INXS

• Genre: Adult Alternative
• Hometown: Sydney
• INXS Website

About

When "The One Thing" came out in 1982, it was a slinky, lascivious song with a killer guitar lick and a lead singer who had mega-star written all over him. By the time their third American release The Swing appeared in 1984, INXS were one of the biggest acts in the world. You couldn't turn on your car radio without Michael Hutchence slithering up to you and panting in your ear. The synth-heavy Pop of their earliest records mutated into a pounding dance-rock with sleazoid Stones-iness and unstoppable, Disco-fied grooves. With the dawning of the Grunge era however, the ersatz funk of INXS became utterly obsolete, and the band sank into relative obscurity until Hutchence's tragic death in 1997. Almost a decade after the loss of Hutchence, INXS became involved in a bizarre reality show in which a replacement singer was chosen during a competition shown on TV. Rock Star: INXS amounted to a cross between the shows Survivor, The Surreal World and American Idol. Also in 2005, the band released an album of new material, Switch.

- Mike McGuirk