Yoko Ono

Biography

From: Rolling Stone

Yoko Ono has a unique place in international pop culture as the woman accused of "breaking up the Beatles." The modern Ono, however, is a successful musician and artist in her own right.

Ono received her first degree in philosophy from Tokyo's Gakushuin University, and went on to study philosophy and music at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. She married Japanese composer ToshiIchiyanagi in 1956, and began a second marriage with art promoter Tony Cox in 1963.

Throughout this time, Ono was slowly becoming a pioneer in the emerging medium of performance art, and indeed, she met her third (and most famous) husband, John Lennon, at her own, one-woman, avant-garde art show in London in 1966.

While she is sometimes credited with influencing several post-punk bands, many critics question that accreditation. Post-punk bands like Public Image Limited have styles who mirror her own.

Ono is abrasive, atonal and experimental, but she is appreciated for her conceptual and visual art as much as she is for her music. Surprisingly, she also is capable of turning out traditional pop and rock music with great aplomb, delivered in her trademark shrill voice.

Now in her 60s, her latest effort, dubbed Rising, improves her early-'70s avant-garde jams and takes off of early-'80s dance grooves.