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The It List

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IT Renaissance Dude
DAVE GROHL

AGE 34
WHY HIM? As frontman for the Foo Fighters and part-time drummer for Queens of the Stone Age, Killing Joke, Cat Power, and, for all we know, your band, the former Nirvana timekeeper may be the busiest man in rock -- and is definitely one of the funniest. Playing ''London Calling'' at the Grammys' Clash tribute alongside Bruce Springsteen and Elvis Costello only confirmed Grohl's hard-won place among rock royalty.
MOMENT OF UBIQUITY ''It was strange for about a month there, where I'd turn on the radio and hear 'All My Life' from the new Foo Fighters record, then change the channel and hear 'You Know You're Right' from the Nirvana thing, then hear 'No One Knows' from Queens of the Stone Age. I started to feel like the alternative-rock P. Diddy. [Belches] Which is a little frightening.''
FAVORITE BAND Fellow It Listers My Morning Jacket.
NOTES ON THE BOSS ''He'll laugh at anything. Like, 'Hey, Bruce, your shoe's untied.' Ahahahah!! For someone who seems like he's bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders, he's, like, the happiest dude I've ever met in my life.''
NEXT An August marriage to TV producer Jordyn Blum. A ''full-on instrumental band'' (in the jazz-punk vein of Black Flag side project Gone) with Foo drummer Taylor Hawkins and producer Nick Raskulinecz. And the long-awaited release of the Probot album, on which Grohl plays all instruments and cedes vocals to luminaries like Motorhead's Lemmy and Sepultura's Max Cavalera.

IT Offspring
LISA MARIE PRESLEY

AGE 35
WHY HER? The pundits and playa hatas had the knives out for Elvis' only daughter. But her hit debut CD, To Whom It May Concern -- released this spring after years of false starts -- has gotten its fair share of respect, begrudging or otherwise.
HITTING THE GROUND ROCKING Her first gigs were industry showcases, and the next were radio-station shows in venues like Giants Stadium, so ''there was really no runway,'' she says. ''But I'm getting more at ease. The [VH1] Divas thing was probably the most stressful, because it was live, and I'm brand-new on the scene, and white, and wondering why am I here with these amazing singers?''
YES, WHY? ''Because it was cool to throw the rock element in there and break it up a bit, and then [duet] with Pat [Benatar], who was a huge influence on me as a kid.''
ANOTHER UNEXPECTED INFLUENCE ''Oddly enough, the biggest impact on my life musically has been Pink Floyd. Those songs never, ever go away. That's all I wanted to project -- something timeless.''
GOSSIP HOUNDS, BEWARE ''I understand that people want to place whoever with whichever song. But there are people out there -- thank God -- who are just listening to the songs, not going 'Is this about [ex-husband] Nic [Cage]? Is this about [ex-husband] Michael [Jackson]?' That's expecting a lot, but I know those fans are out there. I've met them.''
NEXT A summer tour with Chris Isaak.

IT IT IT 1
THE YEAH YEAH YEAHS

AGES (From left) Brian Chase, 25; Karen O, 24; Nick Zinner, 28
WHY THEM? Two years is a long time to haul around a load of hype as colossal as the one that greeted these New York City art-punks' five-song EP. The backlash should be in full flower by now -- except their debut full-length album, Fever to Tell (released in April), is fantastic: not just ''sleazy, sweaty, and dancey'' (as O describes the band's early stuff) but unexpectedly melancholy and gut-wrenching.
INNOCENCE OF YOUTH ''[Going to school in the Midwest] makes you want to burn down houses and write songs about it,'' says 0.
SIGN OF IMPENDING MATURITY ''[The album begins as] a really sort of gleeful, self-destructive kind of thing -- having a good time and partying,'' she says. ''The second part is, like, more about...the morning after. Maybe you feel a little bit lonely, or a little bit empty.''
THEN AGAIN... ''We were playing this small venue, and all these middle-aged, overweight guys with baseball caps on backwards were cheering when I was pouring [beer] on my chest. I was like, 'I don't know about this. Maybe I can only pull this off in the big cities.'''
NEXT Touring Europe and writing material. ''If we don't have a new song every month,'' says O, ''it just feels really stagnant.''

IT IT IT 2
!!!

AGES Singer Nic Offer, 30; bassist Justin VanDerVolgen, 26; guitarist/keyboardist Tyler Pope, 26; guitarist Mario Andreoni, 32; percussionist/saxophonist Allan Wilson, 27; percussionist/trumpeter Dan Gorman, 28; percussionist Jason Racine, 28; drummer John Pugh, 28
WHY THEM? In other triple-named, buzzed-about hipster-band news, this punk-funk octet recently followed its 2000 LP, slt, with a giddily danceable new single called ''Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story).'' We can't wait for more.
HOW'D THEY GET THAT NAME? ''You know the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy? Whenever they made three sounds with their mouth, it would be subtitled as three exclamation points,'' explains Andreoni. ''You pronounce it as any three repetitive sounds, like chk chk chk. I usually say pow pow pow. Everybody says something different.''
NEXT !!! will tour tour tour all summer before heading back into the studio to work on a full-length album, due in early 2004.

IT Automotive Exec
RIC OCASEK

AGE 54
WHY HIM? As Elektra's senior VP of A&R, the former Cars frontman could be just what the struggling music biz needed. His tenure will ''have some integrity,'' he promises.
LET THE GOOD BANDS ROLL He hopes to sign acts that are ''credible and incredible. There's bands like the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers who have integrity but still do well on commercial radio.''
SHAKING IT UP Oddly enough, he doesn't carry business cards. ''If bands want my number, I just rip off a piece of paper and hand it to 'em.''
NEXT He's preparing to sign acts and finishing a solo album.

IT Diva
ANGIE STONE

AGE 38
WHY HER? Long after the critical huzzahs and the Grammy buzz died for 2001's Mahogany Soul -- a passionate return to vintage R&B that should have been huge -- remixes of Soul's ''Wish I Didn't Miss You'' and ''Bottles & Cans'' are finding a second life (and No. 1 success) on the dance charts. On top of that, the Soul sister is reveling in her Broadway debut as Mama Morton in Chicago and embarking on a fledgling movie career (she made her film debut in last year's The Hot Chick). All while single-parenting two kids. You try it.
IF SHE WEREN'T SINGING, SHE'D BE... ''A defense attorney or something. It's never too late.''
NEW ALBUM, NEW SOUND ''You'll still have Angie Stone -- some of those moody, zoned-out songs -- but now you have a more happy, bright record. I have a dance remix called 'Karma' that I think is going to be superb.''
FEELIN' THE LOVE ''I'm really excited that I'm able to do it all and still show the love to my [two] children. And I'm head over heels in love -- real love -- for the first time.''
A. STO? ''I want to be like J. Lo and do it all -- the music and the film stuff.''
NEXT Expect a new single this summer and a third CD this fall. Then check out her second movie, The Fighting Temptations (with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beyonce), in September.

IT Dancehall Import 1
SEAN PAUL

AGE 30
WHY HIM? The Jamaican star's patois-heavy baritone and hip-hop stylings brought a new wave of dancehall -- the speedier club cousin of reggae -- to the American masses, wooing pop fans with his twin party anthems (''Gimme the Light'' and ''Get Busy'') and platinum CD (Dutty Rock).
MUSICAL INFLUENCES ''Super Cat, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh. I appreciated the Beatles' melodies. Karen Carpenter taught me how to sing in a deep tone.''
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN ''I used to swim for Jamaica and play water polo. My mother and my father were Jamaican champion swimmers in the '60s. I trained with Sion Brinn, who went to the Olympics and then swam for England [because his father was Welsh]. I was always coming in second in backstroke. He was coming in first.''
DREAM COLLABORATOR ''I'd love to put Jewel on a real reggae riddim and see what we could come up with.''
NEXT He's halfway done with a new CD, featuring 50 Cent, Busta Rhymes, De La Soul, Mya, Beyonce, and Brandy.

IT Dancehall Import 2
WAYNE WONDER

AGE 30
WHY HIM? The veteran Jamaican singer, who recorded his first single at age 13 and has worked with legends like the late King Tubby, provides a bridge from roots reggae to modern, rap-inflected dancehall with his soulful hit single ''No Letting Go'' and album No Holding Back.
MUSICAL INFLUENCES ''Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix.''
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAMAICAN AND AMERICAN AUDIENCES ''Jamaican audiences are very hard to please,'' he says. ''We have a saying in Jamaica: Once you can please a Jamaican audience, you can please anybody in the world.''
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OLD FANS AND NEW ''My new fans are really young. When they realize I have done so many songs before, people start researching and realize that I've been working for a long time.''
BEST THINGS TO DO WHILE LISTENING TO DANCEHALL ''Dance, meditate, and think about the island.''
NEXT Wonder kicks off a U.S. tour this summer.

IT Gay/Straight Alliance
JUNIOR SENIOR

AGES 26, 27
WHY THEM? The Danish duo's jingly party jam ''Move Your Feet,'' a smash in the U.K., is hitting American radio, allowing U.S. audiences to taste their wacky brand of dance music -- an aural assault of hip-hop, techno, garage, punk, and house.
BIGGEST ROCK-STAR MYTH Despite skyrocketing fame, Junior (who's straight) and Senior (who's not) still can't bag groupies. ''We are so bad at hitting on people,'' says Senior, left.
NEXT Their first CD, D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat, makes its U.S. debut on Aug. 5.

IT Collaborator
''FEATURING...''

WHY IT? There's only one word that appears more often than 50 and Cent on recent singles charts: featuring. Whether it's lovers (''Crazy in Love'' by Beyonce featuring Jay-Z) or total strangers (''Big Yellow Taxi'' as performed by Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carlton), 2003's pop is all about coalitions of the billing.
HOW IT HAPPENED ''It became so prevalent in hip-hop that everybody got used to it,'' theorizes A&M Records' Ron Fair, who produced the Crows/Carlton track. ''Artists are looking for a way to make their music more compelling [in the face of] the malaise affecting our business.''
OR MAYBE Not Neptunes hitmaker Pharrell Williams -- whose Curtis Mayfield falsetto is featured on tracks from Snoop and Britney -- says sales have nothing to do with it: ''We do it because it works for the song at that moment.''
NEXT Look for a track from Sting's upcoming CD to feature Mary J. Blige; Sheryl Crow duets with Michelle Branch on Branch's new album, Hotel Paper. Williams claims he's over the trend. We'd believe him if he weren't featured on the new Jay-Z single ''Frontin'.''

IT Legend
YOKO ONO

AGE 70
WHY HER? Five decades into a career that began in conceptual art, extended to new-wave ululating, and featured collaborations with a certain Beatle, Ono is the hippest thing on the club scene since animal tranquilizers. As remixed by such nightlife stars as the Pet Shop Boys and Felix Da Housecat, her 1981 single ''Walking on Thin Ice'' recently bumped Missy Elliott's ''Gossip Folks'' from the top of Billboard's Dance Music Club Play chart.
DANCE HABIT ''I think I was kind of repressed for the longest time about going to clubs and dancing. This year, my son [Sean Lennon] was going to give me a big birthday party. I said, 'I want to dance till dawn.'''
BEST SPIN ON A BAD JOB ''There were times when I was just a waitress. That was pretty exciting. You're moving your bod, you know.''
NEXT This month, a retrospective of her visual art hits the Rodin Gallery in Seoul, South Korea, and new work shows at the Venice Biennale. The next remix is also coming down the (dance) track. ''Meanwhile, I'm still working on the DVD for John's Lennon Legacy, a collection of his hit songs.''

IT Producer
KANYE WEST

AGE 25
WHY HIM? The pioneering producer behind Jay-Z's '''03 Bonnie and Clyde,'' Talib Kweli's ''Get By,'' and Cam'Ron's ''Dead or Alive'' has inspired legions of followers with his distinctive method of speeding up R&B vocal samples for a Chipmunks-style effect.
SECRET TO FINDING SAMPLES ''I do a lot of record shopping in Oklahoma,'' says West (his first name, pronounced Kaan-yay, means ''the only one'' in Swahili). ''I like to go where there's not a lot of prominent producers, so I get first crack.''
NEXT On his solo debut album, College Dropout (due in late summer), West raps, produces, and hosts an all-star lineup, including Jay-Z, Mos Def, Freeway, Jamie Foxx, and the Harlem Boys Choir.

IT '80s Survivor
TREVOR HORN

AGE 53
WHY HIM? The Buggles frontman-turned-superstar producer's work on t.A.T.u.'s maelstrom of a single, ''All the Things She Said,'' marks the welcome return of his overstuffed, synths-a-poppin' signature sound (as heard on classics by the Art of Noise, Yes, and, er, Frankie Goes to Hollywood).
HANGIN' WITH t.A.T.u. ''They didn't speak much English, but we had fun. I cracked them up by singing in my imitation of Russian.''
NEXT Horn-produced albums from Seal and (no, this is not a typo) Scottish indie-pop faves Belle and Sebastian.

ITzzle fo' Shizzle
SNOOP DOGG

AGE 31
WHY HIM? Despite his laid-back persona, Snoop's one hardworking cat, from music (touring with 50 Cent and Jay-Z as well as the Red Hot Chili Peppers) to TV (MTV's skitcom Doggy Fizzle Televizzle) to movies (remakes of Starsky and Hutch and Airplane!).
SLO' GIN SHIZZLE ''In the '70s, Huggy Bear was like Kool-Aid,'' Snoop says of his Starsky role. ''You remember how cool Kool-Aid was? Now imagine Kool-Aid with some gin in it -- that's really cool.''
HOW SOUL PLANE WILL DIFFER FROM AIRPLANE! ''There'll be more niggas.''
WHO ELSE HAS IT? ''Halle Berry. She's got the whole motherf -- -in' package.''
NEXT Recording the tentatively titled Snoopafly.

IT Morning Glories
MY MORNING JACKET

AGES (From left) Drummer Patrick Hallahan, 25; keyboardist Danny Cash, 25; singer Jim James, 25; bassist Tommy Blankenship, 25; guitarist Johnny Quaid, 26
WHY THEM? This hirsute Louisville quintet's pair of sought-after EPs have won it a rep as an Allman Brothers for cool people. Plus the band recently opened for the perennially It Bob Dylan in a parking lot in its hometown.
INFLUENCES ''As a kid, the first thing that opened my eyes to music was The Muppet Show,'' says James, whose hair-in-the-face playing style makes him look like that fuzzy keyboard player Dr. Teeth.
ON THEIR BUCOLIC PRACTICE SPACE ''John's family has a farm, and we're completely isolated out there,'' says James. ''And there are so many different spaces for us to use, like garages and silos, which we build into reverb chambers.''
FUN FACT Danny Cash is distantly related to Johnny.
NEXT The group's major-label debut, It Still Moves, drops in September.

IT Label
ROUGH TRADE

AGE 25
WHY IT? Music heads will remember this cool little London indie label that sprang from a record store and was home to bands like Stiff Little Fingers and the Smiths (above) in the early '80s. The original Rough Trade went belly-up circa 1989: ''The whole thing just collapsed like a house of cards,'' says founder Geoff Travis. But dig -- it's back, serving up new music from buzz bands like the Libertines, the Moldy Peaches, the Detroit Cobras, and the Hidden Cameras.
HAND OF FATE Organizing the 25th anniversary of the record store in 2001 convinced Travis to give the label another go. ''I realized there was so much goodwill toward Rough Trade, it seemed a bit churlish not to try to relaunch the record label.''
STROKE OF LUCK Travis proved his A&R instincts were as sharp as ever: The first act the revived imprint inked was the then-unknown Strokes (who later signed to RCA in the U.S.).
PARTY! For the label's 25th anniversary, Travis promises ''a big 48-hour Technicolor dream'' fete.
NEXT New albums from the Moldy Peaches' Adam Green and the psych-pop band the Tyde; a new Libertines EP; and a Belle and Sebastian CD. Rough stuff!