On their 2000 debut, The Better Life, these Mississ ippi boys were the Last Southern Rock Band: They played slick, heroic neo-grunge for the Clear Channel era, where all regions melted into one long Nickelback impression. They're still clinging to that anthemic plod. "What I am is what I want/And I'll be this way till I'm dead and gone," frontman Brad Arnold sings. And in a bygone time of rock-radio hegemony, the beleaguered crunch of "When You're Young" would be worth another 5 million copies sold.

Listen to "When You're Young":

“Too Close”

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'"