Justice

Justice came swaggering into the 2000s with an audacious proposition, combining the infectious silkiness of French house with the insouciant headbanging of hard rock. (Fittingly, it got its start on a label called Ed Banger.) Formed in Paris in 2003, the duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay took cues from Daft Punk, beefing up sample-heavy songs based on prog and disco with a healthy dose of distortion, and fleshing out its visuals with towering Marshall stacks and record sleeves reminiscent of glam-rock classics. Often tagged “blog house” for the way its music spread across the internet—especially edits and remixes of acts like Simian, Franz Ferdinand and Daft Punk—Justice was instrumental in helping break underground dance music out of its niche. Remixing U2, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, the duo brought a healthy dose of maverick cool to the world of chart-topping pop, setting the tone for subsequent waves of genre-smashing hybrids and stylistic crossovers.