Simon Cowell and former One Direction member, Zayn Malik. Photo / Getty Images
Simon Cowell and former One Direction member, Zayn Malik. Photo / Getty Images
Music mogul Simon Cowell has labelled Zayn Malik's comments about One Direction's music being "generic" as rude.
Malik told Fader magazine's December/January issue his departure from the band was partly due to the band members having little say in their own music.
"There was never any room for me to experiment creatively in the band," he said.
"If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic as f***, so they could use that version.
"There was just a general conception that the management already had of what they want for the band, and I just wasn't convinced with what we were selling.
"It wasn't me. It was music that was already given to us, and we were told this is what is going to sell to these people. As much as we were the biggest, most famous boy band in the world, it felt weird. We were told to be happy about something that we weren't happy about," Malik said.
However, Cowell, who mentored the band when they were on X Factor and signed them to his record label, has hit back at Malik's comments, saying creating the band's songs was a "very, very democratic process".
"I think once he has had a chance to reflect on everything he will probably reconsider what he's said because it was a very, very democratic process in the band," Cowell told The Mirror.
"It is a bit rude to the people who wrote all the hits with them. And to the other band members. I mean they all wrote a lot of the stuff."
Malik left One Direction in March to live a normal life and pursue a solo career, leaving fans devastated.
Meanwhile, the former One Direction singer and supermodel Gigi Hadid appear to have made their rumoured romance official by sharing an intimate photo on Instagram.
Malik posted a photo of the pair getting cosy on his Instagram account over the weekend.
The black and white photo shows Malik, 22, with his eyes closed snuggling with the supermodel, 20, as she nuzzles his face.
The pair were first photographed leaving Justin Bieber's American Music Awards afterparty before Thanksgiving, but a source previously told People magazine that they were "just friends".
The model recently split from boyfriend Joe Jonas.
