Corgan: Pop porn is killing music

Billy Corgan has hit out at modern pop stars who "do porn" in their music videos.

The Smashing Pumpkins frontman – who yesterday revealed the band’s touring lineup will include Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk and The Killers bassist Mark Stoermer – says he believes the public have “had it” with overtly sexual pop stars.

Corgan tells the London Evening Standard: “I have a strange sense that people have had it with pop. I can’t compete with somebody who’s doing porn. The person who does porn for their video is going to sell more records than me.

“So how did we compete back in the day and how do we compete now? It’s the same. You have to be truer than false, realer than fake, and you have to bring something that only you can bring.”

Corgan’s comments come after Pretenders’ frontwoman Chrissie Hynde called out “exhibitionist” pop stars who rely on sex to sell their music.

She said: “If they’re under pressure to get their kit off, maybe they should just be making porn films. Maybe they’re in the wrong game.”

The Pumpkins’ album Monuments To An Elegy is released on December 9.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.