3 Soon-To-Be Classic Rock Artists Who Personify the 2020s

There’s an old philosophical question about fish. Do they know they’re in water? For us, looking down at them from land, we know that fish are swimming around in this cool, clear liquid. But it’s likely they do not; at least until they are taken out of it. The point of this musing is that it’s hard to know in real time that what’s around you is something special. We wanted to try and see the forest for the trees and examine three rock acts making music today who, when people look back at the 2020s decades from now, will be seen as the classic rock icons of the era. Indeed, these are a trio of soon-to-be classic rock artists who today personify the decade of the 2020s.

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Ayron Jones

Seattle-born rock star Ayron Jones boasts two no. 1 songs on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart this decade, specifically “Mercy” and “Blood In The Water”. He also boasts two other songs in the Top 5, including “Take Me Away” and “Supercharged”. With a gravely voice and an otherworldly talent on the electric guitar, Jones is one of the few black solo artists to earn those lofty Billboard chart distinctions in the 2020s. For the artist who credits Stevie Ray Vaughan as a major influence, Jones is dynamic in his music. And he’s young, with plenty of time for more chart-toppers this decade (or next).

IDLES

When the 2020s hit, there was a lot of hardship around the world. Every day on Earth can be tough, but in the 2020s we were all experiencing a lot of new, difficult things together. And it seemed in many ways that the British-born band IDLES summed up that rage in their vitriolic, hard-rocking songs. Each track off albums like Crawler (2021) is an uppercut. Each verse is cathartic and makes you feel that someone else out there knew the crunchy, gnarled feelings you were going through. When all is said and done, many who got through the decade will owe IDLES a debt of gratitude.

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

To date, the Australian-born band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard has released a whopping 26 albums. And 11 of those have come in the first half of this decade. For the prolific Australian-born rockers, making music is like breathing. And on each song, it’s as if the band is casting a spell. Ask any of your friends who follow the trends of indie rock, and they’ll start gushing about King Gizzard. They’ll want to put a song on for you from the band right away. And it’s that kind of word of mouth that helped the band grow to be a beloved project by so many. Who knows how many more albums they’ll release in the 2020s? However many it is, they won’t soon be forgotten.

Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

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