The music on The X Factor? It's a Sin, says Neil Tennant

They're at it again. Attacking poor old Simon Cowell. This time it's the turn of Pet Shop Boys frontman Neil Tennant, who tells tomorrow's Radio Times that he deigned to watch The X Factor only after he got to know fellow panellist Cheryl Cole - and write a song for her band Girls Aloud. "I watched The X Factor to see what she was like," says Tennant. "What bugs me is that Simon Cowell's idea of pop music is so narrow. It's basically people singing Whitney, Mariah, maybe Elton – and if it's not power ballads, it's an equally narrow version of disco. Why don't they have, say, a new-wave week? Or 80s electro week? There are vast swathes of music out there. I remember on Pop Idol, Pete Waterman told someone, very sympathetically, 'The thing is, you're more of a Depeche Mode kind of artist.' In other words, 'What are you doing here, pet?'"