Forbes released its annual Hip-Hop Cash Kings segment yesterday, which confirmed that Dr. Dre was the wealthiest of the rappers, with earnings that totaled more than the rest of the Top 25 combined.
It makes sense that we love to look at how much cash emcees are bringing in. After all, they spend half of their time on the mic bragging about their high-spending lifestyles and we're curious to see just how high-spending they can afford to be! Similarly, EDM's highest paid DJ's list has become more popular in recent years for Forbes (Calvin Harris topped the count this year with a $67 million income).
One genre has been ignored however: punk. Again, it makes sense. Punk rockers routinely preach the evils of capitalism and glorify the grungiest of lifestyles even more than, well, grunge. The thing is—and the performers themselves will never tell you this—is that some of them actually bring in fairly hefty paychecks. Granted, the numbers presented below are for net worth and not yearly income, and these performers make far less than probably everyone on the hip-hop list. Still, they make a heck of a lot more than we do.
(NOTE: We wrestled with the definition of punk rock a bit and ultimately that acts such as Blink-182 and Green Day don't quite apply anymore. Sorry.)
05) Joey Ramone ($6 million)
Sure, Joey Ramone has been dead for more than 13 years but the value of his name has hardly gone down. The Ramones, perhaps more so than any other band except The Misfits, is a good example of how much bands can make from trademarked imagery. All those Ramones T-shirts you see at every concert and skatepark? Someone bought that shirt and a chunk of change from the purchase made it back to Joey's estate. As long as Hot Topic remains open, all of the Ramones will be doing alright. Of course it helps that many of the band's more appreciated tunes have the original lineup's names on them...that's why the most recent drummer Marky Ramone is reportedly worth only $2 million despite his Sirius radio gig.
04) Henry Rollins ($12 million)
Few bands scream "big money" less than Black Flag and few vocalists screamed (in general) as much as Henry Rollins while he was with the band. We're not sure how much, if anything, the vocalist makes from Black Flag's logo on merchandise (Gregg Ginn might hold all those rights now) but the band's most iconic vocalist has still done well for himself outside of music. He, like several other members of this list, has hosted both radio and television shows. Rollins is apparently so good at talking that he can now tour successfully as a spoken word performer, no band required. Toss in quite a few cameos (Bad Boys II and ten episodes of Sons of Anarchy for example) and Rollins has a healthy variety of income outlets.
03) Tim Armstrong ($13 million)
Tim Armstrong is best known for fronting punk icons Rancid but he's also gathered credit for Operation Ivy and The Transplants. Operation Ivy certainly didn't make any money (the band broke up the night its iconic self-titled album dropped) and we can't imagine Rancid brings in THAT much. So where is Armstrong getting his cash from? Well, for one, he writes for other performers. Not punk performers...pop performers such as Gwen Stefani and Pink. The latter's singles "Humble Neighborhoods," "Last To Know" and "Trouble" are all written by the '90s punk king for one of the '00s pop queens. Granted, Pink makes more sense than Katy Perry but still.
02) John Lydon ($15 million)
John Lydon was about as punk as punk could be when he was fronting The Sex Pistols: sneers, spiked hair and safety pins, extolling the virtues of anarchy and throwing birds at the royal family. His attitude hasn't really changed but it's become more evident that Lydon has always realized he was pushing a product. Calling it The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle would be a stretch, as we enjoy Never Mind The Bullocks as much as ever. Still, the guitarist winks and nods as well as anyone. Lydon has hosted a number of television and radio shows over the years (including one on VH1). The only thing that hasn't worked out for him has been appearing as Pontius Pilate in the touring version of Jesus Christ Superstar after it was cancelled this year.
01) Ian Mackaye ($25 million)
Ian Mackaye has numerous iconic punk acts to his name: Minor Threat and Fugazi among them. Still, we can't imagine those acts bring in the kind of bacon that Mackaye is reportedly making. He runs the successful DIY label Dischord, but none of the bands he has signed merit the kind of paybacks that Minor Threat and Fugazi could...heck, the biggest act on the label is Edie Sedgwick. So we have two ludicrous theories on how the frontman accumulated net worth: A) The trademark thing. You can buy shirts with Minor Threat's logo at some retailers...including Urban Outfitters, which charges a tad more for tees than Hot Topic does. Could MacKaye make more as a result? Probably not. Theory B: As the god of the straightedge movement, MacKaye is openly against drugs, drinking and eating meat (hence the earlier bacon joke). And let's be honest: Those three things make up the majority of our grocery bill from week to week.
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