( CNN ) -- Was 1962 the year classic , post-'50s rock was hatched ? Let 's make that case . Fifty years ago , the Beatles recorded their first session at London 's EMI ( later Abbey Road ) studios , cutting an early version of `` Love Me Do , '' and Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys released their first albums . And it was exactly 50 years ago that the first incarnation of the Rolling Stones -- Mick Jagger , Keith Richards , and Brian Jones , along with pianist Ian Stewart , bassist Dick Taylor and drummer Tony Chapman -- played their first concert , at London 's Marquee Club . The band was still so embryonic that they called themselves the Rollin ' Stones . Of course , being reminded that the Stones have been around for five decades is almost unnecessary . The band has n't had a Top 10 hit in over 20 years , but whether we want it to or not , it never seems to have gone away . From Keith Richards ' garrulous best-selling 2010 memoir , to Maroon 5 's `` Moves Like Jagger , '' to Jagger himself hosting `` Saturday Night Live '' this year , the culture always seems to circle around to the Stones just when you 'd think we 'd all had enough of them . Part of that is intentional : To some degree , the Stones have always been driven to be competitive in the pop marketplace . `` Absolutely , '' Richards told me in an interview in 1997 . `` It gets in the blood , man . Arrogant , elitist sons of bitches that we are , we still think we 're getting better . '' But part of their eternal appeal is out of their hands , too . Why do we still care about the Stones after a mind-boggling 50 years ? A few possible reasons : . Their songs and catalog . As obvious as it is to say , it really is about the music . There 's a reason pop church lady Susan Boyle could cover `` Wild Horses '' or that `` Saturday Night Live '' could send off Kristen Wiig with `` Ruby Tuesday '' and `` She 's a Rainbow '' : The best Stones songs , meaning ones written before roughly 1980 , are eternal and built on impeccable melodies . For all their bad-boy images , Jagger and Richards seem , in retrospect , like one of the last of the great songwriting teams -- Lerner and Loewe , or Bacharach and David , with more groupies and pharmaceuticals . Even work that seemed lesser at the time -- 1973 's beautiful stupor , `` Goats Head Soup , '' for instance -- holds up better than you 'd expect . The way the Stones continually paid homage to black music -- from covering Muddy Waters and Solomon Burke to a disco-era hit like `` Miss You '' -- also gave them a broader fan base than many of their peers . The Mick and Keith dynamic . Little in old or new rock comes close to the testy yin-yang relationship between the band 's two founding members and longtime Rock 'Em Sock 'Em duo . Over the years , they 've publicly sniped at each other , culminating in Richards ' dishy depictions of Jagger as a preening diva in his memoir , `` Life . '' See never-before-seen photos of the Stones . Those comments -- and the way much of the media used Richards ' words to pile on Jagger themselves -- missed the point , though . What always made the Stones so magnificent was the way Richards ' crusty musical conservatism was balanced by Jagger 's pop-chart-driven opportunism , and vice versa . They need each other , and in so doing , they 've become their own endlessly watchable rock ' n ' roll reality show . Stones as metaphor . The Stones embody a time when rock ' n ' roll was n't just `` outlaw '' culture ; it propelled the culture . That 's no longer the case , as a recent conversation with a teenage music fan confirmed to me . An avid pop lover , she does n't listen to any `` rock '' ( that is , music made by men or women who play guitars ) . For her , EDM -- which used to be called techno or electronica -- is the new rock ; Its big beats , drug allusions , and the way its bombastic thump offends anyone over 40 ( or anyone who prefers traditional verse-chorus pop songs ) make it the modern-day version of rock . Factor in pop , hip-hop , and country , all major genres these days , and you can see how rock is now one small slice of the cultural pie . For many , the Stones are a vivid , last-gasp reminder of a time when rock -- and white males -- dominated the landscape . They do n't make rock stars like that anymore . With a few glorious exceptions , like Jack White , many of today 's major rock bands are charisma-challenged or nondescript . Onstage , they 're uptight . almost asexual . Contrast that with the sight of Jagger at least year 's Grammy Awards , working the stage in best rock-preacher mode and singing Solomon Burke R & B classics in a green suit . The performance should have been hokey , but it was shockingly spellbinding after all these years . Maroon 5 's Adam Levine ca n't move like that , either . Rolling Stones celebrate 50 years of raucous rock ' n'roll . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Browne .
David Browne : Rolling Stones have n't had top hit in 20 years , yet they are enduring presence . Comment: He says Jagger , Richards great songwriting team with tense , compelling personal dynamic . Browne : In Stones ' era , rock propelled culture ; they do n't make stars like that now .