Why Margot Robbie refused to listen to The Beatles
There are certain artists where it’s understandable if you’ve never explored their music. Perhaps you’ve bypassed the Grateful Dead or never delved into Suede, for instance. If your parents didn’t play their music and it wasn’t featured on local radio stations, it’s easy to overlook certain artists. However, The Beatles are not one of those bands. Their influence is pervasive, and it’s nearly impossible to escape the impact of the Fab Four. Despite this, actor Margot Robbie made an effort to avoid their music.
Despite being the bubblegum pink, blonde-haired figure we know her as today, Robbie used to have a darker side. Her teenhood was just as angsty as the rest of us as she told Rolling Stone, “I would only listen to heavy metal music, [and] I would die my hair black and only cut it with a razor blade. So yeah, kinda goth.”
For a long time, her musical taste was all about rage, as she revealed, “I had my death metal phase — and I do still like that — but I also like a lot of music.” It’s pretty hard to imagine Robbie blasting some screamo on her way to the Barbie set, but it seems there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the actor.
But maybe more surprising than that revelation was her thoughts when it comes to The Beatles. Despite being doubtlessly the most famous and successful band in history, Robbie had a personal boycott against them. It was all a matter of loyalty and principle as she was dedicated to a different group: The Beach Boys.
Before her emo phase, Robbie was utterly obsessed with the Californian group. During her childhood, her parents were keen fans of the band and passed down their love for the Beach Boys, which Robbie seemed to run with. She claimed it was “all [she] would listen to”, recalling memories of her family’s cassette tape collection that included their hits.
She was so dedicated to the band, in fact, that she took on their imaginary rivalries. “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,” she explained. From that moment on, she refused to listen to the Liverpudlian outfit.
Robbie was carrying a grudge that really didn’t exist. While The Beach Boys and The Beatles did come up at the same time, and the American band were usurped and overshadowed by the Fab Four, the two groups were fans of one another. Brian Wilson said, “Obviously, I love The Beatles, and we have always had a mutual love and respect for each other.” Similarly, McCartney called ‘God Only Knows’ one of his favourite songs of all time, demonstrating their mutual respect and admiration.
The two groups also greatly inspired one another. Pet Sounds was a vital influence on The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and their increasing use of orchestration. At the same time, Wilson was inspired by The Beatles to begin expanding beyond typical pop or rock sounds to start with. While the music industry might have been determined to fabricate a rivalry between the two leading acts, it wasn’t really there.
But in Margot Robbie’s mind, the battle was real and brutal. In order to prove her love for The Beach Boys, she blocked her ears and cast off The Beatles. It might have been a strangely prophetic loyalty. Only a few years before Robbie was born, Wilson wrote the track ‘Living Doll (Barbie)’ for the California Dream Barbie in 1987. In the teasers for Robbie’s Barbie movie, the band’s track ‘Fun, Fun, Fun’ is used, tying the connections between the actor, her favourite group and her hit film into a nice bow.
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