(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 11 October 2025 12:34, UK
There are moments in cultural history where it feels as though the baton of responsibility is being passed. Where an icon of one era taps a future star on the shoulder and says, it’s your time now.
After Stevie Nicks had dominated the cultural discourse for the 20th century’s last few decades, they wondered who would fill her shoes in the new millennium. But, I don’t think anyone expected it to be Destiny’s Child.
In a bizarre crossing of genres, Nicks granted pop three-piece permission to sample her monster hit ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ for their new age hit ‘Bootylicious’. It was a firm marker that music had moved into the new millennium and Nicks was no longer the queen of groundbreaking music.
It was a necessary handover for Nicks, though, whose greatness in the previous century was marred by personal pain. Like a tortured artist, she poured every ounce of her own tragedy into the music she wrote for a generation, allowing us to lap up her pain and consequently encourage her to suffer more for the purpose of music. Some of her greatest musical moments were all born from her own suffering, be it on Rumours or her later solo work, and she needed a well earned break.
“It’s a choice, and I chose it,” she said, speaking to the life of an artist. “But at the end of this year I’m taking a break. And that’s when I make my amends. I mean, I have to think about when I’m too old to be turning cartwheels and doing the splits onstage. I’m gonna want all my friends then, and I’m gonna need them. So I’m not gonna alienate the whole world just to be very famous.”
There was one artist, who Nicks saw traverse each cultural decade with adaptability and ease, to ultimately become the world’s most famous pop star. But while we saw cultural acclaim, Nicks saw the real life suffering that built such a public presence.
“You know, a real good example is like, I suppose 15 years ago, if I’d have wanted to really go for it, in the same way that, say, Madonna did, I could have done that,” she added. “And I could have been much more famous than I am now and much richer. But it never mattered to me that much about winning thousands of awards or having a hundred number one singles. It has never mattered to me to be a sex symbol.”
It’s Nicks’ uncompromising view on music that makes her the artist today. She never faltered under the demands of pressure while in Fleetwood Mac, nor did she try to hide the character traits that made her the artist she was. She wholeheartedly steered into her idiosyncrasies and, as a result, crafted a long-lasting, respected legacy.
When music turned the corner of a whole new millennium, and became undeniably more sexual in its approach. Rather than follow Madonna’s lead, she happily passed the baton onto the future and allowed new voices to reinterpret her ideas. She was and still is one of the most independent artists of all time.
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