walking upstream…
Yungblud
Dominic Harrison grew up in Doncaster in a family already steeped in music — his grandfather had played with T. Rex, his father dealt vintage guitars — and after a stint as a teenage actor on 'Emmerdale,' he reinvented himself as Yungblud, releasing his first single, 'King Charles,' in 2017. His debut album '21st Century Liability' (2018) and the EP 'The Underrated Youth' (2019) built him a devoted, genre-agnostic fanbase around a persona that fuses punk snarl, pop hooks, and glammy theatrics with earnest, plainspoken advocacy for outsiders. 'Weird!' (2020) topped the UK charts, his 2022 self-titled album went to No. 1 in Britain too, and 2025's Britpop-inflected 'Idols' pushed his shape-shifting further, all while he cultivated one of rock's most fervent live communities.
the sound in question
2022
The FuneralYungblud
walk the tributaries ↓
My Chemical Romance2000s · Emo / Pop punk / Alternative rock
Yungblud has said My Chemical Romance inspired him to 'build something' rather than fit an existing mold, explaining he wanted to 'connect to people' and 'build a culture' around his own music the way MCR's fanbase had rallied around theirs — a kinship close enough that Gerard Way personally reached out after reading Yungblud's comments about the band. That model surfaces as a theatrical, us-against-the-world outsider anthem built for a crowd to shout back at, and a black-and-white, faintly gothic visual language draped over pop-punk urgency.
listen: upstream & heresource: NME ↗
2006
Welcome to the Black ParadeMy Chemical Romance
2018
I Love You, Will You Marry MeYungblud
listen forSet 'Welcome to the Black Parade' beside 'The Funeral' — both open small and swell into a communal, march-like chorus built to be screamed by a room full of self-described misfits, treating a funeral as a rallying point rather than an ending.
The Clash1970s · Punk rock / Post-punk / Reggae
Raised on a diet that included Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and the Clash according to his own account of his musical upbringing, Yungblud has named the Clash's 'London Calling' among the handful of records that shaped his artistic outlook. What carries over is the idea that a pop song can also be a bulletin — blunt, direct sloganeering about the state of the world set to a hook big enough to chant in a crowd, punk urgency repurposed as protest rather than nihilism.
listen: upstream & here
1979
London CallingThe Clash
2018
Machine Gun (F**k the NRA)Yungblud
listen forPlay 'London Calling' against 'Machine Gun (F**k the NRA)' — both plant a shouted political slogan for a title, then build a track around short, hammering verses and a chorus engineered purely for mass singalong outrage.
Arctic Monkeys2000s · Indie rock / Garage rock
Yungblud regularly cites Arctic Monkeys and Alex Turner among his key inspirations, and profiles of his songwriting point specifically to Turner's lyrical style — dense, vernacular, character-driven storytelling — as a model for his own raw, narrative approach to a verse. It shows up less in sound than in method: writing in a distinctly regional, conversational British voice about ordinary nights, ordinary kids, and specific named scenes rather than abstractions.
listen: upstream & here
2005
When the Sun Goes DownArctic Monkeys
2020
cotton candyYungblud
listen forCompare 'When the Sun Goes Down,' which follows a specific 'scummy man' and a woman on a real street corner, with 'cotton candy,' which narrates its own small, specific coming-of-age night scene in similarly plainspoken, region-inflected lines rather than generic pop imagery.