David Bowie's producer has slammed claims that Harry Styles is "the new Bowie."
The comment has been made several times following last weekend's Grammy awards, where Styles won the evening's biggest prize - Album of the Year.
His album Harry's House had beaten ABBA, Adele, Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar, and Lizzo to take the top spot.
The British singer's win was deemed a major upset, as it had been expected that Beyoncé's Renaissance album would take home the prize.
Following the former One Directioner's success - as well as his unique bedazzled clowncore red carpet look - fans of Styles have leapt to social media to compare him to The Rolling Stone's frontman Mick Jagger and the late David Bowie.
"TBH, Harry Styles' album is really good pop music. I think he's really grown into a special artist - bit of a modern Bowie? Congrats Harry (I was rooting for Bey but I'm not mad!)," one person wrote.
Another user even posted an image of their favorite Bowie costume, wondering whether Styles could pull it off himself. "There is actually one Bowie outfit that I think Harry Styles would have zero problem pulling off," they wrote.
However, many people have taken issue with the comparison - including Bowie's former producing partner Tony Visconti. The 78-year-old reportedly hit out at Styles in a Facebook post, stating (per The Daily Mail): "What's the difference between the Grammys and Las Vegas? Nothing! [...] Someone just told me that Harry Styles is the new Bowie? From what I saw tonight, he's not worthy of shining his shoes." Ouch!
Check out Styles' Grammys acceptance speech here:Styles has previously cited artists like Bowie, Jagger, Prince, and Freddie Mercury as his musical and fashion inspirations, though, many people on Twitter are agreeing with Visconti on whether the 'As It Was' singer is worthy of being in their league.
"Harry Styles wore a dress and said he doesn't believe in gender while making mediocre music and they turned him into a discount David Bowie," one person wrote.
"The reason I've never like Harry styles is because I don't like liars. Do whatever you want but don’t sell me Bowie and then give me Shawn mendes when I press play," someone else added.
"Harry Styles wishes he was David Bowie man. Like he's just begging for that kind of aura," another comment read.
A further user chimed in with: "Everything Harry Styles does Bowie did 1000x better a half century ago, it's always been funny to me how he gets treated as 'revolutionary'."
