Though he's best-known as the author of seemingly non-threatening, ultra-radio-friendly power-pop smashes like Just What I Needed and My Best Friend's Girl, Ric Ocasek – the late frontman and rhythm guitarist of the Cars – always had a lot more punk and alt-rock street cred than you'd think.
The Cars' minimalism, visual and sonic, often earned them a New Wave tag that lumped them in with the likes of pop boundary-pushers of the era like Blondie and the Talking Heads. Though the band were fairly agnostic about the label, it wasn't applied to them without reason.
