Back in the ‘80s, Stock, Aitken, Waterman (SAW) were the kings of UK pop, creating evergreen hits for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley, Bananarama and Donna Summer.
However, SAW were also criticised for building something akin to a musical assembly line – not for nothing were they known as the Hit Factory – and stretched their credibility at times by producing records for ‘artists’ such as Pat and Mick (British radio DJs Pat Sharp and Mick Brown), Big Fun and The Reynolds Girls.
As such, eyebrows will doubtless be raised now that it’s emerged that Mike Stock – one third of SAW alongside Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman – has been speaking in less than glowing terms about some of today’s popstars, saying that they’d have struggled to make an impact in his heyday.
“Put Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter back in the 1980s and they couldn’t have got arrested,” he tells the iPaper, arguing that, in today’s streaming-centric music industry, where major labels have shares in Spotify, less thought goes into the songs themselves.
“They don’t rely on record sales any more,” says Stock. “They can control the apparent success of an artist. They’ve got the whole market sewn up and can put out anything and it will get a million streams a day. They don’t have to worry about the song.”
Warming to his theme, Stock says: “And Taylor Swift, the doors to her have been thrown wide open. I don’t particularly like her as an artist. I don’t think she’s 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?”
Well, we’re sure Carpenter’s millions of fans would call it pop music, but let’s move on – what about the UK’s own Harry Styles?
“Well, it’s a good name for him, that, because he’s all style.”
Ouch.
To be fair, Stock isn’t the only person to say something along these lines, although when the Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant questioned the standout quality of Taylor Swift’s music in 2024, during an on-stage interview for The Guardian, in 2024, he was rather more measured with his words.
"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… where are the famous songs? What’s Taylor Swift's Billie Jean?"
Stock’s comments, though, are still surprising when you consider that SAW were once criticised by the music press – “They were constantly slagging us off” – for releasing a production line of songs that sounded the same. And for every I Should Be So Lucky or Never Gonna Give You Up, there was an I'd Rather Jack.
He doesn’t agree with this characterisation of SAW, though: “Everything was handmade, handcrafted, specific to designed for particular artists. It was never anything off the peg.”
While Stock concedes that he “can sound like a Grandad,” with his ‘it was better in my day’ comments, he’s still backing himself. He’s currently working on the debut album by Suzette Charles, a former Miss America, and says that it will stand out in today’s pop market because it doesn’t use “vocal computers that take all the soul and the light and shade out of everything.”
