80. Jack White
The new millennium's lead bluesman turns the world onto the old, good ****
WHAT HE'S CHANGING: As rock started to slip away from its roots, White launched a movement to bring it all back home, making bluesy, retro-rock sound ultramodern. Now it's safe for new bands — from Kings of Leon to Fleet Foxes — to admit they love the Stones, Dylan and Zep.
BUSY SCHEDULE: White has enough creative juice to fuel three fully functioning bands (the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the just-announced Dead Weather).
KEY QUOTE: "I have three dads: my biological father, God and Bob Dylan."
72. Banksy
Outlaw street artist has become famous by remaining in hiding
WHAT HE'S CHANGING: Combining graffiti art with a culture-jamming sensibility — painting a hole on a West Bank security wall, illicitly hanging a "Mona Lisa" with a smiley face in the Louvre — the man who is reportedly named Robin or Robert Banks has made art dangerous again. He remains stubbornly anonymous despite his infamy.
FRIENDS SAY: "The streets are boring," artist Damien Hirst has said. "So anyone like Banksy who makes them entertaining and treats people like people instead of consumers is brilliant."
KEY QUOTE: "You know what hip-hop has done with the word '******'? I'm trying to do that with the word 'vandalism': bring it back."
51. Kate Winslet
Actress proves that in the future, celebrities will just act like themselves
WHAT SHE'S CHANGING: She's the rare star actress who forgoes formula hits for challenging roles in projects without a lot of commercial appeal — The Reader and Revolutionary Road both flopped, but Winslet has no regrets. Not coincidentally, she's also changing stereotypical expectations about female movie stars — that they're nothing but wispy bodies, surgically enhanced faces and gossipy tabloid relationships.
FRIENDS SAY: "God bless your real breasts," Oprah Winfrey said to Winslet recently.
KEY QUOTE: "I like exposing myself. There's not an awful lot that embarrasses me."
50. John Hanke
Google Maps chief puts the Earth on your computer — and he's not done
WHAT HE'S CHANGING:The director of Google Maps and Google Earth has mapped out areas covering half the world's population and expects near total global coverage in less than five years.
FRIENDS SAY: "He's fulfilling the predictions that the Net would evolve into a mirror world," says EA's Will Wright.
ENEMIES SAY: "There is a serious tension here between free speech and privacy," says an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "They've done something that's irresponsible and rude."
KEY QUOTE: "The goal is to create a complete virtual reality of the world."
48 | Danger Mouse
Gnarls Barkley producer tears apart rock, hip-hop, puts them back together
WHAT HE'S CHANGING: Gnarls Barkley's mastermind isn't just breaking down boundaries between genres — from Gnarls to the Black Keys, his mix of hip-hop technology and classic-rock sonics is helping convince listeners that those barriers never existed in the first place.
FRIENDS SAY: "He has impeccable taste," said Gnarls singer Cee-Lo. "I aspire to impress him."
SECRET WEAPON: Despite his sampling skill, he mostly plays live instruments in the studio.
NEXT MOVE: He's recorded tracks in Rome for an Ennio Morricone tribute.
30 | Radiohead
The band that deconstructs rock & roll manipulates the rules at the top
WHAT THEY'RE CHANGING: The nature of rock stardom. They shift their sound constantly, haven't had a hit single in 16 years — but every college kid knows they're the most important band of their generation.
FRIENDS SAY: "They've made consistently brilliant records," says My Morning Jacket's Jim James.
BIG MOVE: In 2007, let fans set their own price for downloads of In Rainbows.
KEY QUOTE: "If I die tomorrow, I'll be happy that we didn't carry on working within this huge industry that I don't feel any connection with," says Thom Yorke.
18 | Al Gore
The Paul Revere of climate change inspires a generation of greens
WHAT HE'S CHANGING: The global response to the climate crisis. Since leaving politics, the once-wooden speaker has become a Bono-like activist, the essential frontman for the fight against global warming. Most recently his Alliance for Climate Protection co-sponsored TV ads that debunk the myths of clean coal. He's also now a partner at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, which recently invested in Bloom Energy, a developer of fuel-cell technology that Gore has been championing for years. Gore's influence is also still felt in government, where his protégée, Carol Browner, is now Obama's "climate czarina."
FRIENDS SAY: "By taking a complex scientific issue and making it part of the zeitgeist, Gore has opened millions of eyes to the threat of climate change," says Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund.
NEXT FIGHT: Cheerleading a global carbon cap-and-trade system.
KEY QUOTE: "We have the capacity to make this generation one of those generations that changes the course of humankind."
11 | M.I.A.
21st-century star reminds us there's a vivid world beyond pop charts
WHAT SHE'S CHANGING: The rapper, who was raised in both Sri Lanka and the U.K., is the world's most dangerous pop star — with a neon look and polyglot sound that provide our first glimpse at true 21st-century pop. Her songs (and video imagery) flirt with endorsing revolution by the world's oppressed, even as they turn the idea of "world music" inside out, juxtaposing sounds from reggae to old-school rap to disco to Indian folk music to the Clash and the Pixies.
BREAKTHROUGH: The gunshot-ridden "Paper Planes" brought M.I.A. to the masses, via the trailer for the film Pineapple Express.
FRIENDS SAY: "She's never stuck for a fresh idea, no matter how crazy it might be," says one collaborator, British producer Switch. "We had Indian drummers playing over an Afrika Bambaataa record."
KEY QUOTE: "I tried to make something exist that didn't exist before."
NEXT MOVE: She's already got her own record label and clothing line. And after taking time off with her newborn son, it'll be time for a third album.
esh idea, no matter how crazy it might be," says one collaborator, British producer Switch. "We had Indian drummers playing over an Afrika Bambaataa record."
KEY QUOTE: "I tried to make something exist that didn't exist before."
NEXT MOVE: She's already got her own record label and clothing line. And after taking time off with her newborn son, it'll be time for a third album.
8 | Tina Fey
Imagine if Mary Tyler Moore could take down a vice-presidential candidate
WHAT SHE'S CHANGING: You mean, besides that pathetic men's gym locker known as American comedy? Fey's got new-wave feminism, NBC and maybe even GE balancing on her skinny Upper West Side shoulders as she builds a franchise for her self-deprecating, gimlet-eyed humor. And her satirizing of Sarah Palin may well have swung a few points toward Barack Obama in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
FRIENDS SAY: "I hesitate to use this, because it sounds a little Bush-ian, but God ordered her to do an impression of Sarah Palin," says Keith Olbermann.
TRUE GRIT: "I've never known anything Tina wanted that she didn't get — nobody works harder," Fey's buddy Amy Poehler once said. "Maybe a professional ditch digger."
MARK OF INFLUENCE: Little, Brown paid Fey a reported $6 million for an upcoming comedy book — without a proposal.
NEXT FIGHT: It would be nice if 30 Rock could add some ratings muscle to its sheaf of awards; the show frequently lands in fourth place in its Thursday time slot.
Obama # 1.
