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Lying in States in an indie rock band from Chicago, Illinois founded in 1999. Its members consist of Justin Trombly, Fergus Kalser, Ben Clarke, Mark Benson, and Jeremy Ohmes. Their first album, Bewildered Hand, was released in 2002.

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Low is an American indie rock band from Duluth, Minnesota that formed in 1993. Band members include Alan Sparhawk (guitar and vocals), Mimi Parker (drums and vocals), and Steve Garrington (bass guitar). Low is known for playing “slowcore,” which is a type of indie rock that is characterized by bleak lyrics, downbeat melodies, slower tempos, and minimalist arrangements. Members of the band have disagreed with the “slowcore” label, however. Low began to experiment with a quiet, more reserved sound when they first began playing together in the 1990’s. Their slower style helped them to stand out in the Duluth indie scene, which was largely made up of bands playing loud, post-punk, grunge music.

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Live Wire was a London-based pub rock band established in 1979. It held small-scale concerts at bars throughout the area, where they distributed black-and-white souvenir buttons with their band logo. Live Wire was a four-member group consisting of the vocalist and guitarist Mike Edwards, bassist Jeremy Meek, drummer German Gonzales, and guitarist Chris Cutler. The band released their first album entitled Pick It Up in 1979 and followed it up with No Fright in 1980 and Changes Made in 1981. Live Wire reached the height of its success in 1979 and quickly disbanded in 1981.

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The band Lifetime formed in the early 1990s in New Jersey. They draw from a tradition of melodic rockers committed to maintaining the bite of punk's explosive side. By the late 1990s, Lifetime had redefined underground music in America, steering it towards a progressive transition from the hardcore of yesteryear.

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Last in Line was a hardcore punk band based in Boston that performed in the early 2000s alongside other local punk bands as Close Call and Mental. Their self-titled LP was released in 2002 and featured influence from other Boston-based punk bands as well as several tracks inspired by horror films, which they considered tied to the punk scene, particularly classic slasher films, such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The lead vocalist described these films as "in your face, raw, and abrasive, like punk music." The band separated between 2002 and 2004, citing a constantly changing lineup and conflicting schedules among members, though they remained friends and still performed together following their official "breakup".

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The Knack was a band best known for their single, “My Sharona,” which was released in 1979 on their album Get the Knack. The album spent six weeks at the top of Billboard’s Top 100 list and they were highly popular in the Los Angeles club scene. The band consisted of Doug Fieger, Bruce Gary, Prescott Niles, and Berton Averre.

Shortly after Get the Knack was released, the band began to receive criticism for similarities between their album art and that of The Beatles’ debut Meet the Beatles, which had been released in 1964. The also received a great deal of backlash based on their refusal to give interviews as well as the subject matter of some of their songs.

In 1979, not long after the album was released, San Francisco artist Hugh Brown began the “Knuke the Knack” movement as a way to poke fun at the band. He believed their popularity was “over-hyped” and that they had a manufactured sound. He produced and sold kits that included buttons, t-shirts and bumper stickers.

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In 1995, the band Juno was formed in Seattle, Washington. After releasing two tracks for Jade Tree Records, they released their first full-length album for Washington D.C. based Desoto Records. Their music is described as a heady mixture of complex narratives and an unbridled passion for rock music.

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John Lennon co-founded the most famous of all rock bands, The Beatles, and toured the world throughout the 1960s. He was born in Liverpool, England in 1940 and started The Beatles at age 20. When the band broke up ten years later, he had a solo career and released 10 solo albums, three of which were experimental records produced with his wife Yoko Ono. He was shot and killed three weeks after his last album was released in 1980.