Noel Gallagher is under fire for his criticism of fellow musician Harry Styles. The Oasis band leader was brutally honest about his feelings towards his countryman’s ability and legitimacy as a musician.

In an interview with the Daily Star, Gallagher claimed that Styles’ fame has “nothing to do with music” and that he isn’t a “real” musician.

“You’re not telling me Harry Styles is currently in a room somewhere writing a song. With any joy, he’ll be surrounded by a lot of girls — I can assure you he’s not got an acoustic guitar out trying to write a middle eight for something.”

These are strong and unnecessary words, so I totally understand why fans of Harry’s music would be bothered by them. However, the online responses comprise almost entirely personal attacks against Gallagher and baseless attempts to paint him as jealous of the younger man. We are entitled to our thoughts, but if you believe that Noel Gallagher is jealous of Harry Styles’ fame, you’re slightly off the mark.

Let’s be totally clear here.

Noel Gallagher is jealous, but I don’t think it’s about Harry Styles as much as a general sense of pride and resentment. Noel doesn’t envy the success that Harry enjoys, but he is resentful of the personal challenges he had to overcome and what he perceives to be a more accessible musical landscape than the one he had to navigate.

Essentially, it’s not about who Harry is or what he has; it’s about how he got it. When Noel was a burgeoning musician, there was no YouTube, Tik Tok, Spotify, Instagram, or other digital platforms that I see many talented up-and-comers utilizing to significant effect. Unlike Styles, Gallagher never got to compete on a show such as the X-Factor, and he certainly didn’t have the luxury of getting an insider to do all the early heavy-lifting for him. Don’t forget that after failing to advance as solo contestants on the X Factor, Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell is the man responsible for bringing One Direction together.

put the band together and signed them to his record label Sysco Records. Styles was only 16 at the time, and he would soon be a mega-star thanks to the band’s presence on social media and the song “That’s What Makes You Beautiful.” To date, One Direction has sold over 70 million records. Not a bad place to start when commencing a solo career.

As you can see, there isn’t any point in arguing against the fact that Harry Styles has had an easy path to success. He just had to do his thing musically, and the rest was taken care of by being at the right place at the right time. Had he not auditioned on the X-Factor, would Harry be who he is? Would One Direction exist had there been no Simon Cowell?

We will never know

Noel Gallagher had a longer path to success, to put it mildly. As a child, he was regularly beaten by his father, which worsened a pre-existing speech disorder. After his parents divorced, he and his brothers ( the lead singer of Oasis) were raised by their mother. As a teenager, he was constantly getting himself into trouble. This included getting expelled at age 14 and arrested for holding up a corner store when he was 15. He actually began to

Noel Gallagher

play the guitar during his six-month probation. For much of the 1980s, Gallagher spent his time using drugs, writing songs, and honing his skills. In fact, his first role in a band wasn’t even as a musician! He spent two years as a roadie for an English band called the Inspiral Carpets. By the time Oasis had their first hit single, “Supersonic,” it was 1994, and Gallagher was already 27 years old with a lifetime of mistakes, learning experiences, and misadventures. Of course, the bad behavior didn’t stop with success; it got worse. The hard living of the Gallagher brothers has been well documented. However, that’s a different conversation. Oasis has sold over 70 million albums to date, and they did it by writing good songs. “Wonderwall,” “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” “Champagne Supernova,” Noel wrote all of those.

At the end of the day, Noel Gallagher and Harry Styles are two of the most talented English musicians you will ever listen to. Their paths to success were drastically different, and for my money, this is what has drawn the ire of Mr. Gallagher. He likely has an inflated sense of self for having “paid his dues” in a slower walk to musical recognition. So while I don’t believe his jealousy stems from the success Styles and other pop musicians are enjoying today, I think he is bitter that others got what they did faster than him. It’s a human reaction to either look down on or envy others who didn’t need to learn things the hard way. So Noel, yes, you had to work harder to be taken seriously as a musician, but that doesn’t discredit other talented individuals who made the most out of their opportunities.

Griffin