Boston's rawest export, still standing
At their core, Aerosmith are a blues band that learned to play arenas. They formed in Boston in 1970 and spent the next five decades becoming one of the best-selling rock acts in American history: Steven Tyler's acrobatic howl, Joe Perry's sinewy guitar work, and a rhythm section that hits hard enough to rattle stadium concrete. They burned brightest in the early 1970s with a run of raw, self-titled records, crashed spectacularly through addiction in the late 1970s, and came back in the late 1980s cleaner and sharper, scoring their biggest commercial peaks with Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip. The through-line is tension: between the blues they learned from and the pop hooks they mastered, between sleaze and sincerity, between destruction and survival. Fans love them because the chaos is real. The swagger was earned.
Essential Aerosmith
The records that define the catalogue
The same raw blues energy, different shapes
Hard rock and blues-rock acts that share Aerosmith's DNA
Rock on screen: concert films and music documentaries
Watch the machine at full volume
The perfect entry point is not their biggest hit
Rocks from 1976 is the record that earns Aerosmith their place in the conversation alongside Zeppelin and the Stones. It is rawer and less produced than the glossy 1980s comeback records, which means it sounds better at high volume. The riff on 'Back in the Saddle' is as good as anything in the rock canon. Start here before you touch Pump.
Rock biopics and stories of excess and survival
Films and TV that capture the wreckage and the redemption
The underrated comeback record deserves a serious relisten
Done with Mirrors from 1985 is the Aerosmith album nobody talks about. It was their first record after getting sober, before the slick production of Permanent Vacation cleaned them up entirely. It sounds like a band that is furious and grateful at the same time, and Joe Perry's guitar playing here is as sharp and mean as anything he recorded. The commercial underperformance was a label problem, not a quality one.
Play the music: rhythm games with the right attitude
When listening is not enough
Almost Famous is the film Aerosmith fans were always meant to watch
Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous is not about Aerosmith, but it captures exactly the world they came up in: the arena circuit, the hotel corridors, the particular combination of grandeur and squalor that defined 1970s rock touring. It also understands that the music matters more than the mythology. Watch it after spending a week with Rocks and Toys in the Attic and it will feel like a companion piece.
The spiritual successor is playing arenas right now
Guns N' Roses were explicitly raised on Aerosmith and it shows: the blues underneath the hard rock, the volatile front man, the lead guitarist who might not show up, the sense that the whole thing could fall apart at any moment. Appetite for Destruction is as close as the 1980s produced to what Rocks and Toys in the Attic felt like in 1975. The comparison is a compliment to both bands.
Five decades, same city
- 1970Band forms in Boston, Massachusetts
- 1973Self-titled debut album released
- 1975Toys in the Attic breaks them nationally Toys in the Attic
- 1976Rocks cements their status Rocks
- 1979Band falls apart amid addiction; Perry departs
- 1985Reunited and sober, Done with Mirrors released Done With Mirrors
- 1987Permanent Vacation begins the commercial peak Permanent Vacation
- 1989Pump becomes their best-selling album Pump
- 1998I Don't Want to Miss a Thing hits number one
- 2008Guitar Hero: Aerosmith released Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
- 2023Final farewell tour announced after Tyler's vocal injury
More stadium rock and swagger
For Fans of Led Zeppelin
Explore the For Fans of Led Zeppelin guide →They are the band that proves addiction and rock and roll mythology are not the same thing. The mythology is easy. The sobriety and the second act, and still sounding like that, is the actual story.CrossBinge editors