Dylan: Pop music today is hideous

Bob Dylan has joined the ranks of disgruntled parents who fail to understand the appeal of modern pop music by confessing that "everything on the radio sounds hideous" to him.

In a rare interview, the 60-year-old icon of the popular song admits that he argues with his teenage daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, about her musical tastes. "I get into fights with her if I talk about music," he says.

Dylan, who is promoting his 43rd album, Love and Theft, which is released today, added: "People who came after me, I don't feel, were ever my peers or contemporaries, because they didn't really have any standing in traditional music. They didn't play folk songs. They heard me and thought, 'Oh this guy writes his own songs, I can do that'. They can, of course, but those songs don't have any resonance."

The reclusive performer is categorical about his own achievements. "This is what I was put on earth to do," he told USA Today and Time magazine. "Just like Shakespeare was going to write his plays, the Wright brothers were going to invent an aeroplane, like Edison was going to invent a telephone."

Dylan fans may also be surprised to discover that he is a fan of the controversial American rap star Eminem, whose homophobic lyrics sparked outrage when he played in Britain earlier this year. "I almost feel like if anything is controversial, the guy's got to be doing something right," said Dylan.

An autobiography by Dylan, due out next year and so far amounting to almost 200 pages, will shed light on why he temporarily quit the music business in 1987 and his relationship with Carolyn Dennis, the backing singer and mother of his daughter, whom he married secretly and has since divorced.