Barbie's Margot Robbie refused to listen to The Beatles as her favourite band was The Beach Boys

21 July 2023, 16:48 | Updated: 26 September 2023, 14:12

Margot Robbie has recently revealed she was such a fan of the Beach Boys, that she shunned listening to their rivals The Beatles. Picture: Getty

By Thomas Curtis-Horsfall

It'll forever be dumbfounding when someone admits they've never listened to The Beatles.

Their music is filtered into the very fabric of popular culture and soundtracked the lives of people around the world for over sixty years.

To this day, The Beatles are still the best-selling music act of all time, proving that their music continues to inspire and influence new generations.

So, to avoid listening to the most commercially successful music phenomenon ever you'd have to be living under a rock.

That, or you'd just have to flat-out refuse to listen to them, which is precisely the stance that Barbie and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star Margot Robbie recently revealed she took.

Margot Robbie flat-out refused to listen to The Beatles when she was younger. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP) (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images). Picture: Getty

In an interview earlier this year, Robbie opened up about being very much a heavy metal rocker back in her formative years, and admitted to going through a "goth phase".

"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" she told Graham Norton.

But now she's set the record straight, confirming that it was the Beach Boys that sparked her interest in music.

She developed such a fandom of them, that she shunned listening to The Beatles because of their rivalry at the time.

The Beach Boys in 1964. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images). Picture: Getty

The Beatles are still the best-selling band of all time. (Photo by Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Picture: Getty

Ahead of the release of the doll-inspired blockbuster Barbie, Margot Robbie talked to Rolling Stone magazine about the music that has shaped her life.

"I had my death-metal phase - and I do still like that - but I also like a lot of music," she confirmed.

At the age of five, Robbie developed an obsession with the Beach Boys after discovering a tape cassette her family-owned.

It was "all [she] would listen to." She was so devoted to the group that she even refused to listen to The Beatles.

"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.

We've no doubt all been prone to a bit of tribalism when it comes to our favourite bands and their rivals.

But Margot Robbie's initial refusal to embrace one of the greatest ever musical acts to grace our ears and move into heavy metal as a teen helped set the groundwork for her eclectic tastes.

The Beach Boys-"Living Doll" (California Dream Barbie 1987)

She even relies on her varied music taste to help step into the shoes of the characters she plays in movies, making playlists as she prepares for the role.

There's also a further connection with Margot Robbie and the Beach Boys, thanks to Mattel's legendary doll Barbie.

Brian Wilson in fact wrote a song called 'Living Doll (Barbie)' for the California Dream Barbie in 1987.

For the first teaser of the Barbie film released earlier this year, the Beach Boys' song 'Fun, Fun, Fun' was also used in the trailer, though it must've surely been coincidental that Margot was the film's central star.