Ed Sheeran says writing pop music is “more challenging” than any other form of music.
The singer and songwriter stresses that negative reviews of his work have never bothered him because he accepts that his music will never be universally appreciated. At the same time, however, he insists that pop stars should be respected because coming up with a catchy tune is one of the most difficult tasks in the industry.
During an appearance on “CBS Sunday Morning,” he explained: “I used to care a lot about (the reviews) because I’ve spent my whole life trying to be successful.”
“But you can’t be everything to everyone all the time. I’ve never really been a critics’ darling, but I don’t know, I think it’s more challenging to write pop music than any other kind of music.”
Ed also spoke about his victory in a recent copyright case in which he was accused of copying Marvin Gaye’s classic “Let’s Get it On” in his hit “Thinking out Loud” – and insisted that litigation over musical similarities is likely to continue despite his legal victory.
He explained: “I think it’s just the nature of the thing… There are about four chords used in pop songs. And if you do the math, what are the chances that this song has the same chords as this song – there are several, several songs – it’s the same four chords everywhere… then that’s what’s going to happen with every single pop song from now on.”
“Unless it just stops, which I don’t think will happen because it’s a big money business taking things to court. But you can only get caught if you’ve done something wrong, and I’ve done nothing wrong. I used four chords that are used very frequently.”
