The Art of Swagger

In the days of Justin Beiber running around with Swag as his catch phrase, I find myself asking is swagger dead? I’m not talking about skinny white boys in skinny jeans that hang of their butt who walk around saying dope all the time, I’m talking Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks. What happened to people who don’t care what people thought about them, who lived by their own rules?

             In today’s age of social media and constant documentation, is it possible to not care what everyone else thinks about you? Are we living in a world where we all pretend to be someone else all the time? Keith Richards was an innovator, an individual, and above all, a badass.  Keith took the sixth string off of his guitars because he found it unnecessary. He wore his girlfriends’ clothes and rocked them like a bohemian 60s marauder. He ignored all the rules and lived his life the way he wanted to live it.
            Where are the Keiths of modern day rock? Yes, there are a few really talented musicians out there. For example, Dave Grohl, Jack White, Jeff Tweedy, and Carrie Brownstein just to name a few. All of these people are amazing in their own way but where’s the swagger. No one has moves like Mick, badassery like Keith, stage-presence like Jim, soul like Janis, or passion like Stevie.

A few months back I had the opportunity to see The Rolling Stones live. I was lucky enough to have seats close enough to see the sweat on Mick’s face. I don’t think that what I experienced at that concert will ever be duplicated. Mick’s stage prescience was insane, I literally could not take my eyes off of him. Keith and Ronnie’s guitars were hauntingly beautiful at times and intoxicatingly rough at others. Overall, they put on an insane show that wasn’t about backdrops, backup dancers, or gimmicks (for the most part, the stage was a bit gimmicky).

My hope for the future of rock n’ roll is that we get some real, badass rockstars soon.  In an ideal world I would love for at least half of them to be female also (equality, people!). Rockstars, and everyone else for that matter, need to stop playing it safe and just be themselves, the best, most rockin’ version of themselves. Screw what other people think.

***Here's a slightly blurry pic of a drawing of Mick and Keith I did after the concert