Mick Jagger has said that "loads" of modern music is "rubbish." He also praised Geese for being "very experimental" and said Rosalía's album Lux is "conceptual." The man knows what he is talking about, even if the take is not exactly original from someone who has been making music since before most working journalists were born.
What makes the Jagger commentary interesting is not the headline part - the elder statesman calling the mainstream a wasteland is a story as old as rock music itself. What is interesting is the specificity. Geese and Rosalía are not obvious choices. They are not the names you reach for if you are doing a publicity round and want to seem current by name-dropping the first two acts you heard mentioned on the radio.
Geese and Rosalía
If you do not know Geese: New York band, post-punk with a progressive lean, the kind of music that sounds like nothing quite else on the current landscape. "Very experimental" is accurate. They are also genuinely good.
Rosalía's Lux continues the trajectory she started with Motomami - flamenco and reggaeton and global pop in conversation, not collision. Calling it "conceptual" is correct. It is an album that rewards attention.
Jagger listening to both, having opinions about both, and being articulate enough to say something meaningful about why they work - that is not the behaviour of someone dismissing everything made after 1975. That is someone who is still paying attention.
The "loads of modern music is rubbish" part
He is not wrong, but this is also a man whose band played Anfield last night to a sold-out crowd. There is a version of this quote where you could argue that Jagger's position gives him the luxury of not needing to engage with the commercial mainstream. He can choose Geese. Most artists cannot afford to.
The rubbish is partly an algorithm problem. What surfaces first is not what is best. That has always been true but the gap between visibility and quality has never been wider.
Our take: Mick Jagger praising Geese in 2026 is not the news we expected today. And yet here we are. Listen to Geese.