As hip-hop and pop continue to cement their place at the top of the charts, rock music is in a different place now than it was decades ago. For example, The 1975 isn’t what traditionalists might consider a “rock band,” and yet, they made what was one of 2018’s defining rock albums. In a recent interview, frontman Matty Healy discussed the state of rock, and he said that today, it’s women who are making the most interesting music.
Speaking with NME, Healy addressed a spat between him and punk band Idles, after the group didn’t react kindly when Healy said, “There are no big bands who are doing anything as interesting as us right now.” Healy said that when it comes to “guitar music,” the most interesting output is coming from women because their perspective hasn’t been as frequently touched upon in the genre:
‘I don’t want to try to do some truce between us because we are not battling with each other, but I know that some misrepresentation of where I come from has been presented to them, whether that’s in my control or not. The interesting things for me in, let’s say ‘guitar music’, it’s pretty much women now. Look at who’s signed to my label [Dirty Hit, home to Wolf Alice, Japanese House].
People get confused, they can’t understand why a lad their age wouldn’t be wanting to be in The Courteeners or be in a punk band more than my band. It’s because it’s done, lads, it’s done. We’ve done it. It was great but we’ve done it. It’s like, white men shouting has been done so many times and the interesting perspective in punk is where women are. But that’s why there are interesting bands like Idles who deal with stuff like fragility and toxic masculinity. If there’s meaning, it’ll resonate.”
Read the full interview here.
