The Killers Have Some Choice Words For American Pop Music: It’s “Retarded”

Sam Lansky | November 1, 2013 1:51 pm

While Lorde‘s inarguably excellent, critically hailed single “Royals” sits comfortably atop the Hot 100 for the fifth week in a row, pop-rock quartet The Killers are none too pleased with the condition of American Top 40 music — and luckily, there’s a hideously outmoded slur that can be used to describe it!

In an interview with The Sun to promote their upcoming greatest hits compilation, frontman Brandon Flowers and drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Jr. explained that they felt good music gets ignored by radio programmers in America: “Breaking in the UK first was great because America is retarded musically,” he said. “It’s upside down. There’s so much great music that doesn’t get the attention. There’s a lot of bullshit on US radio.”

Flowers continued this thread, explaining: ”I start to wonder, what do adults listen to? Do they listen to what’s being played on the radio? You should listen to something that’s for you — not about giving your virginity to your boyfriend on Saturday night. It is retarded. Every song is that song. And if 40-year-olds are listening to that rubbish, they’re going to raise kids on it. It’s not even music.”

Sigh. Especially coming from The Killers, who made fine pop music with a lot of integrity (especially their more recent stuff with Stuart Price), hearing them sink to the alt-rock circle jerk complaint of “Nobody listens to real music anymore” is infuriating and disappointing. Worse still is the language they’ve chosen to describe it. Tsk, tsk.

[via NME]