Even in the Rocket Man's pomp, members of the senior generation were not averse to uttering the immortal words: "All pop music sounds the same." Now, at 63, Sir Elton John has decided the time is right for him to point it out as well. In a withering attack on the music industry, he said that today's songwriters were "awful" and warned that television talent shows failed to produce any genuine stars.
In an interview with Radio Times, John claimed very few of today's recording artists wrote their own material. "It's important they write their own songs, so they're not at the mercy of anyone," he said. "Songwriters today are pretty awful, which is why everything sounds the same. Contemporary pop isn't very inspiring."
He was fiercely critical of the music industry's reliance on shows such as The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent to provide stars and confessed that he turned down the opportunity to act as a judge on the US talent show American Idol. He added: "I'm not a fan of talent shows. I probably wouldn't have lasted if I'd gone on one. It's become boring... brain crippling. I like Simon Cowell but what he does is TV entertainment."
He added: "TV vaults you to superstardom and then you have to back it up, which is hard. Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke [X Factor winners] are at the mercy of the next song they can get."
