{"id":553317,"date":"2026-03-30T01:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553317\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T01:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T01:11:08","slug":"sounds-like-run-on-sentences-manilow-wonders-what-happened-to-pop-hooks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/553317\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Sounds like run-on sentences&#8221;: Manilow wonders what happened to pop hooks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/salon.com\/topic\/barry-manilow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Barry Manilow<\/a> is still obsessed with craft.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of his 55th album, the \u201cMandy\u201d singer took a deep dive into modern pop. He wanted to take a crack at writing like artists like <a href=\"http:\/\/salon.com\/topic\/billie-eilish\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Billie Eilish<\/a>, but he couldn\u2019t make heads or tails of it. Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/culture\/music\/article\/barry-manilow-farewell-tour-what-a-time-r5pj7xfcz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Times of London<\/a>, he said that radio pop in 2026 is one long ramble.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really studied what\u2019s going on out there \u2014 artists like Billie Eilish. I tried to write like her but I just couldn\u2019t because I\u2019m used to verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, ending \u2014 but pop music now just sounds like run-on sentences,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere is the chorus? Hook? Song after song is like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is perhaps unsurprising that Manilow reached for Eilish as his guide to modern pop. Beyond her megahits, Eilish\u2019s sexuality<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2023\/12\/06\/billie-eilish-sexuality\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> fueled tabloid gossip<\/a> for years. Manilow has been a relationship with his now husband <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2017\/04\/05\/open-secret-why-barry-manilow-coming-out-still-matters\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">since the late \u201970s<\/a>, but he only publicly came out as gay in 2018. He told the Times that coming out at the time would have killed his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLittle by little, it became OK to be gay, but at the start? No,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was rough back then \u2026 when we did come out? I expected headlines \u2014 but nothing. Nobody cared!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Manilow was unable to imitate Eilish\u2019s hits. Manilow\u2019s album \u201cWhat a Time\u201d ended up being full of Barry Manilow songs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI went back to what I know and people will either think I haven\u2019t listened to pop radio in 40 years or they\u2019ll say, \u2018Thank God! Something to hang my ears on!\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Start your day with essential news from Salon.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/newsletter?utm_source=onsite&amp;utm_medium=organic&amp;utm_campaign=crash-course-edit-signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up for our free morning newsletter<\/a>, Crash Course.<\/p>\n<p>When asked to elaborate on his problems with radio hits, he said that songwriters have been devalued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe rhythm and grooves are delicious, but songwriters? I don\u2019t think they\u2019re there anymore,\u201d the 83-year-old said. \u201c[The songs] feel written by young people, who know a couple of chords, and some new songs are really good, but the stars of pop nowadays are studio engineers and the last thing you pay attention to in a modern record are the lyrics or melody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"red_box\">Read more<\/p>\n<p class=\"white_box\">about this topic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barry Manilow is still obsessed with craft. Ahead of his 55th album, the \u201cMandy\u201d singer took a deep&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-553317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}