# The genre Neil Young fell out of love with: “New bands that interest me?”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/the-genre-neil-young-fell-out-of-love-with-new-bands-that-interest-me/
- Published: 2026-08-06T20:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-25T02:46:08+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/genre-neil-young-fell-out-of-love-with/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Neil Young embraced punk and new wave rather than fearing it, unlike many peers.
- In a 1982 interview he said he'd tired of California soft rock music.
- He praised acts like The Human League and The Clash over old collaborators' yacht rock turn.

## Summary

In a 1982 interview with French TV show Houba Houba, Neil Young reflected on his relationship with California soft rock, the genre he and his Crosby, Stills & Nash bandmates had helped pioneer but had grown weary of by the time punk and new wave took hold. Rather than recoiling from the abrasive new sounds sweeping music in the late 1970s, as many of his hippie-era peers did, Young embraced them, drawing creative energy from the shift that fed into albums such as Rust Never Sleeps and the synth-driven Trans.

Young told the French programme he no longer listened to California soft rock beyond his own material, saying he had "heard too much of it" and now placed it early in his live sets before moving past it. He praised new wave and synthpop acts including A Flock of Seagulls, The Human League, The Pretenders and The Clash with the same enthusiasm as traditional rock bands, arguing the movement was less a "new wave" than a continuation of something that had always existed. Meanwhile, contemporaries such as the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Jackson Browne, The Doobie Brothers and Linda Ronstadt drifted into the polished "yacht rock" sound that Young pointedly distanced himself from.

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