Music: Two-Hit Wonders

Out of the spotlight for nearly three years, No Doubt returns to prove pop can grow older gracefully

Alejandra Vega / AFP /Getty

When No Doubt first took its music to Los Angeles radio station K-ROQ in 1992, the message from the grunge-obsessed program director was not your polite kiss-off: "It will take an act of God for this band to get on the radio." The Lord works in mysterious ways. Grunge fell off the cultural cliff, and No Doubt's mix of punk, pop and ska alchemized into the carefree, radio-friendly sound of the mid-'90s. Tragic Kingdom sold 15 million copies and turned singer Gwen Stefani into the It Girl for teenagers of both sexes. All the while, the band members deflected criticism with...

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