Jack Antonoff Compares Taylor Swift to Michael Jackson, Calls Katy Perry and Lady Gaga's Music "Throwaway"

The fun. guitarist shares his honest feelings about the music industry

By Gabi Duncan Jul 17, 2014 11:36 PMTags
Jack Antonoff, Taylor Swift, Katy PerryGetty Images

Jack Antonoff is disappointed with the state of music.

The fun. guitarist candidly shared his feelings about the industry during an interview with GQ magazine and dissed a few famous pop stars in the process!

"There's a lot of junk. People have to spread out and find more interesting stuff, because they're not being fed it the way they're supposed to be," he says. "Radio, all that media, there's supposed to be a responsibility to feed the good stuff to the people."

"Like, I talk to A&R guys about this, and they say they don't want the music to sound too ‘indie,' which is a fancy way of saying they don't want it to sound good," he continues.

So, who does the rocker think is feeding the people?

"I love Yeezus," he says of Kanye West's latest album. "I think it's one of the coolest-sounding things ever. And I think Taylor Swift is one of the best songwriters ever." 

Lena Dunham's beau even went so far as to compare the country star to one of the best musicians of all time!

"Taylor Swift is cool, because she's the closest thing today that hearkens to Michael Jackson—to great, great pop music. There's a difference between her and Lady Gaga and Katy Perry and Lily Allen and all that. It all feels throwaway, comparatively."

Ouch!

The 30-year-old musician is currently busy promoting his second band—The Bleachers—and their first full-length album Strange Desire, but don't you dare call it a "side-project."

"It's an annoying phrase. My whole life, I've been someone who likes to do a lot of different things, but I've specifically noticed with Bleachers, people don't like the idea of, like, two bands, two projects," he says.

"Like, they both have to be labeled, and, well, which one is the main one? Which one is the side project? It's like that phrase 'jack of all trades, master of none.' Which I think is a bullshit, annoying phrase. It's just meant to scare us into doing one thing."