INXS BiographyINXS hailed from the
pubs of Australia, which is part of the reason they never comfortably fit in
with new wave. Even when the band branched out into synth pop on its early
recordings, they were underpinned by a hard, Stonesy beat and lead singer
Michael Hutchence's Jagger-esque strut. Ultimately, these were the very things
that made INXS into international superstars in the late '80s. By that time, the
group had harnessed their hard rock, dance, and new wave influences into a
sleek, stylish groove that made their 1987 album Kick into a
multi-million-selling hit. While that sound was their key to stardom, it also
proved to be their undoing; the group became boxed in by their Stonesy pop-funk
in the early '90s, when their audience became entranced