Arctic Monkeys have said they feel it's their duty to keep guitar music alive and kicking on mainstream radio.

In an interview with Shortlist, the band also revealed that the reason they wanted to release 'Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair' as the lead single from their latest, 'Suck It And See', was because it was one of "the most guitar-heavy" tunes on the album.

When asked if he agreed with Liam Gallagher's comments that guitar music was currently in the doldrums, frontman Alex Turner replied:

"Definitely. But that’s all the more reason for us to play at V Festival and be right in the middle of all that. It will come back around. People ask us why we released 'Don’t Sit Down…' as the first single, because it's not the poppiest one on there — it's really guitar-heavy. But because we’ve got that fanbase and we’re one of the guitar bands that have a shot of getting on the radio in the daytime, I almost feel like it’s our job to put that sort of tune out." 

He added:

"When you talk about pop music dominating. It’s not like it's all shit and we're dead against it. That’s not the case at all, because there are some great pop songs. Some of it is nonsense, but it’s not like we’re completely trying to destroy it. And if we do V Festival we can get right into the nucleus."

Arctic Monkeys headline V Festival this weekend (August 20-21).

Watch the Arctic Monkeys perform 'Don't Sit Down Because I've Moved Your Chair' live on David Letterman here: