Harry Styles talks about getting comfortable with aging in the music industryHarry Styles talks about getting comfortable with aging in the music industry
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Harry Styles
Harry Styles broke into the music industry when he was 16. Over a decade later, the “As It Was” singer says he no longer wants to compete with the success he had as part of One Direction.
In an expanded Better Homes & Gardens interview, the 28-year-old Grammy winner spoke of watching Billie Eilish at the 2021 Grammy Awards.
“She was so much younger than I am, and, when I was in the band, we were always the young guys. When I did my first solo thing, I was still like the young guy,” said Harry.
“I’m not like an old man now, but she’s just a different generation,” the Don’t Worry Darling actor added. Instead of feeling threatened by Billie’s rising star status, he no longer tries being “the thing.”
Harry thinks it’s unhealthy and unsustainable to try to stay relevant and compete with younger artists, which he says has led to people breaking down and making poor career choices.
“You can’t win music. It’s not like Formula One,” he noted. “I was like, in my lifetime, there will be 10 more people who burst onto the scene in that way, and I’m only going to get further away from being the young thing.”
Harry now has a new “liberating” mindset, which is: “Get comfortable with finding something else that makes you happy.”
That mantra is what carried him through creating his new album, Harry’s House, which arrives May 20.
“Finally, it doesn’t feel like my life is over if this album isn’t a commercial success,” he exclaimed, while admitting that it’s the first time he’s ever felt that way. He’s no longer concerned with making “really big songs” or “playing it safe.” He just wants to make “stuff that is right, that is fun.”
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