Mick Jagger - Legacy

Legacy

In the words of British dramatist and novelist Philip Norman, "the only point concerning Mick Jagger's influence over 'young people' that doctors and psychologists agreed on was that it wasn't, under any circumstances, fundamentally harmless." According to Norman, even Elvis Presley at his most scandalous had not exerted a "power so wholly and disturbingly physical": "Presley", he wrote in 1984, "while he made girls scream, did not have Jagger's ability to make men feel uncomfortable." Norman also associates the early performances of Jagger with the Rolling Stones in the 1960s as a male ballet dancer, with "his conflicting and colliding sexuality: the swan's neck and smeared harlot eyes allied to an overstuffed and straining codpiece."

Other authors also attribute similar connotations to Jagger. His performance style has been studied in the academic field as an analysis concerning gender, image and sexuality. It has been written for example that his performance style "opened up definitions of gendered masculinity and so laid the foundations for self-invention and sexual plasticity which are now an integral part of contemporary youth culture". His stage personas also contributed significantly to the British tradition popular music that always featured the character song and where the art of singing becomes a matter of acting—which creates a question concerning the singer's relationship to his own words. His voice, often cited as "thin and unexceptional", has been described as a powerful expressive tool for communicating feelings to his audience and expressing an alternative vision of society. In order to express "virility and unrestrained passion" he developed techniques previously used by African American preachers and gospel singers such as "the roar, the guttural belt style of singing, and the buzz, a more nasal and raspy sound". Steven Van Zandt also wrote: "The acceptance of Jagger's voice on pop radio was a turning point in rock & roll. He broke open the door for everyone else. Suddenly, Eric Burdon and Van Morrison weren't so weird – even Bob Dylan."

Allmusic has described Jagger as "one of the most popular and influential frontmen in the history of rock & roll". In fact, musicians such as David Bowie joined many rock bands with blues, folk and soul orientations in his first attempts as a musician in the mid-60s, and he was to recall: "I used to dream of being their Mick Jagger". Ever competitive with Jagger, Bowie also would say later: "he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image." Lenny Kravitz, in the Rolling Stone magazine edition for their List of 100 Greatest Singers, in which Jagger was placed in 16º, wrote: "I sometimes talk to people who sing perfectly in a technical sense who don't understand Mick Jagger. His sense of pitch and melody is really sophisticated. His vocals are stunning, flawless in their own kind of perfection." This edition also cites Mick Jagger as a key influence on Jack White, Steven Tyler and Iggy Pop.

More recently, his cultural legacy is also associated with his ageing accompanied by some vitality. Bon Jovi frontman Jon Bon Jovi, also a veteran, has said: "We continue to make Number One records and fill stadiums. But will we still be doing 150 shows per tour? I just can't see it. I don't know how the hell Mick Jagger does it at 67. That would be the first question I'd ask him. He runs around the stage as much as I do yet he's got almost 20 years on me." Since his early career, Jagger embodied what some authors describes as a "Dionysian archetype" of "eternal youth" personified by many rock stars and the rock culture. As wrote biographer Laura Jackson, "It is impossible to imagine current culture without the unique influence of Mick Jagger."