Performance

Monthly Listeners

Current

Followers

Current

Streams

Current

Tracks

Current

Popularity

Current

Top Releases

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Chart Toppers

1.1B streams

1,136,113,741

The Journey - Pt. 1

882.9M streams

882,888,069

Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoro...

668.7M streams

668,652,689

Picture Book

648.7M streams

648,650,724

The Ultimate Collection

528.5M streams

528,500,086

At the BBC

362.3M streams

362,306,176

Kinks (Deluxe Edition)

355.2M streams

355,175,508

Rockin'

351.8M streams

351,791,424

The Kink Kronikles

301.3M streams

301,288,155

Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoro...

296.6M streams

296,579,316

Biography

The Kinks are now established as a great British institution. Formed in north London in 1963, they started out playing American R&B but with a decidedly English tint. It was this Englishness that stood The Kinks out, particularly when Ray Davies began writing such memorable character vignettes as ‘A Well Respected Man’, ‘Dedicated Follower Of Fashion’ and ‘Sunny Afternoon’. A union ban preventing The Kinks from touring America actually helped increase their artistic individuality. Albums like Face To Face (1966), Something Else (1967), and pioneering concepts The Village Green Preservation Society (1968) and Arthur (1969) have become belatedly-recognised classics. While his contemporaries focused on America, Ray wrote of matters parochial, which gained The Kinks a cult following in the States. With the help of their American record company, the ban was lifted and the Kinks toured the States with a vengeance, signing a new deal with RCA in 1971 and entered a phase of ambitious theatrical shows and albums like Muswell Hillbillies (1971) and Preservation Act 1 (1973). Moving to Arista in 1977 they were reborn as an arena band on the back of successful albums Sleepwalker (1977) and Low Budget (1979). The Kinks continued into the ‘80s and ‘90s with acclaimed concerts and albums, by which time they’d influenced a new generation of musicians such as The Jam, XTC, Pulp and Supergrass. The Kinks legacy is detectable in much modern rock music.