The Strokes think blues-rock is creatively exhausted: “Please, no more of that”

First-time Grammy winners The Strokes believe that, creatively speaking, the blues-rock genre may have run its course.

Appearing at a virtual press event after the 63rd Grammy Awards – during which they scooped Best Rock Album for their 2020 effort The New Abnormal – the New Yorkers were asked for their opinion on the state of rock 'n' roll today.

As reported by Rolling Stone, frontman Julian Casablancas responded, “I think people who say things are ‘dead,’ I feel like it means their imagination possibly has died.

“There’s room for so many genres of music; not necessarily blues-rock, please, no more of that.” 

He continued: “All kinds of genres of music can blend in so many ways. Keys themselves, or singing styles or different bending of notes. You can sing an Arabic song with a country twang or vice versa, there’s so much room for stuff.

“Anything that’s been beaten to death, obviously trend dictates those things will be extinct, and you evolve from those things, but what that means, what it’ll be called, who knows what it’ll be called. Rock 'n' roll should definitely stop the way it was done [before], we don’t need more of that.”

On the future of rock music, guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. added that “it doesn't matter where we think it should go,” saying it should be left to “the new kids on the block.” He concluded: “We can wait and see. Isn't that part of the fun?”

This year's Grammy Awards were successful for guitar-centric acts. In addition to The Strokes, award winners included H.E.R., Thundercat, Body Count and Brittany Howard.