Barry Manilow thinks "songwriting has changed".

The 81-year-old star released his eponymous debut album back in 1973, but he admits that songwriting has changed dramatically during the course of his career.

Speaking to Billboard, he explained: "The songwriting has changed.

"Young people don't write the way I was trained to write. There's no verse which goes into the chorus which goes back to the verse which goes to ending, and you change keys. They don't do that.

"They start the song and then they just … it feels like a run-on sentence to me. I can't find the hook. I can't find the chorus. It just keeps on going, and then it ends."

Manilow observed that a lot of his contemporaries have already retired from the music business. However, he has no intention of stepping back for the time being.

The 'Could It Be Magic' hitmaker said: "It's like, 'What? Am I the only one left?'

"It's Billy Joel, and Elton (John) is not well and Rod (Stewart) and Neil (Diamond). Diana Ross is still in great shape, I think. There must be only a handful of people in my world that are still there.

"I'm still healthy. I'm strong and I've still got my voice and my energy. The night I can't hit the F natural on 'Even Now,' that's the night I throw in the towel. But I can still do it."

Manilow has recently been working on a new album, which he hopes to release later this year. However, he admits that the creative process has been far from straightforward.

The music icon explained: "This'll probably be my last album.

"I've been working on it for a long time … for so long that the style of music has changed.

"I had to go back and redo (the songs) so they sounded a little more contemporary. I had to take all the strings out, all the background vocals out 'cause they don't do that anymore. They don't use strings and background vocals and all that.

"Even I heard that it sounded dated, so we had to go back and redo it."