Imagine: Jimi Hendrix born in 2003. What would he sound like today?

If Hendrix was born in 2003, he'd be stuck in the algorithm like everyone else and you'd probably scroll past him thinking he was “cringe.” The only reason we worship him now is because there were gatekeepers. The lack of noise made legends. Now? There’s no silence left to break.

His sound would be too dirty for today's listeners. Modern music is all tight transients and clean lines. Hendrix was feedback, chaos, and mistakes. Those don’t survive Spotify compression or TikTok attention spans. He wouldn’t be "a vibe." He’d be "noise."

Hendrix was a black man in a white-dominated rock world, who freaked people out with his tone, his style, and his sound. In 2025, he’d still scare people — but instead of being called “revolutionary,” he’d be labelled “problematic,” “tryhard,” or “attention-seeking.” Real rebellion doesn’t stream well.

Most of you don't want a new Hendrix. You want a marketable version of him. One who plays strats with gold hardware, signs your pedalboards, and posts gear rundowns. You want his aesthetic, not his risk. The real Hendrix would get booed at NAMM.

Hendrix wouldn’t collab with Billie Eilish. Billie would collab with him. He’d still be the blueprint. You can't algorithmically erase charisma, and no one on earth had more of it than Jimi. Not even the internet could flatten that.

Honestly? Hendrix would've been chewed up and spit out by music Twitter. One wrong take, one messy solo, one bad livestream tone and his career's over. Cancelled before the first album drops. 60s Hendrix wouldn't have survived 2020s internet culture.