"That distance between hip-hop and rock is going to be less and less"

Prefix conducts an excellent interview with David Andrew Sitek of TV on the Radio. Among other interesting topics, he discusses the convergence of hip hop and rock music. Here's an excerpt:

PREFIX: I don't know if it's because of the make-up of the band or because of the music itself, but you guys seem to have a pretty big hip-hop audience. I know guys personally who listen to zero rock music but love TV on the Radio.

SITEK: We were just talking about that the other night. I think there is that crossover potential with us. But, really, as music evolves and people have access to home studios, obviously that distance (between hip-hop and rock) is going to be less and less. When you have an iPod, now you can listen to sixty different genres through the course of a shuffle, and you'll skim over things that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Division of genres is becoming less and less relevant. Why wouldn't they merge more? Tons of bands are experimenting with sounds that push those boundaries, and the industry just hasn't jumped behind them yet. How many kids are there on MySpace with a band made up of an MPC, drums and a guitar player? The hip-hop audience could also be polarized from rock because of the factory-stamp, cookie-cutter stuff they're being fed on the radio and TV. You know?