ARCADE FIRE - ARCADE FIRE LAY INTO U2 AND OASIS

Arcade Fire have criticised the marketing strategies of bands including U2 and Oasis for "forcing" people to like their music.

Win Butler, frontman of the Canadian indie rock band, told the latest issue of NME magazine that he would never want to use the same tactics and to force feed their music to fans.

According to Butler, "90 per cent" of the record industry works in this way.

"It's not like we shun success, but at the same time we don't want to shove it down people's throats. In the UK there's this kind of rock star competition," he said.

"I don't know if U2 started it, or The Stones or Oasis but a lot of bands think in terms of: 'I'm going to be the biggest band in the world. F**k all those bands who've got no ambition'.

"There's nothing less interesting to me than the idea of marketing the f**k out of something so people are forced to like it. Some bands are just manipulating people to buy music."

What U2 will make of the comments could be pretty interesting; Arcade Fire's song Wake Up was played as the entrance music in U2's Vertigo tour and the group went on to support the Irish rockers in three concerts during the tour.