Culture of Pittsburgh

Several notable bands emerged from Pittsburgh in the 1990s, including Rusted Root, The Clarks, Don Caballero, and the punk rock bands Anti-Flag and Aus-Rotten. Rusted Root and The Clarks appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. Formed in 1999, the garage rock group Modey Lemon toured the U.S. and internationally, gaining favorable reviews. Singer Christina Aguilera, a student at North Allegheny Intermediate High School, debuted locally at the 1999 Lilith Fair, before going on to sell over 43 million albums worldwide.

In the 2000s, Anti-Flag produced five albums, signed to RCA Records and appeared several times on the Vans Warped Tour. Rapper Wiz Khalifa, who signed to Warner Bros. Records but left without releasing an album, topped the iTunes singles chart by the end of the decade. Mashup/laptop music artist Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) found mainstream success. His 2006 album Night Ripper gained favorable reviews and Feed the Animals (2008) topped year end album lists in national media.

Since 2010, solo acts such as natives Jackie Evancho, Slimmie Hendrix, Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller have achieved world wide fame. Josh Groban was trained in Pittsburgh, having attended Carnegie Mellon University.

Pittsburgh has recently gained attention as a burgeoning center for counter-culture. The annual Pennsic War, the Society for Creative Anachronism's largest re-enactment of pre-17th-century Europe, is hosted nearby. Anthrocon, the world's largest anthropomorphics convention (better known as furry convention), returns every summer to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The