The Best Rock Frontmen

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 9, 2009 6:48 PM CDT
The Best Rock Frontmen
Sex Pistols sign a new recording contract outside Buckingham Palace in London in this March,1977 file photo.    (AP Photo/PA)

Frontmen are at the heart of rock ‘n’ roll—no matter how amazing the musicians in the band are, they still needs someone with the right mix of talent and charisma to reach the crowd. The Independent compiles the best:

  1. Johnny Rotten, Sex Pistols. Like so many other rockers, he’s now an aged self-parody. But in his time Rotten was punk rock—the fashion, the politics, the sneering sarcasm.
  2. Mick Jagger, Rolling Stones. Jagger mixed a voice aged beyond his years with a flamboyant, unselfconscious sexuality to propel the Stones to worldwide fame.

  1. Jimi Hendrix, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix is most commonly lauded for his guitar skills, but he was a showman, too. With his eclectic hippy dress, drugged-out reputation and enormous talent, Hendrix practically invented the rock star cliché.
  2. Marc Bolan, T.Rex. Bolan’s stage persona was a mix of Jagger, Dylan, and Bowie, which helped to establish glam rock.
  3. Iggy Pop. The Stooges. Pop abused and exposed his body to deliver a stage presence as overwhelming as The Stooges’ punk assault.
Click the link for the complete list.
(More Mick Jagger stories.)

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