By the time the Rolling Stones began calling themselves the World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the late ’60s, they had already staked out an impressive claim on the title. As the self-consciously dangerous alternative to the the Beatles, the Stones had pioneered the gritty, hard-driving blues-based rock & roll that came to define hard rock. Over the course of their career, the Stones never really abandoned blues, but as soon as they reached popularity in the UK, they began experimenting musically, incorporating the British pop of contemporaries like the Beatles, Kinks, and Who into their sound. After a brief dalliance with psychedelia, the Stones re-emerged in the late ’60s as a jaded, blues-soaked hard rock quintet. The Stones always flirted with the seedy side of rock & roll, but as the hippie dream began to break apart, they exposed and reveled in the new rock culture. For the next 30 plus years, they have continued to sell tens of millions of albums and sell out arenas and stadiums. They were never less than the most visible band of their era – certainly, none of their British peers continued to be as popular or productive as the Stones. And no band since has proven to have such a broad fan base or far-reaching popularity. It is impossible to hear any of the groups that followed them without detecting some sort of influence, whether it was musical or aesthetic. The Rolling Stones continue to tour the world. And they still rule!
