surface of Detroit's music scenes have been sufficiently scratched, we're onto a few hits and a slew of stellar, lesser-known artists. Matthew Dear repositions pop in a house context, Sponge is vintage grunge, and the Gories are as garage as a rock band gets.

Not Klezmer Town, not Polka Point — Detroit R-O-C-K City. Indeed, there's a great deal of grit coating the music that's characterized this working-class epicenter of the Midwest. It's here in the brash rap of Eminem and D12, the fearsome proto-punk of the Stooges, the howling neo-garage of the White Stripes and the Von Bondies, and the pioneering, mechanical sound of Detroit techno. Not to be overlooked either are the pop, R&B, and soul classics collected below (The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, et al.).