Elton John has shared his take on modern pop music with BBC Radio 6 Music and it’s a bit yikes. Explaining that he prefers artists who “write songs” and most of the tunes in the charts, are not “proper songs.”
“[Father John Misty] reminds me a little bit of me, the way he writes songs,” said Elton John. “Conan’s [Gray] from America and he’s the only person in the American Spotify Top 50 to actually write the song without anybody else.”
He was referring to Conan Gray’s track ‘Heather’ which is at #12 on the chart. He’s sitting below three Juice WRLD songs, BTS, Drake, Harry Styles, and of course, the world’s favourite song right now, ‘WAP’ by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. Honestly, the shade.
He went on to say, “Everybody else there’s four or five writers on (a track). You look at most of the records in the charts — they’re not real songs. They’re bits and pieces and it’s nice to hear someone write a proper song.”
“I like people who write songs. And there’s plenty of people that do, but a lot of them don’t get played on the radio because they’re too sophisticated and we get songs made by a computer all the time and I’m not interested in that,” he stated.
The conversation switched to preserving independent live music venues in the current climate around COVID-19. Elton John mentioned Los Angeles’ Troubadour, in particular.
“I’ve heard they might be closing, but I think it’s going to be okay,” he said.
“We have to preserve venues like this.”
He was vague about his confidence in the venue saying he’d made a few phone calls and, “there are a few irons in the fire.”
“If venues like that disappear then it’s really grim stuff because they are so important for new people to go [to] and I’ve seen so many new acts there that have come from Britain.
“I saw Cat Stevens there when he did his first show in America. It’s a great launch pad. It’s a great room, it has atmosphere, it has everything going for it. If you can’t play well at the Troubadour, you can’t play well anywhere.”
