The Lasting Influence of the Rolling Stones

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During their fifty years as a band, the Rolling Stones have released twenty-nine studio albums, eighteen live albums, numerous videos, concert films and compilations. The band was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. They were ranked fourth on Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. As of 2014, their albums had sold an estimated 250 million. Well known for their amazing performances onstage and their wild reputations offstage, perhaps the Rolling Stones most impressive achievement was that they were still going strong as they hit their fifty year anniversary with no end in sight.

Blending Styles

When the Rolling Stones first hit the scene in the 1960s, they received more attention for their physical appearance, the long hair, for example, than for their music. However, after releasing several covers and, later, their own original music, the band began receiving attention for blending blues and rock into their own signature sound. They brought a simpler form of blues to the forefront of pop culture, merging it with rock and roll. Even their name shined a spotlight on the blues genre, taking its band name from the Muddy Waters song "Rollin' Stone."

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards brought the influences of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and other blues artists to the Rolling Stones. Band member Charlie Watts was primarily a jazz drummer at the time he joined the band. Brian Jones had been into a more sophisticated jump blues style such as the work of T-Bone Walker. Richards and Jagger turned Jones onto the simpler styles of artists such as Chuck Berry.

Even though the band was heavily influenced by blues, the Rolling Stones also blended other genres into their ow...

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...oon character Pepé Le Pew. In 2007 and 2011, Keith Richards joined Depp on screen in two Pirates of the Caribbean films, playing Depp's on screen father, Captain Teague. Richards appeared, in cartoon form, on The Simpsons as himself in 2002. In 2010, Richards released his highly anticipated memoir, My Life, which quickly became a New York Times best seller and received rave reviews.

As the Rolling Stones celebrated their fiftieth anniversary they were still going strong. Their influence could be seen in everyone from fellow veteran acts such as Aerosmith and Iggy Pop to more recent bands like the White Stripes. One thing was for certain, long after the Rolling Stones finally played their last show, their legacy both on and off the stage would live on through the music, books, concert films, memories as well as in their influence on current and future rock bands.

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