Liz Phair

Singer-songwriter Liz Phair was one of the most significant independent talents of the early 1990s. Phair was responsible for one of the most highly-regarded alternative rock releases of the decade, Exile on Guyville (1993), which addressed issues of female identity and sexuality in blunt terms. The album rocketed her to the forefront of the indie music scene, where she stood shoulder to shoulder with such fellow forthright female rockers as Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morrissette. Subsequent albums included Whip-Smart (1994), whitechocolatespaceegg (1998) and Liz Phair (2003). Phair revisited her past with a 2008 reissue of Exile and embarked on a second career as a composer for television. She decided to release her sixth album, Funstyle (2010), through her own website. In doing so, Phair was once again hailed as an icon for independent musicians by steering her career according to her own tastes and instinct rather than the whims of record executives and critics.