The female indie rock musician disses Julian Casablancas and his bandmates while calling out the double standard in music industry that celebrates male rockers but tends to dismiss female acts.
- Jun 14, 2020
AceShowbiz - Phoebe Bridgers has criticised the double standard that see male acts like The Strokes celebrated despite extensive music industry connections, but female rockers dismissed as inauthentic.
Bridgers' emergence as a young woman in rock has resulted in social media trolls accusing her of being a manufactured "industry plant."
However, she claims the description is far better applied to The Strokes - whose bassist Albert Hammond, Jr. is the son of singer-songwriter Albert Hammond and frontman Julian Casablancas, who also came from a wealthy background.
"The Strokes are an industry plant - literally! Everybody knows that, at least in music, but it's never made anyone like them less. It's such an insane f**king double standard," the 25-year-old musician tells the NME website. "If you have wealthy parents, you're not allowed to make music as a woman, but you're rewarded for it as a man. Every white boy who is mediocre is an industry plant by that standard."
The singer-songwriter, who accused fellow musician Ryan Adams of inappropriate behaviour after a brief relationship, also believes the way the industry is set up aids bad behaviour.
"With music, every group is much more isolated. It can happen with power dynamics and #MeToo s**t, but also with a manager who's just f**king every single person over." And the "Kyoto" hitmaker wishes she had more support when she first met Adams, who released her first record on his label in 2014.
"When I met Ryan, I didn't know anybody in music for the most part," she reveals. "But then I would then meet tons of people who were like, 'Oh my God - he is a trash person.' I didn't have that when I was 20, and a lot of people still don't."
