Roger Waters, the outspoken co-founder of Pink Floyd, has built a reputation not only for his own influential songwriting but also for delivering blunt, often deeply personal put-downs of fellow musicians. The article explores several artists Waters has openly dismissed, reflecting his rigid view that songwriting must carry substantial meaning rather than simply technical polish or commercial appeal.

– Waters generally divides musicians into those who write from genuine emotion and those he sees as producing hollow, "plastic" music for mass appeal.
– He named Phil Collins as symptomatic of this hollowness, telling Musician magazine that Collins only "pretends" to be a songwriter or rock'n'roller, calling it "an act" and "unsatisfying".
– Collins has responded by downplaying any real affinity with Pink Floyd, saying his band was often lumped in with them despite never feeling part of the same scene.
– Bob Dylan is also discussed, with Waters noting how Dylan shifted in the mid-1960s from direct protest songs to more cerebral, less explicit lyricism after going electric.