The bad boy image of a rock star must have been what Lil Wayne was hoping to achieve in his debut rock album Rebirth. The 27-year old rapper, soon to be jailbird, attempts to branch out into territory where few rappers have crunked before: rock. The album title is delusional if its goal is to get anyone to take him seriously as an artist outside of his rhyme schemes.

As her debut album’s title, Animal, may suggest, Ke$ha is something of a monster. Talk of “boys touching my junk” and “brushing my teeth with a bottle of Jack” is every parent’s worst nightmare, yet she is taking over the music scene as well as the iPods of teens across the globe.

Fresh off the reconstruction of The Shins, frontman James Mercer is set to release an album with DJ Danger Mouse (Brian Burton), the patient and mesmerizing producer behind The Grey Album and Gnarls Barkley.

Before Lady Gaga, there was Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon’s 2007 record that catapulted the indie band to near-mainstream territory. Now, Spoon is back, forking over Transference as their latest rocking effort, full of 11 entrées of that signature gritty sound.

One way to ensure longevity of craft is to corner a niche market. If your niche is epic American brutal death metal with a heavy dose of Middle Eastern instruments and guitar melodies, not to mention eight to 10-minute songs about esoteric Egyptology entitled things like “Hittite Dung Incantation,” you might be Nile.

In a year’s time, Lady Gaga has gone from a club performer to our generation’s Queen of Pop. Gaga’s debut album The Fame has sold four million copies worldwide, and her bent for world domination seems unending.

Them Crooked Vultures fits the classic definition of a “supergroup.” With Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), Them Crooked Vultures consists of musicians that understand how to find success in the music industry. Their self-titled debut album shows a smoothly crafted twist on each of the artists’ rock roots.

While Sufjan Stevens has always stood as a notable contemporary songwriter, the harmonic, overlapping melodies and soft Bible-study verses had become somewhat tired after 2006’s The Avalanche. While his songs are still beautiful, the sounds were recognizable and firmly established as uniquely his.

A listen to Mumford and Sons debut LP, Sigh No More, undeniably recalls the sounds of Arcade Fire, Beirut, Kings of Leon, Noah and the Whale, Fleet Foxes or Damien Rice at one time or another. If you like any of those groups, then there’s a huge chance you’ll love at least one song by these barely 20-something Brits.

Wyclef Jean’s newest album, From the Hut, to the Projects, to the Mansion, is Jean’s self-proclaimed return to hip-hop. Over a decade after the breakup of the Fugees, Jean has admittedly become somewhat unknown as an artist, and it is clear that he is anxious to change this.