Norman Cook

Norman Cook's first foray into the music biz came as the bass player for 1980s U.K. pop/rock band the Housemartins, but once he got into the DJ world, he hung up his bass for good. As Fatboy Slim, he was at the forefront of the mid-'90s "big beat" movement. A reaction against the increasingly cerebral developments in electronica, big beat was pure body music, incorporating house production values, hip-hop samples, and simple, catchy hooks for what proved to be a highly successful approach. Along with the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy, Slim was one of the few U.K. dance/electronic artists to break into the mainstream in the U.S., scoring huge with the smash singles "The Rockafeller Skank" and "Praise You." Cook would continue to be a force in dance music for years.