Sir Tim Rice has criticised the likes of Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift for their "miserable" and "me, me, me" lyrics.

The 79-year-old songwriter - who is best known for his stage musical collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber - claimed modern pop music "depresses" him because although they display "great musicianship", there's nothing uplifting about the words being sung.

Discussing the music that cheers him up, he told The Times newspaper: "Early rock’n’roll: Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly … all the stuff that was really big when I was in my early teens. Even if it was a sad song, it cheered you up.

"One of the things that depresses me today about a lot of pop music is that so many of these songs seem to be pretty miserable in a very 'me, me, me' way.

"I was listening to 'Traitor' by Olivia Rodrigo — she’s a great singer and there’s some great musicianship, but you think, 'They sound really unhappy.'

"And Taylor Swift: every time she falls out with somebody, the poor bloke gets slaughtered in the next song.

"In the unlikely event that Taylor Swift asked me out, I would say no."

But one song Tim has always admired is 'Summertime Blues' by Eddie Cochran.

Explaining why he wished he'd written the track, he said: "In under two minutes he launches an attack on almost everything: his school, his parents, his car, his boss and finally his congressman. It’s brilliant — a wonderful rock’n’roll song with a very clever, witty lyric about life as a p*****-off teenager."

And the EGOT winner confessed to walking out when he went to see Bruce Springsteen in concert.

He admitted: " I love Bruce Springsteen, but I went to see him at the O2, and we had pretty awful tickets up in the gods, so I thought, 'This is pointless, I can see him at any time I want at home in a video.' So I’m afraid after three or four numbers, our party left discreetly."