Co-curated by Beck, this two-CD set gathers genre outliers (Tyondai Braxton, Dan Deacon, Amon Tobin) to mutate music by Philip Glass, the composer who has probably impacted rock and pop more than Bach. The highlight is "NYC: 73-78," Beck's own 20-minute mastermix-cum-suite, which moves from piano meditation to synth-pop to Beach Boys-style chorale and back.

Listen to "NYC: 73-78": 

“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.