The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas has discussed not liking The Beatles in a new interview.
Casablancas recently made headlines after blaming Ed Sheeran’s success on “cultural brainwashing” and claiming that Jimi Hendrix “didn’t have hits”.
Speaking now to Rolling Stone, Casablancas suggested that not listening to the Fab Four may have helped inform his own music and individuality.
“I have that maybe advantage that I didn’t like or listen to the Beatles,” he said. “I feel like that’s almost like the branch of, like, 98 percent of stuff you hear.”
“But then there’s the Velvet Underground. I know Lou Reed hated the Beatles.” Reed once described the Beatles as “garbage”.
Speaking to Variety recently, Casablancas lamented the current state of popular music, arguing that Ariel Pink should be as big as Ed Sheeran.
“Today someone like Ariel Pink is relatively unknown. In another era he would’ve been much more popular… People think that public opinion in their own time is the truth,” Casablancas said.
“I strive to build a world where the Velvet Underground would be more popular than the Rolling Stones. Or where Ariel Pink is as popular as Ed Sheeran.”
When the journalist argued that “one of those musicians is trying to be pop and one isn’t,” Casablancas replied: “Everything you’re saying sounds 100 percent like cultural brainwashing.”