Wavves frontman Nathan Williams has only been making lo-fi bedroom punk for two years, but he's already generated a career's worth of hype and backlash, especially after his erratic meltdown on stage at the 2009 Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona. Fortunately, the clanging title track proves he's pulled his act together: "King of the Beach" features a big, bratty melody, booming drums and a catchy, lo-fi guitar hook that scrapes like sandpaper. Williams has also retained a true punk-rock sense of defiance: "You're never gonna stop me!" he howls over and over in the chorus. Just try and prove him wrong.

“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.