Sir Paul McCartney claims Miley Cyrus VMA performance was 'only mildly shocking'

The former Beatle says Cyrus did a good job of making herself stand out

Sir Paul McCartney has defended modern pop (Getty Images)

You'd never have caught Sir Paul McCartney twerking on John Lennon during their Beatles heyday, but the musician has nevertheless defended Miley Cyrus.

Sir Paul, 71, said the controversy over Cyrus's MTV VMAs performance of "Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke was overblown.

In an interview to promote his latest album, New, he told Sky News: "I don’t think it was explicit at all. You couldn’t see anything. I watched it just as an experiment to check, but you look at it and you say 'what's everyone shouting about?'

"She's a young girl, she's only 20 or something, she's just having a go. Someone said to me that the world a lot of those people like Miley live in is noise – it's all noise – and they've got to get above the noise, so they've got to do something.

"I think it was only mildly shocking. She's dancing with Robin Thicke on the awards. So what. Come on, we've seen worse than that."

He also spoke out in favour of the music in today's charts, mentioning Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake and Bruno Mars in particular.

"There is a lot of good music in the pop area now," he said. "A lot of good people making good records."

Sir Paul was asked about comparisons between One Direction and The Beatles.

"When you call someone the new Beatles, it can be the kiss of death, because people expect you to live up to what we did, and we did what we did in a particular period of time that is very different to now," he said.

"It was easier to be a wild success. But I think these bands are great, I like One Direction. They're young beautiful boys and that’s the big attraction. But they can sing, they make good records. That's what I can see in common. Girls love them."