Music

Teens are cooler than hipsters, says Harry Styles, and he should know

This week on Pop Corner, Paramore get new-wavey on Hard Times, Lana del Rey is conflicted about the world

Harry Styles performing new single Sign of the Times on The Graham Norton Show. Photograph: BBC

Ailbhe Malone
Mon Apr 24 2017 - 11:24

Hero of the week is Harry Styles, who stood up for his teenage fans. He told Rolling Stone: "Who's to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That's not up to you to say. Music is something that's always changing. There's no goal posts. Young girls like The Beatles. You gonna tell me they're not serious? How can you say young girls don't get it? They're our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don't lie. If they like you, they're there.They don't act 'too cool.' They like you, and they tell you."

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Paramore - Hard Times
We'll not waste space explaining the machinations that have led to this line-up of Paramore (bassist Jeremy is gone, and drummer Zac is back). Instead, we'll happily chat about their new new-wavey sound. Plenty of critics are saying Lionel Richie, but we hear Tom Tom Club, with a touch of Gwen Stefani couldn't even. The chorus will make you press repeat before you even get past minute one, and Hayley's new blonde hair bangs.

Meanwhile, Lana del Rey had conflicted feelings about enjoying Coachella against the backdrop of world events."I find it's a tightrope between being vigilantly observant of everything going on in the world and also having enough space and time to appreciate god's good earth the way it was intended to be appreciated," she wrote on instagram.

Zero of the week is pretending everything is fine, Hayley Paramore told the Guardian. "In the past, we've made it our mission to shove down people's throats what we want them to see. You know: 'It's us three now, we're doing so good! And I think we don't really have that agenda any more. Oddly, I think we're actually in a better place as a band than we've ever been. I think in the past this would have pissed us off. Not you, but this drudging through it; but I think now it's, like, cool. It almost makes it less of a big deal because we're not resisting it so much."