The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger Named the 2 Rock Stars Who Give Him Hope
The Rolling Stones‘ Mick Jagger knows a thing or two about rock ‘n’ roll. During an interview, he named two modern rock singers who show that the genre is still alive. Interestingly, he classified both singers in the wrong genre.
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger likes 2 punk-inspired singers
In 2022, The Independent reported that the “Dancing in the Street” singer revealed his feelings about modern rock during an interview on the Swedish radio station P4. “In rock music, you need energy, and there have not been a lot of new rock singers around,” he said. “Now, there are a few. You have Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly. That kind of post-punk vibe makes me think there is still a bit of life in rock ‘n’ roll.”
Yungblud is a rock singer, while Machine Gun Kelly is a rapper who performs rock music as well, sometimes combining the two genres. Both of these stars could accurately be described as pop-punk singers. Jagger called them “post-punk,” which is a completely different genre from pop-punk. Post-punk is a lot edgier and more Gothic than pop-punk.
What Mick Jagger felt his band brought to rock ‘n’ roll
One thing that Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly have in common is their rebellious spirit. For example, Yungblud demonstrated his sexual fluidity and androgynous fashion sense in the music video for “Cotton Candy” while Machine Gun Kelly made an edgy, Stephen King-inspired clip for “Bloody Valentine” with Megan Fox. Perhaps Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly are not post-punk singers per se, but they have some of the edgy vibes of the genre.
Jagger explained the rock ‘n’ roll rebelliousness that he and his band brought to music. “The early days were the days of shock and awe, things can’t stay like that forever,” he said. “When you start out, I mean popular music is always in need of shaking up. We were quite good at that.”
“We had our own style and our own way of approaching things and we had a different way of behaving,” he added. “And it provoked a lot of people. I thought a lot of it was super over-reaction, but it became a bit of a cliché.”
What makes Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly different from The Rolling Stones
What made The Rolling Stones different from most 21st-century rock stars is that they ruled the pop charts. During the 1960s, rock stars like The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Elvis Presley scored hit after hit after hit. Today, it’s rare for a rocker to have an honest-to-God hit on the all-genre chart.
So far, Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly are popular, but they don’t come anywhere close to the level of saturation that The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, or Elvis reached. Perhaps time will be kind to them, and they will be able to attain that kind of success, but it doesn’t seem likely. Rock just doesn’t have the hold on the public consciousness that it once did, now that it has been replaced with other genres such as rap and electronic music.
Yungblud and Machine Gun Kelly might not shine as brightly as earlier rock stars, but they’re still keeping the genre alive.
