With his bleach-blonde spikes and pinup-worthy sneer, Billy Idol was among MTV's most recognizable faces in the '80s. The singer came up in the underrated UK pop-punk band Generation X, but split the group in '81 for a solo career in the U.S. and struck gold: His first four solo LPs were a heady mix of punk, pop, dance, and R&B and established Idol as a worldwide star. A 1990 motorcycle crash nearly killed him, and after '93's Cyberpunk stiffed, Idol took a long hiatus, returning with a new album in '05. His autobiography came out in '14, and he continues to record and tour.