Tame Impala

Tame Impala transformed psychedelic rock—and 21st century pop—in such an impactful way that even Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and Kanye couldn’t resist the band's influence. The brainchild of Australian musician Kevin Parker, Tame Impala serve as both a blistering and blissed-out exercise in expansion—of sound, space, and the mind. “I’m the most creative when I’m uncomfortable,” Parker told Apple Music. “The idea of doing what I’m already good at is boring because it’s always gotta be a little bit frightening.” That fear has been a powerful motivator for Parker, who started Tame Impala in 2007 from his Perth home. His appetite for guitar experimentation—powered by an arsenal of reverb, phaser, delay, and fuzz pedals—made his 2010 debut album, InnerSpeaker, one of the year’s standout indie releases. On 2012’s Lonerism, he loaded up on synths, found inspiration in Todd Rundgren, and locked into woozy pop grooves made of both dreams (“Be Above It”) and nightmares (“Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”). He also got far more personal. As Parker has looked further inward, his music—and musical circle—has continued to expand outward. By the mid-2010s, he was collaborating with Mark Ronson, producing Gaga, and inspiring Rihanna (who covered “New Person, Same Old Mistakes”). But Tame Impala has remained his “sacred space,” an outlet that has allowed him to embrace funk (2015’s Currents), dance music (2020’s The Slow Rush), and all the infinite possibilities yet to be discovered.