10 Bands That Changed Rock And Roll

10. Arctic Monkeys

At the turn of the century, it looked like rock was on the verge of breathing its last breath. I mean, if the best new sounds we could have hoped for were coming from the whiny sounds of pop punk and people trying to relive the '70s all over again, we weren't exactly looking at anything becoming timeless any time soon. Even though rock hadn't been relevant since grunge came and went, Arctic Monkeys recontextualized the way we all looked at bringing music to the masses.

Like most upstart bands, the Monkeys already got their start on their indie label, but it wasn't until their fans started to share their music on a little website called MySpace that things really started to pick up. Before iTunes became the cultural juggernaut that it is today, this was one of the first post-Napster success stories that launched a band into the mainstream.

All of a sudden, these bunch of kids who were singing about the grimy side of English party life were going from playing on their native boardwalks to becoming one of the mainstays at Glastonbury for years to come. There's probably a reason why the mainstream turned a blind eye to rock, but in Alex Turner's own words, rock is alive and there's nothing you can do about it.