Primal Scream singer Bobby Gillespie has lashed out at modern rock music for its lack of imagination.
Currently in retrospective mode to re-visit ‘Screamadelica’, Primal Scream remain one of Britain’s most inspirational rock bands. Each album seems to bring with it an enormous stylistic shift, finding the band moving from house music to Stones style blues rock in the blink of an eye.
Speaking to the Irish Times recently, frontman Bobby Gillespie mused on the band’s career. Probed about modern British rock music, the influential singer let rip with a typically thought provoking rant.
“I bumped into Paul Weller the other day and we went for a coffee and we were talking about hus lack of ambition which seems prevalent in rock right now,” he said. “You read interviews with bands and it’s all about being rich and famous and being the biggest band in the world.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of artists out there any more. It seems to me that if you were a serious young person and you had something to say that you’d be looking at other disciplines,” he added. “In music, everything seems lightweight and conformist and not very artistic. Everybody seems to be settling for the status quo.”
Bobby Gillespie went further, arguing that The Strokes and The White Stripes ushered in an era where rock music was afraid to experiment. “Rock music is no longer where creativity is and it’s no longer taken seriously by creative people. It’s been absorbed into the mainstream culture and has become too conformist and normal. There doesn’t appear to be many great minds at work in music right now”.
Primal Scream are set to see out the year by playing a handful of shows. Due to perform at Edinburgh’s New Year’s celebrations, the band will then say ‘farewell’ to bass player Mani who will depart to perform with The Stone Roses.
