At 24, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews is already a New Orleans MVP. Backatown is both deeply rooted and culturally omnivorous, opening with his 'bone hard-rocking a hip-hop groove, soon joined by a brass section, rock guitar and some boozy-sounding dudes hollering shit. Shorty can also sing smooth funk, and he dubs up nasty space fusion à la 1970s Miles Davis. Like the characters in HBO's Treme — which includes him — he's a Katrina survivor trying to hold on to the old while building the new.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.