Music

Elton John says "songwriters today are pretty awful"

by Ciaran Thompson

With a career spanning four decades and over 250 million albums sold, you would think Elton John knows what he’s talking about when he calls some current songwriters “pretty awful.”

The singer/songwriter was speaking with Radio Times recently about how he refused to be a judge on American Idol and the importance for some of today’s popular musicians to write their own material.

“I’m not a fan of talent shows,” John said. “I probably wouldn’t have lasted if I’d gone on one. Also I don’t want to be on television. It’s become boring, arse-paralysingly brain crippling. I like Simon Cowell [creator of X Factor], but what he does is TV entertainment. TV vaults you to super-stardom and then you have to back it up, which is hard.”

John added that he liked pop singers Lily Allen, Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse as long as they write their own songs so “they’re not at the mercy of anyone. Songwriters today are pretty awful, which is why everything sounds the same. Contemporary pop isn’t very inspiring.” [BBC]