walking upstream…
Måneskin
sourcesBillboard — Måneskin interview on Rush!, Max Martin, and their reference points · Yahoo Entertainment — how Thomas Raggi channeled Led Zeppelin and RHCP into his solo album · NME — Iggy Pop on why Måneskin are 'a really strong band' · Wikipedia — 'I Wanna Be Your Slave' (title homage to the Stooges, Iggy Pop remix feature) · Wikipedia — Måneskin (formation, genres, Eurovision win)
Måneskin formed in Rome in 2016, when three teenage friends started busking with a sound built on glam-rock swagger and garage-punk snap, soon locking in with drummer Ethan Torchio. Their 2021 Sanremo and Eurovision wins turned "Zitti e buoni" into a global flashpoint, and the runaway TikTok life of their Four Seasons cover "Beggin'" carried them from festival curiosity to arena-filling rock band almost overnight. By Rush! (2023) they were folding Max Martin's pop instincts and a Tom Morello guitar cameo into a sound still built on riff, chant, and unapologetic theatrical excess.
the sound in question
2022
THE LONELIESTMåneskin
walk the tributaries ↓
Arctic Monkeys2000s · Indie rock / Garage rock
Frontman Damiano David has singled out the Strokes and Arctic Monkeys as his own personal touchstones (his bandmates lean elsewhere — Raggi to '70s/'80s rock, De Angelis to punk and techno, Torchio to classical), and it surfaces in Måneskin's talk-sung verses that snap into big, shouted hooks over riff-driven garage rock.
listen: upstream & heresource: ABC Audio — Måneskin breaks down the band's many influences (Damiano on the Strokes/Arctic Monkeys) ↗
2005
I Bet You Look Good on the DancefloorArctic Monkeys
2021
ZITTI E BUONIMåneskin
listen forNotice the deadpan, almost-spoken verse cadence that suddenly detonates into a gang-vocal chorus — the same trick Arctic Monkeys pull on their breakout single reappears in how 'ZITTI E BUONI' holds its riff back until the hook lands.
Iggy and the Stooges1970s · Proto-punk / Garage rock
Måneskin's glam-punk snarl and confrontational stage presence trace back to the Stooges' primal rock template, made explicit when the band titled a song 'I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVE' as a direct riff on Iggy Pop's 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' — a homage Iggy Pop himself later endorsed by guesting on a remix and calling Måneskin 'a really strong band.'
listen: upstream & here
1969
I Wanna Be Your DogIggy and the Stooges
2021
I WANNA BE YOUR SLAVEMåneskin
listen forThe same three-chord snarl and chanted 'wanna be' hook structure carries over — Iggy's fuzzed-out, hammering riff on the original reappears as the strutting glam stomp of Måneskin's answer song.
Red Hot Chili Peppers1990s · Funk rock / Alternative rock / Funk-punk
Guitarist Thomas Raggi has named Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante among his biggest influences, and press coverage of the band groups RHCP with the Strokes and the White Stripes as reference points behind Måneskin's ability to reinterpret existing rock vocabulary in their own voice — the syncopated, forward-mixed bass under a lean, melodic guitar part is the clearest fingerprint.
listen: upstream & here
2002
Can't StopRed Hot Chili Peppers
2023
SUPERMODELMåneskin
listen forListen for the funk-inflected bassline carrying the groove while the guitar answers in short, melodic stabs instead of a wall of riff — 'SUPERMODEL' borrows that same push, with Victoria De Angelis's strutting bass sitting right up front under an economical guitar hook.