Ok, maybe “switch” isn’t the right word to title this with, because Machine Gun Kelly has always taken influence from rock music and dabbled in pop punk stylings long before his new record, the chart topping Tickets to My Downfall, was released. This allowed his gradual rise in the alternative rock circuit to come off as seamless, for it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment switchup.
Fans of MGK’s recognized this long ago, having had an era filled with anarchy symbols (which is still tattooed right on the center of his abdomen), electric guitars (that are proudly hanging up in his house), and spiked mohawks (…thankfully this didn’t carry into present day). With a friendship in Travis Barker, tour setlists including Blink-182 covers, and crossover early hits like “Bad Things” with Camila Cabello and “I Think I’m Okay” with Yungblud (and Barker), it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that this Nirvana-listening, guitar-wielding, punk-befriending musician would come out with a pop punk record.
Sure, 2020 is an interesting time to be dabbling with any emo-esque genre. Hip-hop, latin, and urban laced music is dominating the airwaves, filling up playlists, and taking over award show nominations – something that this artist knows all about with a rich history in the rap world. Machine Gun Kelly, also known as Colson Baker, never seemed to take a liking toward that narrow minded side of the industry, though. Is he successful? Absolutely. Does he care about his success? Definitely. Would it kill him to release something outside of the media’s perception of him, especially if it means the work is coming from the heart? Clearly not.
I actually believe that if there is ever a time to float through musical categories and bend genres every which way, it’s now. Thanks to streaming services, artists big and small are finding the freedom to release what they want, how they want, and with the sound they want regardless of a label’s interpretation of them and without fear that a radio station won’t pick it up. Streaming services can be overwhelming for listeners and creators alike, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work for someone.
When alternative radio stations wouldn’t pick up “I Think I’m Okay” after it’s late 2019 release, alternative rock playlists ate it up. There wasn’t a modern rock, new alternative playlist throughout the end of 2019 and all of 2020 that didn’t feature the Baker, Barker, Yungblud bop. It wasn’t until it’s online success that those three were taken into account on alt. stations all over the globe. What live, public radio stations (ie: not subscription radio like SiriusXM) aren’t fully in tune to yet is that music can so much more than the artist who made it and the box it’s put in. Tagging Machine Gun Kelly’s name onto a song doesn’t mean it’s anything like his Eminem diss “RAP DEVIL,” just as featuring Camila Cabello on “Bad Things” didn’t immediately make the song a teen-girl-anthem.
Now you can’t go a day without hearing an MGK song on an alt. station or modern rock playlist. The lead singles off Tickets to My Downfall, “Bloody Valentine,” “my ex’s best friend,” and “concert for aliens,” are all in line with the likes of early MayDay Parade, Bowling for Soup, and New Found Glory. It’s still very Machine Gun Kelly, though – the MGK we know and love who laughs at himself, is ridiculously spontaneous, and draws inspiration from agitation. Nothing about this era of Machine Gun Kelly is unexpected. Not a song of Tickets to My Downfall sounds like it came from someone else. Not a moment on the record as a whole do you feel like there is a falsity behind the music.
Tickets to My Downfall is everything that this musician has worked for and it shows. Slowly but surely he proved that these little niche moments in songs and at shows were leading up to something bigger, something cathartic, something real, and something more meaningful – and that’s Tickets to My Downfall. It makes sense for who he is, who he has always been, and where he is at in his life – now more than ever.
You can say that Machine Gun Kelly is a rapper-turned-rockstar, but that wouldn’t be true. He’s always been a rockstar, always had punk tendencies, always gravitated toward the grungier side of things. The media just wants to put people in a pretty little box so that they are easily accepted and digestible for the perfectly curated demographic. Machine Gun Kelly proved that he was, is, and always will be, one step ahead of the perception people have of him. I am so thankful for that, because without that mindset we would never have gotten the fun, eccentric, electric, vulnerable pop punk masterpiece that is Tickets to My Downfall.