Singer Tony Bennett performs at Radio City Music Hall on Friday, Oct. 11, 2013 in New York. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP)

Tony Bennett may have plans to record an album with Lady Gaga, but on the whole, the veteran musician is not a fan of today's pop hits.

"The songs that are written today, most of them are terrible," Bennett said in a new interview with BBC Radio. "It’s a very bad period, musically, throughout the world for popular music."

The 87-year-old singer, who has been in the music business for more than 50 years, puts the blame for said "terrible" music on the record companies, rather than the recording artists.

"The corporations took it over and they want to make so much money and they don’t care whether the public likes it or not," he said. "They think the public is ignorant, so their attitude is, 'Don’t give them anything intelligent, because it won’t sell.'"

Bennett is set to release his new project with Lady Gaga later this year. The collaboration with Mother Monster, whom he calls "the musical Picasso," will be a jazz duets album.

For more from Bennett, head over to BBC Radio.