Harry Styles’ record label boss wants him to emulate the likes of Sir Elton John and the late David Bowie by releasing albums on a regular basis.
Sony CEO Rob Stringer has admitted the industry has changed since the era of bands like The Clash – who released their self-titled debut, ‘Give ‘Em Enough Rope’ and ‘London Calling’ between 1977 and 1979 – but he doesn’t like the idea of a long wait between artist’s LPs.
Stringer thinks Harry should be thinking about his next release now, whilst he is touring his debut solo record.
Speaking to the Daily Star newspaper at the Music Industry Trust, he said: "I’d like Harry to make music regularly … As Bowie, Elton John and The Clash proved, they could put out records every 10 months.
"It’s harder to do that now because the business is more mature and the promotional process is longer."
As part of One Direction, Harry released – and extensively toured – five albums over a five year span, with ‘Up All Night’ (2011), ‘Take Me Home’ (2012), ‘Midnight Memories’ (2013), ‘Four’ (2014) and ‘Made in the A.M.’ (2015).
In May 2017, the 23-year-old singer released his self-titled debut solo album, but admitted he came close to quitting music altogether when he suffered from writer’s block.
He said: "I’d done a couple of writing sessions and they hadn’t gone so well and I got in this hole of ‘I don’t wanna make music any more’ I just had this massive block, then went into a room with three guys I hadn’t met before. You want to be honest when you’re writing, but it’s hard to sit in a room and talk about stuff that’s happened and been honest about when you’ve made mistakes and stuff like that. When I felt comfortable with these guys straight away, that’s when I knew who I want to make the album with."
Harry Styles’ label boss wants more music
