Most of today’s most popular rock music fails to, well, rock.
Maroon 5 has gone from catchy, riffing pop-rock band to a dance pop act that basically revolves around Adam Levine and a team of producers. Coldplay‘s music is the kind of stuff you play while studying for a mid-term or trying to put a toddler to sleep; not really what you would call “rocking.” As brilliant as Radiohead has always been, they haven’t really sounded like a rock band since 1997. Mumford & Son‘s folkie sound doesn’t really make you want to raise any lighters. And Nickelback just flat-out sucks.
But, hey, thank goodness for Jack White, right?
Not that the enigmatic singer-songwriter and former White Stripes frontman is the only artist out there making traditional rock music. And tried-and-true rock music isn’t only being created by white folks these days, either.
Rock has always been a bit blacker than some folks think — even after Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix. Here are five very cool rock artists who happen to be black — and who may very well save the genre from itself.
