The Strokes took home the Grammy award for best rock album for The New Freak on Sunday, beating names like Grace Potter and Sturgill Simpson and marking the influential garage rock band’s first Grammy after graduating more than 20 years ago.
When asked about the state of rock music in light of his victory, and whether the genre itself was still alive, longtime vocalist Julian Casablancas rebuked the notion that rock died, but added that the blues-influenced rock sound who fed bands like Led Zeppelin or Cream in the 60s and 70s – along with more polarizing acts like Greta Van Fleet today – came to an end.
“I think that people who say things are ‘dead’, I feel that it means that their imagination possibly died. There is room for so many musical genres; not necessarily blues rock, please, enough of that, ”said Casablancas after the victory. “All kinds of music genres can mix in many ways. Own keys, or corner styles or different note inflections. You can sing an Arabic song with a country accent or vice versa, there is a lot of room for things.
“Anything that has been beaten to death, obviously, the trend dictates that these things will be extinguished, and you evolve from these things,” he added. “But what does that mean, what will it be called, who knows what it will be called. Rock and roll should definitely stop the way it was done [before], we don’t need that anymore. “
As for what rock music will look like if it goes beyond the roots of the blues that have long defined the genre in its most traditional sense, the band is not sure. “It doesn’t matter where we think he should go, ”said guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., saying that, instead, they should listen to“ the new kids in the neighborhood ”while Casablancas intervened.
“We can wait and see,” said Hammond Jr .. “Isn’t that part of the fun?”