The 4 Bands That Will Still Be Played In 2100

I’m not sure why people didn’t understand that I’m only talking about artists that haven’t released a new record in 30 years last. The last time I checked the Rolling Stones released a record last year. Same goes for a lot of the bands that people are saying in the comments.

I'll be 128 in 2100. I can't wait to see if Rick's predictions are right.

You're forgetting The Rolling Stones. They'll still be touring.

We’re still listening to Beethoven’s 5th symphony. Good music is timeless.

I will never forget seeing the Beatles in concert in 1965, and Ringo is coming to where I live this September, amazing.

I love that George Harrison wrote the most popular /streamed Beatles song. Thank God for George.

Wish you'd mentioned CCR: 2 songs with over a bil streams & still 36.1 milloon monthly listeners, on Spotify. Songs with lyrics as relevant today as they ever were. John Fogerty is a living legend. 😊

Man, Dont Stop Me Now is fine, but there are probably 50+ queen songs id rather listen to, maybe 100. Its not uncommon that a band will have a song that isnt their best or super representative of their catalog be their biggest hit, but its wild to have a song become such a prominent part of their catalog from tv and movie usage decades after any new material.

“If it was released today, I’d say ‘wow.’” I think that nails it. If the music still sounds fresh and alive, people will keep enjoying it, no matter how old it is. That’s why some music that’s 500 years old is still popular, and some music that came out last year has already been forgotten.

When Rick mentioned that Kurt Cobain will always be 27, it made me realize that the one trait those four bands all share is a sense of "ending too soon." The Beatles were all still in their 20s and still the biggest band in the world when they called it quits. The Police were also young, and were at the peak of their popularity, with "Synchronicity" having been one of the biggest albums of 1983. Nirvana was obviously cut short by Cobain's death, as Rick mentioned. Queen is the only one that seems a bit of an outlier, as they were in their 40s, they were 14 albums into their career, and they'd been around for 20 years by the time Freddie died. But Freddie's death was such a big deal, and he was such a giant presence, that his passing still felt like it brought the band's career to a close too early.

Great job as always Rick!

Rick, you are absolutely fantastic. Although I listen to Bach frequently, the video you did on him and musicians’ reactions to him led me to listen to his music even more. Thank you for what you do. FYI: I consider great music, of all genres, a portal to heaven. Maybe not a great phrase, but I mean it. Have an idea for you: Clapton’s “Groaning the Blues” from the ‘94 Scorsese documentary (finally released on DVD) back to back with “Holy Mother” with Pavarotti. Talk about musicianship and range! On fire and in a musical trance followed by transcendence and the beauty of playing with restraint but deep, deep emotion.

I've had this conversation with my wife and friends. These songs are 50-plus years old. I graduated high school in the mid-70's. I can't imagine listening to...or buying...music from 1923, 24, 25...50 years prior. The fact that music from the 1960's and 70's still is relevant today is pretty incredible.

Beatles, Zeppelin, Floyd, Talking Heads. All have songs that are timeless. I came home the other day to my son playing Beatles songs on the piano. Those songs came out 55 years ago and he has no connection to the cultural moment in which they were release, but he loves them because they are simply great songs. There are so many popular songs that will be forgotten, but these bands will last.

Wow rick I'm travelling to work for the past 2 years now , using Australian public transport 28 minutes by train in that time I've been listening to all of those bands , you hit the nail on the head ,absolutely and when someone will say ' Hay Andrew you love music what are or have been listening to well every time it those artists

It fine that you are making your theory from Spotify data. As long as you realize that it is a segment of music listeners, not everyone.

Queen is the band that literally has something for everyone. Long, technical compositions for prog-heads. Funky disco tracks. Arena-pleasing hard rock anthems. Proto-metal headbangers. Freddie Mercury's impeccable voice and their imaginative videos for fans of musical theatre and the more standard kind. They invented the jock jam. Some of the sweetest love ballads. Nerdy soundtracks and songs about dragons for sci-fi fantasy nerds. And they always sound like they're having a good time. What's not to love?

Bowie's estate or record label needs to hire a P.R. person to get the same impact as Queen for newer generations. His creativity deserves to be recognized in this mix of artists.

Radio. From the 60s to the 90s, a handful of radio stations focused the entire nation on a relative handful of bands. Then the internet fractured our attention and our culture, allowing us all to specialize into a greater number of bands in the long tail. It's much harder now for any single band to reach the massive level of acceptance that the best bands of the radio era achieved.

ELO is still rocking after 54 years. Jeff Lynne's ELO will have 32 concerts in North America this Summer and Fall of 2024.