2021 was another memorable year in rock and roll with excellent new albums and singles, the return of some live performances and touring, and creative ventures into new and updated stories and retrospectives on film. As genre fusion continued to expand, especially in the world of pop, a standout list of purely rock or even alternative or hip hop singles and albums of the year is bound to vary greatly from one person (or publication) to another. With this in mind, rather than my usual top 5 or top 10 albums of the year, this time around, I will look back at notable releases as well as memorable and significant events in rock history throughout 2021.
Foo Fighters had an amazing year with the release of Medicine at Midnight, the year’s best rock album (read our in-depth review here!), being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and performing, along with Bruce Springsteen, at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Their single, “Shame Shame,” was also the #1 U.S. rock song for 6 weeks. In addition to all that excitement, front man, Dave Grohl, saw success with the release of his autobiography, The Storyteller, which is also available as an audiobook read by him.
Joining the Foos in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 were The Go-Go’s (who said they would neither attend the induction nor perform and ended up doing both), Jay-Z, Carole King (previously inducted as a non-performer), Todd Rundgren (who said he would not perform nor attend his induction and did neither), and Tina Turner (also previously inducted for her work with Ike Turner but now also as a solo artist). Inducted for “musical excellence,” was hip hop legend, LL Cool J; the late, great, Billy Preston; and heavy metal guitar god, Randy Rhodes. Early Influence inductees included electronic music pioneers, Kraftwerk; jazz-hip-hop trailblazer, Gil-Scott Heron; and blues legend, Charley Patton.
Newer acts who released new material included Chevelle, Kings of Leon, The Killers, and The Black Keys, who continue to dive deeper into southern blues and rock sounds and production techniques of rock’s early years on their solid covers album, Delta Kream. Mastodon returned with more of their original blend of psychedelic metal and prog, and Mike Patton’s all-star troupe, Tomahawk, released a poignant meditation on pandemic life with Tonic Immobility. Veteran projects like Coldplay, Rise Against, and My Morning Jacket also had new albums in 2021 which pleased their fan bases and achieved some notable mainstream attention as well. Gorillaz mastermind and Blur front man, Damon Albarn, released a new set of solo material, and Jesse Hughes of Eagles of Death Metal issued an EP of traditional Christmas songs in December (though it will be hard for anyone to top Scott Weiland’s similar album from 2010).
2021 also saw Michigan rockers, Greta Van Fleet, continue to attempt to establish their own sound and style after years of Zeppelin comparisons. Wolfgang Van Halen, son of the late guitar god, Eddie, released his band’s debut to mixed reviews. System of a Down vocalist, Serj Tankian, put out an EP of new material that was originally intended for an SOAD reunion LP that never materialized. Newcomer, Brandi Carlile, lead the pack for emerging singer-songwriters, and established indie/alternative acts like The War on Drugs and St. Vincent received greater attention in 2021 with their latest releases as well. Fewer pop artists crossed genre lines last year than previously, but Halsey’s collaboration with Nine Inch Nails on her dark, successful album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, was easily one of the strongest and most notable.
Elsewhere, industrial-goth rocker, Marilyn Manson, was accused of past sexual assault bringing him bad press, getting him dropped from radio and from his record label, and bringing criticism to Kanye West’s album launch for his latest, Donda, which also featured contributions from socially-maligned rapper, DaBaby, though the album itself is an improvement over West’s previous two releases. Megadeth’s longtime bassist, David Ellefson, was also fired from that group for accusations of sexual misconduct.
The world of reissues continued to grow stronger in 2021 with super deluxe box sets like Metallica’s black album box (and The Black List, a lengthy tribute album featuring several artists covering tracks from that classic LP), Stone Temple Pilots’ Tiny Music box set included demos and alternate takes along with full audio/video highlights of an MTV live concert special from Panama City Beach in 1996, Nirvana’s 30th anniversary of Nevermind box, which includes four full, unreleased concerts, and Radiohead’s Kid Amnesia, looking back on 20 years following their twin 5th and 6th LPs, debatably their very best work, and includes a new disc of unreleased leftovers and unfinished experiments. R.E.M.'s New Adventures in Hi-Fi also saw the deluxe reissue treatment to celebrate its 25th anniversary and reminded their legions of fans just how incredibly old they are getting to be!
Sadly, we also lost a number of notable figures from the timeline of rock history in 2021 including innovative-but-notorious producer, Phil Spector; former Slipknot drummer, Joey Jordison; ZZ Top bassist, Dusty Hill; influential early rocker, Don Everly; Turbonegro singer, Hank von Hell; The Monkees' Michael Nesmith; and one of the most significant drummers in all of rock history, The Rolling Stones’ Charlie Watts, to whom tribute was paid during the opening moments and throughout each concert on the band’s U.S. No Filter Tour last fall.
Music movies and documentaries continued to be a big part of the year in rock with both scripted biopics like, Respect, focusing on 20 years in the life of the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin, and several deep-focused documentaries on subjects as far ranging as Tina Turner and the Bee Gees to Sparks, Alanis Morissette, and DMX. (see our summer rock movie reviews here for more about those and others). Later in the year, director Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, Licorice Pizza, was released, starring all three Haim sisters (and their actual parents, all playing fictionalized early ’70s versions of themselves) and featuring a score from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and a killer classic rock soundtrack throughout.
The biggest 2021 film event in rock, however, was undoubtedly the release of The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+. This lengthy, three-part docu-series from Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, revisits all of the video and audio footage that originally resulted in the Let It Be film and LP (and related singles from early 1969) and reconstructs the events of those four weeks of writing and recording sessions, this time chronologically and featuring a “warts and all” approach that allows each band member both good and bad moments throughout (well, not so many bad moments for Ringo, but that sort of goes without saying). After decades of waiting for a proper remaster/reissue of the original Let It Be film, most famous for including footage of the group’s final live performance on the rooftop of their recording studio in London, Get Back now makes that earlier documentary completely obsolete as it includes all of the same moments, adds over 6 additional hours of content, and features the entirety of the rooftop concert as a finale (rather than selected highlights from it). While exhaustive to the curious non-fan, Get Back is a tremendously engaging, high quality opportunity to see what it was like for The Beatles, day-by-day, for nearly a month of their lives, and that alone is a staggering and previously unthinkable opportunity for their legions of fans around the world and for newcomers and future fans alike.
It's clear 2021 had a lot to offer the world of rock
music and its many dedicated fans, but as the ways in which new music makes its
way to the audience continue to change, the impact of strength and
significance of those releases varies. Where one album might have been a
blockbuster in another era, many artists must now be satisfied to connect even
with their core fans and followers and look at broader reach as a bonus rather
than as the expectation or the rule. There’s never been more music available
and accessible to more listeners, but that too carries both positive and
negative consequences. The world of rock will continue to evolve, but the directions in which it does so are unpredictable and will not please everyone. It will be very interesting to see what the future holds.
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