As the vocalist and leader of the rock band The Stooges, Iggy Pop helped to popularize a new style of music that was loud, raw, and deceptively simple. It dealt with subjects such as boredom, drugs, and violence. Songs such as "Death Trip" and "Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell" served as a counterblast to flower power idealism of the 1960s, and their stripped down, primal sound worked against the prevailing trends toward longer songs and complex instrumentation. As a result, Iggy and the Stooges were an important influence on the punk and grunge movements.

Pop, born James Osterberg, originally planned to be a blues drummer and moved from his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Chicago, Illinois, to learn the music first hand. Although he sometimes sat in with established musicians, Osterberg came to realize that the best he could do was...