Chris Rea Quotes

I don't feel I'm making a conscious effort to go more commercial.

I could make a PartyNextDoor album that's clean, all hits. That's not what I care about doing.

Pop music has always been about the mainstream and what appeals to the public.

If any of our songs ever did make it on the top ten, I'd disband the group immediately.

And frankly, when I made that record, hit songs were not what I was trying to achieve.

I don't like working with hitmakers. I don't want hits! You're not even allowed to say that word around me.

You look at what One Direction has done and just say, 'That is just lucky;' it is not. It is happening because they are talented boys, good looking lads; and yes, their songs might not be the typical songs that lots of radios want to play, but they are great songs, pop records, that are massive across the world selling in huge numbers.

I have to write pretty songs; that's what gets them on the charts.

I'm going to make the music I make regardless and it's always going to be driven by rhythm and blues and hopefully it becomes popular. But I don't cater to, like, 'OK, I want to make music that's going to fit in this pop world or go on the charts, etcetera, etcetera.' Hopefully, enough people like it so it becomes popular.

I didn't set out to write pop hits.

I thought my second record was good, but it didn't have that smash hit we did on the first one that somehow found its way onto tons of formats of radio stations.

I would definitely say I'm predominantly a pop artist, obviously, but my music is different. It's not just top-40-radio-type music.

We've never tried to write radio hits. If I hear our song on the radio, it's cool, and I'm proud, but it's never a goal.

Pop artists work really hard, and they might not work for the same things that indie artists do, but they're still musicians, and they're still making art.

We never said we were hard-core or that we didn't want our music crossing over or being popular.

'Push It,' to me, was very pop. And back then, you were called 'sell-out' to be pop.

I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for the charts. It's just not in my scope now. I'd rather stick needles in my eyes.

The joy of songwriting only gets messed up if you are trying to follow up a big success, or you are trying to create a hit single, or if you have conscious thoughts of a particular outcome for the music.

In other words, the celebrity gets out of hand, and if you're not careful, you will forget what you are about - and that is you are about making music that people want to hear.

My goal was never to sell many records.

I never minded being thought of as a pop star. People have always thought I wanted to be seen as a serious musician, but I didn't, I just wanted people to know that I was absolutely serious about pop music.

The artists in country music who stopped having hits are the ones who were led into something that wasn't them.

If I would get an album out every eight months and if I would write songs that were more up-tempo and try to focus more on making singles, then I could probably get more attention. But I don't think the albums would be very fun to listen to, and it would be a drag for me.

Pop music will never be low brow.

I really like Ariana Grande, Jessie J, and Nicki Minaj's song, the 'Bang Bang' song. It's the new 'Lady Marmalade.' So good.