~Björk Biography~
The most influential female singer-songwriter of the 1990s was neither American nor British: Sugarcubes's singer Björk Gudmundsdottir came out of Iceland, of all places. Debut (1993) employed massive doses of electronic keyboards and synthetic rhythms (conducted by producer Nellee Hooper of Soul II Soul) to sculpt dance-pop tunes that combined the savage, vital spirit of rhythm'n'blues with the psychic devastation of the post-industrial age. Along the way, Bjork garnered debris of gospel, jazz, house, hip hop, Broadway show-tunes, etc. Her eccentric vocal style, which was the musical equivalent of cinematic acting, dominated Post (1995), an album that focused more openly on the groove and that the producers (Hooper, 808 State's Graham Massey, Howie B and Tricky) turned into a hodgepodge of fashionable sounds. Her traumas sounded more sincere on Homogenic (1997), which was also her most cohesive album; while Selmasongs (2000) and Vespertine (2001) merely admitted her fundamental travesty of kitsch, easy listening and orchestral pop of the past.
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