Skrillex

Sonny Moore started out as the frontman for Epitaph-signed L.A. hardcore outfit From First to Last, but ravers know him best for the explosive, abrasive music he records as Skrillex. While he's sometimes affiliated with dubstep's wing of American upstarts, his music has little in common with the spacious, dubwise beats of London's basement raves; stuffed with careening synthesizers, industrial-strength drums and helter-skelter digital effects, it favors jagged edges over meditative bass. These 4/4 beats and cascading riffs have just as much to do with trance and electro-house, so it's no surprise that Deadmau5's Mau5trap label gave Skrillex his first big exposure. But ultimately, pigeonholing him feels beside the point; on tour and on record, Moore has a massive, growing draw among American fans of electronic dance music. While a divisive figure for genre purists, he's also a good barometer of EDM's rapidly evolving Stateside tastes.