raptureAs a blond bombshell and a culture vulture (I say that in the nicest way possible), Deborah Harry directly set the tone for artists like Madonna and Gwen Stefani, who borrowed (and still borrow) from every subculture possible and transformed them into their own unique stew. Blondie, the band Harry fronted, was a new-wave band at heart, but the band’s hits ranged from four-on-the-floor disco (“Heart of Glass”) to reggae (“The Tide is High”). With 1980’s “Rapture”, however, Blondie became the first mainstream band to dip a pinky-toe in the burgeoning hip-hop phenomenon. With a shout out to a then-unknown party promoter named Fab Five Freddie and some endearingly clunky rhyming by Harry, “Rapture” bridged the gap between the downtown new wavers and the utpown B-girls and B-boys to become the very definition of a successful crossover. Nearly thirty years later, few songs have merged genres so respectfully and effectively.