Rock's Two Icons Du Jour

Jehnny Beth and Matt Healy have much more in common than music. Their sense of personal style and attitude are inspiring a generation of young women and men.

- Sanjoy Narayan

Curiously, two rockers Jehnny Beth, 31, and Matt Healy, 27, have a lot in common. For starters, each of them lead new (or rather, new-ish) British bands. Beth is the lead singer and the main driving force of ‘Savages’. Healy is the frontman for ‘The 1975’. Both are bands that have just released their sophomore full-length albums. They have something more in common—Beth and Healy are style icons for a generation of young men and women.

Beth, who a few years back, took a clipper to her head and got a fuzz, now sports short dark hair and favours black and has a markedly aggressive air, particularly during the band’s live performances—often throwing herself into the mosh pit and surfing the crowd.

Healy, whose band’s shows are spectacular and flamboyant, favours what is labelled as a goth hipster look (skinny black clothes and leather jackets all of it accessorised with unalloyed self-confidence), a look that is quite obviously put together with extreme care. And, if you’d like to know, he takes off his shirt in concerts. Often.

But the two couldn’t be more different. Beth’s ‘Savages’ is an all-woman postpunk band that seems to revive London’s early punk credo with visceral guitar riffs, noisy loudness and Beth’s unabashed and in-your-face vocals. Their new album, Adore Life actually betters their passionate debut album, Silence Yourself. It’s a powerful set of 10 songs on a short (under 40 minute) album but one that hits you hard and makes you instantly fall for it. Love, life, relationships are Beth’s themes for the album’s songs but all of it is delivered with an undertone of a brand of dark humour.