Age: 35
Occupation: Founder of Pitchfork Media
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0
In 1995, Ryan Schreiber was a 19-year-old Minneapolis record-store clerk who wanted to publish a rock-music fanzine but lacked access to a photocopier. Instead, he started a website, called it Pitchfork and began posting his thoughts on his favorite indie bands — groups whose songs never got played on the radio or MTV. Fifteen years later, Pitchfork is the Pravda of indie rock, steering opinion (and sales) with its unsparing and infamously dense record reviews. (Among Schreiber's discoveries: a little-known Canadian band named Arcade Fire, who this year took home the Grammy for Album of the Year.) As industry revenues crumble and genres fracture into ever smaller niches, Schreiber and Pitchfork may be the closest thing the music world has to an authoritative voice.