Everyone is busy projecting what albums, artists and types of music will be big in 2014, but Arctic Monkey's Matt Helders has a specific prediction, or at least preference. He told NME that he hopes guitar-centric music won't be at the top of the charts.
"It's hard to say what will happen in 2014, because things are moving quicker than you could ever predict," Helders said. "Nowadays you don't walk into a gig and see a band and think, 'That's the next scene.' Music is instantly available, and by the time you discover it, someone else will have already listened to it and moved on."
He went on to say: "Maybe guitar bands will come back around again and reclaim the charts, but it's all very well me saying that - it all comes down to them: they've got to have songs that are good enough to play on the radio. But if guitars are a dirty word at the moment, then I like that, I think that's a good thing. When it's popular, it feels like there's something weird going on - like you've hijacked the charts. That's how we felt when it happened to us, even though there were still a lot of guitar bands around at the time. We didn't even expect our first single to get into the Top 20, so we definitely felt like we shouldn't have been there."
Regardless where the band is on the charts, they are taking over the live music scene with a U.S. tour starting Jan. 30 through Feb. 14 and have a string of festival performances lined up for 2014. They will headline the Summer Sonic festival in Japan and play two outdoor shows at London's Finsbury Park on May 23 and 24.
