{"id":435846,"date":"2026-05-20T00:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435846\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T00:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T00:26:13","slug":"put-taylor-swift-or-sabrina-carpenter-back-in-the-1980s-and-they-couldnt-have-got-arrested-kylie-minogue-and-rick-astley-songwriter-producer-mike-stock-says-that-modern-pop-stars-w","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/435846\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPut Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter back in the 1980s and they couldn\u2019t have got arrested”: Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley songwriter\/producer Mike Stock says that modern pop stars would have struggled to make an impact back in the day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the \u201880s, Stock, Aitken, Waterman (SAW) were the kings of UK pop<\/a>, creating evergreen hits for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Bananarama and Donna Summer.<\/p>\n

However, SAW were also criticised for building something akin to a musical assembly line \u2013 not for nothing were they known as the Hit Factory \u2013 and stretched their credibility at times by producing records for \u2018artists\u2019 such as Pat and Mick (British radio DJs Pat Sharp and Mick Brown), Big Fun and The Reynolds Girls.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As such, eyebrows will doubtless be raised now that it\u2019s emerged that Mike Stock \u2013 one third of SAW alongside Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman \u2013 has been speaking in less than glowing terms about some of today\u2019s popstars, saying that they\u2019d have struggled to make an impact in his heyday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPut Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter back in the 1980s and they couldn\u2019t have got arrested,\u201d he tells the iPaper<\/a>, arguing that, in today\u2019s streaming-centric music industry, where major labels have shares in Spotify<\/a>, less thought goes into the songs themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t rely on record sales any more,\u201d says Stock. \u201cThey can control the apparent success of an artist. They\u2019ve got the whole market sewn up and can put out anything and it will get a million streams a day. They don\u2019t have to worry about the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warming to his theme, Stock says: \u201cAnd Taylor Swift, the doors to her have been thrown wide open. I don\u2019t particularly like her as an artist. I don\u2019t think she\u2019s got a great voice or anything. I just see a very pale artist. And I think the same of Sabrina. It is soft pornography. What else to call it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, we\u2019re sure Carpenter\u2019s millions of fans would call it pop music, but let\u2019s move on \u2013 what about the UK\u2019s own Harry Styles?<\/p>\n

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\u201cWell, it\u2019s a good name for him, that, because he\u2019s all style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Stock isn\u2019t the only person to say something along these lines, although when the Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant questioned the standout quality of Taylor Swift\u2019s music in 2024, during an on-stage interview for The Guardian<\/a>, in 2024, he was rather more measured with his words.<\/p>\n

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“Taylor Swift sort of fascinates me as a phenomenon because she’s so popular and I sort of quite like the whole thing,” he said. “But then when I listen to the records – we [Tennant and fellow Pet Shop Boy, Chris Lowe] both have the same feeling actually – for a phenomenon as big\u2026 where are the famous songs? What\u2019s Taylor Swift’s Billie Jean?”<\/p>\n

Stock\u2019s comments, though, are still surprising when you consider that SAW were once criticised by the music press \u2013 \u201cThey were constantly slagging us off\u201d \u2013 for releasing a production line of songs that sounded the same. And for every I Should Be So Lucky<\/a> or Never Gonna Give You Up<\/a>, there was an I’d Rather Jack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t agree with this characterisation of SAW, though: \u201cEverything was handmade, handcrafted, specific to designed for particular artists. It was never anything off the peg.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Stock concedes that he \u201ccan sound like a Grandad,\u201d with his \u2018it was better in my day\u2019 comments, he\u2019s still backing himself. He\u2019s currently working on the debut album by Suzette Charles, a former Miss America, and says that it will stand out in today\u2019s pop market because it doesn\u2019t use \u201cvocal computers that take all the soul and the light and shade out of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in the \u201880s, Stock, Aitken, Waterman (SAW) were the kings of UK pop, creating evergreen hits for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-435846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}