Matthew Sweet

With a voice like candy and winsome good looks, the Nebraska native Matthew Sweet was initially packaged as a cute, blue-eyed pop singer. But after an ambitious debut record that featured a bevy of rock luminaries, Sweet broke through with 1991's GIRLFRIEND, which showed both his power-pop sensibility and his dark side as he unflinchingly explored betrayal and failed romance. That dark side would come to the fore in later records, even in his biggest radio hit "Sick of Myself" in 1995.

• rock