East 17 star Terry Coldwell believes ’90s music is experiencing a renaissance because modern pop music is “too safe”.
The 48-year-old singer shot to fame in 1992 with the boy band’s first single ‘House of Love’, with East 17 becoming the ‘bad boy’ alternative to Take That.
Terry says the difference between the two boy bands, and the likes of Oasis and Blur and the variety of different acts that were in the charts from the Spice Girls to The Prodigy means that the music from that decade has deservingly found new generations of fans.
The ‘It’s Alright’ hitmaker insists modern pop stars aren’t having the same cultural impact because there’s not enough “individuality”.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz, he said: “I love modern music; I download loads of new stuff on iTunes and Spotify. But I just think all the female artists seem to all sound the same, they’re all playing it safe.
“Also, no one is being an individual artist with their own sound, everyone is just copying everyone else. Everyone is just playing it safe. It all just sounds too safe to me. There’s no individuality.
“In the ‘90s I think everyone had their own thing and their own image going on.
“East 17 were totally different to everyone else. Then you had the Britpop thing that came along with Oasis and Blur, you got to know the characters.”
Terry – who was joined in the original line-up of East 17 by Brian Harvey, John Hendy and Tony Mortimer – thinks that the internet has not helped budding musicians become stars because fans can seek out music, both new and old, so easily from so many sources.
The ’90s icon – who still tours with East 17 – is grateful that he and his bandmates were able to appear on programmes like ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘The Chart Show’ because they would attract such big audiences.
He added: “These days, someone famous could walk past you now on the street and you wouldn’t recognise them.
“I think because you had ‘Top of the Pops’ and ‘The Chart Show’ on TV it directed people to one source for music. That’s how you got to know these bands.
“Because of the internet now and because you can be on YouTube now and become a star it’s different. You’ve got these YouTube stars and some of them are hardly doing anything. They’re just talking over ‘FIFA 23’! That’s not a celebrity.”
Terry has taken over Trace Xmas – which is available to watch on Sky channel 359 – to provide a rundown of his favourite ever festive hits on the dedicated Christmas TV channel, including East 17’s 1994 Christmas number one ‘Stay Another Day’.
Other stars to provide a Christmas rundown include Megan McKenna, Kerry Katona, Jo O’Meara, Justin Hawkins, Aurora, Mutya Buena, Gareth Gates, Tulisa and Lisa Maffia among many more.