Ben Folds Five is an alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...

. The group comprises Ben Folds

Ben Folds

Benjamin Scott "Ben" Folds is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and television personality. From 1995-2000, Folds was the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. Since the group disbanded, Folds has performed as a solo artist and has toured all over the world...

 (vocals, piano, and principal songwriting), Robert Sledge

Robert Sledge

Robert Sledge is an American musician, best known for his work with Ben Folds Five.-Biography:Robert Sledge began playing bass guitar at the age of eleven. His brother was playing guitar at his house so he also learned how to play the guitar at the same time...

 (bass guitar, synthesizers, and backing vocals), and Darren Jessee

Darren Jessee

Darren Jessee is an American musician and songwriter. He is perhaps best known as the drummer for the alternative rock group Ben Folds Five...

 (drums, backing vocals and co-writer for some songs). The group achieved mainstream success in the alternative, indie and pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 scenes. The band is best known for the hit single "Brick

Brick (song)

"Brick" is a song performed by Ben Folds Five released on their 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen and later on Ben Folds Live. The verses were written by Ben Folds about his high school girlfriend undergoing an abortion, and the chorus was written by the band's drummer, Darren Jessee...

" from their 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen

Whatever and Ever Amen

Whatever and Ever Amen is the second album by Ben Folds Five, released in 1997. A remaster was made available on March 22, 2005. All of the extra tracks had been previously released except for a cover of the Buggles song "Video Killed the Radio Star", which is a staple of Ben Folds Five's live...

, which gained airplay on many mainstream radio stations.

Much of Ben Folds Five's work was influenced by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, evident in frequent improv

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

-styled passages through bridge and/or ending.