No I.D. Quotes

I came around at a time when myself, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna and George Michael, we were considered kind of dangerous.

The Beatles and Ray Charles were in the same charts together, and that was just called pop music - it wasn't called soul or rock. The best pop music just stands out as something that's just original, and I think it should all be called pop again.

The pop world has really opened its doors.

I loved Michael Jackson and Madonna. I styled my hair like Whitney Houston.

I think Lady Gaga is talented. Madonna is talented, and the flair that Michael Jackson had. He was talented! Whatever it is that they do, they must be doing something right. They do have an audience out there, so I respect that.

My whole point is like, well, if I'm the pop star, then it should be whatever I am. There's, you know, room for Katy Perrys and Adeles and Rihannas and Lady Gagas and Ke$has and me and Pinks. I think what's great about all of us is that we represent something different.

In the future I think the labels on most pop music are going to go. Everyone keeps jumping into everyone else's space.

The mainstream media tend to lump everything together. To them, there's no difference between Madonna, the Rolling Stones, or whatever.

Nowadays, people have an open mind vis-a-vis new artists like Meghan Trainor, Nico & Vinz, Hozier - there are hits coming out of everywhere.

The '80s don't seem to have gone away. Most weekends in the summer we're off doing a festival in front of 10,000 or 15,000 people with a load of other '80s acts. It was just such a great era for music, for individuals and characters. It just had a spirit.

A part of 'Happy New Year' is inspired by western pop culture, the pop music videos of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Duran Duran in the '80s.

I grew up on Michael Jackson, Pat Benetar, and Van Halen - all the things coming out of the television.

In the 80s, I remember the radio stations would play everything from rock to rap.

MTV was such a great training for me. I did live interviews with everyone from Michael Jackson to Madonna.

R.E.M.'s 'Automatic for the People' - that's probably one of my favourite records - Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' - that's some record - Crowded House's 'Together Alone' - that's brilliant, fantastic record.

There's no place in the world you can go and not hear rock-and-roll, from Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder to Phil Collins.

There were three great child singing stars: Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Jackie Washington.

Superficial pop will always exist - there've always been Fabians - but when people like Dire Straits and Bruce Hornsby start having hits, it suggests that there's a revolution going on in music.

And looking at today's music scene, I think it's cool that there are a lot of consumers and fans not limited by what radio and the record companies tell them to buy.

My parents listened to a lot of music when I was really little. They used to listen to people like Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and I used to be really into that.

I've always found that whatever you say about indie rock, it is the most inclusive genre or title for anything. It doesn't pin you down too much, like other labels would. It's just newer, it has less baggage. I'm happy to be in that category.

Stevie Wonder and Diana Ross and the Jackson 5, that's what I grew up on.

I had this image before Boy George, before the Beatles, before the Rolling Stones.

If you go back to the '80s, you had a whole plethora of artists, everyone from Madonna and Cyndi Lauper to Prince. God bless Lady Gaga for doing her thing, but she's kind of a lone peacock now. If anything, we have a much more conservative kind of pop world. It's not necessarily about individuality.

None of the jazz greats made music for the purpose of you going to check out music before them. Michael Jackson didn't make music so you could go check out Sam Cooke.