YET ANOTHER DISSATISFIED GROUP - December 2001
Add the Pet Shop Boys to the ever growing list of pop bashers. The pop veterans have spoken out about today's pop scene as meaningless, particularly singling out Steps and Hear'say as the worst examples.
Chris Lowe, a member of the group said, "When we started as a pop group in the 80s we were a pop group and very proud to be a pop group. But that doesn't really exist anymore - look at S Club 7, Westlife, etc. Everyone wants to be taken seriously rather than as a pop group. Yet most of them don't even write their own songs! In our time, we always did and still do - so did Soft Cell, Culture Club, Heaven 17, etc.
Pop music had some sort of integrity then. Pop music then was all about writing your songs and doing the whole thing for yourself. We didn't even have stylists! That's what we looked like! It meant something. But now it's just a career.
You go to stage school and you come out either wanting to be a television presenter or in some crap band. I mean, three of Steps don't even like the music they sing! Yet they expect you to pay to hear it! Or Hear'say. They just treat it as a job. I hate that. We still believe in pop music." At least they didn't personally take out Westlife.