The Genius of Machine Gun Kelly
Image courtesy of Universal Music Group
This past year we witnessed the “pop punk” sound from the early 2000’s make a huge return into the mainstream. Paired with the “emo rap” sound from the last few years everyone seemed to love, this movement was made popular by an artist who has been on the internet and making music for over a decade now. His rise to fame wasn't as quick as most artists but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the biggest and most celebrated artists recently.
Colson Baker a.k.a. Machine Gun Kelly is a full-time musician and part-time actor from Cleveland Ohio who in my opinion has found his sound within the last year. MGK is an internet legend. He was one of the few people uploading videos to the popular platform we all know and love, YouTube, over 12 years ago when it was first created and has also been making music for even longer. Machine Gun Kelly’s growth as an artist seemed to stem from this channel and has slowly climbed in numbers ever since. MGK started to gain traction with his debut album “Lace Up” and eventually turned his listeners into a very strong fan base with his EST movement over 6 years ago. Colson began creating music many would classify as rap and continued to make music in this genre until early 2020. Recently MGK has teamed up with legendary drummer Travis Barker from the world famous band Blink-182 who created the pop punk music we talked about previously in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. These two would form a killer combo and start creating music that would fall into the pop punk genre that at the time was becoming more and more popular. The two musicians teamed up last year to release a collaboration album titled “Tickets to my Downfall”. This album proved to be a hit right out of the gate selling 126,000 copies its first week. Machine Gun Kelly wasn't afraid to experiment with this new sound and it has definitely paid off for him so far. Many fans seem to agree that the new sound MGK has started using is the sound he was made for.
The real genius of Machine Gun Kelly in my opinion comes into play with his marketing and skills with social media. Colson has always pushed the envelope in everything he has done, paving the way for new artists to follow in his footsteps. His most recent development comes in the form of a 50 minute film he created for his new album “Tickets to my Downfall”. Colson worked with fellow artist and friend Mod Sun, who has created many pieces of content alongside MGK to create a film where Tickets to my Downfall is the whole soundtrack. This long form “music video”, some may describe it as, is something we as consumers have never seen before from a music artist. The movie was a full production with different actors and locations. Downfalls High, the title of the film, has amassed over 18 million views in the 5 months it has been uploaded which is an insane amount of engagement. The hype around this project has definitely drawn attention to MGK’s album and has also catapulted him into another level of stardom. He is always finding ways to make new things and is constantly adapting to the many changes he constructs. He has shown that he can succeed no matter what and this is why the statement about the genius of Machine Gun Kelly is a very valid point.
