The Rolling Stones
1962-present
Periods
Rhythm & Blues Roots
1964
Five white British art students channeling Chicago blues and R&B with a rawness that shocked even by 1964 standards, establishing the Stones as the dangerous alternative to the Beatles.
Songwriter Emergence
1966
The moment Jagger-Richards stopped being a cover band and became songwriters. Sitar, marimba, and harpsichord expanded the palette beyond blues while maintaining the band's essential swagger.
Golden Run
1968-1972
The greatest sustained creative run in rock. From Beggars Banquet's stripped-back roots to Exile's murky, narcotic sprawl, every album redefined what a rock band could sound like while channeling the end of the sixties into raw, dangerous music.
The devil's roots-rock return — stripping psychedelia away to channel 1968's chaos into the darkest, most dangerous rock music of its era.
The sixties' death rattle — Gimme Shelter's apocalyptic terror and gospel resolution bookending the end of an era, released the same day the dream died at Altamont.
Sleazy blues-rock's definitive statement — open-G tuning, Muscle Shoals soul, and the Warhol zipper cover framing the Stones at their most seductively dangerous.
Rock's murkiest masterpiece — gospel, country, blues, and R&B bleeding together through a narcotic haze in a French basement, the sound of a band in glorious exile.
Punk-Era Reinvention
1978
Punk and disco forced the Stones to strip down and speed up. The result was their leanest, most energetic album in years — proof that the self-proclaimed World's Greatest Rock and Roll Band could absorb any challenge.