‘Barbie’ Star Margot Robbie Says She Refused to Listen to The Beatles as a Kid
Over 60 years after The Beatles became superstars, parents are still getting their kids to listen to The Beatles. While the band does appeal less to the modern generation, younger audiences still fall in love with the band. However, one person who did not get into The Beatles as a kid was Margot Robbie, who refused to listen to the band out of loyalty to her favorite music act.
Margot Robbie refused to listen to The Beatles out of loyalty to The Beach Boys
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Barbie star discussed her favorite music growing up. Robbie was born in 1990 but fell in love with The Beach Boys when she was five. The Beach Boys were massive stars during the 1960s but were eclipsed by The Beatles, who took the world by storm. Robbie was reportedly upset that the Liverpool band stole the spotlight from her favorite band, so she refused to listen to them.
“I had watched a documentary about how the Beach Boys would have been even more popular if the Beatles hadn’t come along and stolen the limelight,” Robbie said.
Robbie said she went through multiple phases with music during her youth. There was a time when she went through a “goth phase,” listening to heavy metal bands like Slipknot. However, more akin to her latest role, she said The Spice Girls “changed everything” and defined who she wanted to be.
“The Spice Girls changed everything and dictated my version of second-wave feminism,” Robbie shared. “It’s like, ‘Oh, my God, they wear little sparkly dresses and push-up bras, and then have a girl gang? That’s what I want to be!’”
Were The Beatles and The Beach Boys rivals?
Margot Robbie wasn’t around when The Beatles and The Beach Boys were at their peak popularity, but the two did compete on the charts. However, they were both admirers of each other, and often used their rivalry as fuel to make their own music better. For example, Brian Wilson loved Rubber Soul and used it as an influence to write Pet Sounds and the song “God Only Knows”.
“It must have been in November of 1965,” Wilson said via iloveclassicrock.com. “I was living in this house in the Hollywood Hills then, way up on Laurel Way, and I remember sitting in the living room one night talking with some friends when another friend came in with a copy of the Beatles’ new one, Rubber Soul, I don’t know if it had even come out yet. But he had it and so we put it on the record player and, wow. As soon as I started hearing it, I loved it. I mean, LOVED it!”
The Beatles were equal admirers of The Beach Boys, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney constantly singing their praises. Paul McCartney once said “God Only Knows” is one of his favorite songs, and it often makes him emotional.
“‘God Only Knows’ is one of the few songs that reduces me to tears every time I hear it,” McCartney told BBC. “It’s really just a love song, but it’s brilliantly done. It shows the genius of Brian [Wilson]. I’ve actually performed it with him, and I’m afraid to say that during the soundcheck, I broke down.”
