News Pop Culture and Entertainment 9 Influential Bands That Got Their Start in Boston By Claire Stern Claire Stern Claire Stern is the Deputy Editor of ELLE.com. Previously, she served as Editor at Bergdorf Goodman and was the Associate Editor at InStyle. Her interests include fashion, food, travel, music, Peloton, and The Hills—not necessarily in that order. InStyle's editorial guidelines Updated on October 7, 2016 @ 03:00PM Pin Share Tweet Email Photo: Bob Berg/Getty Sure, Boston is known for having a rich colonial history, but it's also been the breeding ground for some of the greatest bands to ever take the stage. From Aerosmith to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (remember them?), here are the nine best musical acts that came out of Beantown. 01 of 09 THE CARS Richard McCaffrey/ Michael Ochs Archive/ Getty The five-piece rock band dominated the new wave scene in the late '70s with upbeat songs like "Just What I Needed" and "My Best Friend's Girl." 02 of 09 NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK Ebet Roberts/Getty As LFO so aptly declared in their infectious summer anthem, "New Kids on the Block had a bunch of hits." One of them was undoubtedly "You Got It (The Right Stuff)," which played in heavy rotation on MTV. 03 of 09 NEW EDITION Johnny Nunez/Getty Before NKOTB, there was New Edition. The preeminent American boy band dominated the charts in 1983, and reunited 30 years later to celebrate the anniversary of their debut album, Candy Girl. 04 of 09 AEROSMITH Fin Costello/Redferns There's a reason Aerosmith is nicknamed the "Bad Boys from Boston." 05 of 09 THE LEMONHEADS Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic The Lemonheads got their first taste of mainstream success in the early '90s, when their song "Into Your Arms" peaked at number one on Billboard's Modern Rock chart—in good company with Oasis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. 06 of 09 BOSTON Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Not only is "Boston" the name of their band and their debut album—their magnum opus, "More Than a Feeling," is literally impossible not to sing along to. 07 of 09 THE PIXIES Jim Dyson/Getty Perhaps one of the most underappreciated rock bands ever, The Pixies gained a cult following in the years after their breakup, not to mention one very impressive karaoke rendition of their hit "Here Comes Your Man" by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the 2009 rom-com 500 Days of Summer. 08 of 09 THE BREEDERS Frans Schellekens/Redferns/Getty Following The Pixies' hiatus in 1989, the band's former bassist Kim Deal formed The Breeders with Tanya Donelly of the alt-rock group Throwing Muses. They're best known for their single "Cannonball," which memorably plays during the robbery scene in the 2001 teen crime movie, Sugar & Spice. 09 of 09 THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES Bob Berg/Getty Ehem, Clueless, anyone?