Annie Lennox has warned young female pop stars they will have to live with the consequences of their "soft porn" images

In an interview with The Independent newspaper, Annie explained: "I was originally objecting to the fact that [it was the] record companies [who] were promoting this hypersexualised look.

"They were like, 'Whoa, we've got soft porn with a musical background. That'll make a ton of money.' And it did.

"Now these artists ... [Sabrina Carpenter and Charlie XCX] they've found their niche, and I'm not saying it's all soft porn.

"But hypersexualisation has become so normalised. I would say that if you want to do that, then you just have to live with whatever comes from it. That will be your life experience."

Annie also spoke about her own image during her pop hey day - insisting she wore suits to match her bandmate Dave Stewart because it was an artistic decision but she also didn't want to be "regarded as a piece of meat".

She said: "[The suits] were a casual decision. We thought, let's be identical twins. You know, let's be Gilbert and George. Their philosophy: 'Art is life and life is art', was very inspiring for us because we were living for our art ...

"I wanted to perform as a woman, but I didn't want to be regarded as a piece of meat."

Annie previously gave her thoughts on the sexy side of the music industry back in 2013 when she called for raunchy music videos to be given age restrictions to stop them being viewed by young children.

In a post on Facebook, she wrote: "Sexuality is an inherent and profound part of life. There is absolutely nothing 'wrong' about our sexuality or sensuality per se.

"But if a performing artist has an audience of impressionable young fans and they want to present a soft porn video or highly sexualised live performance, then it needs to qualify as such and be X rated for adults only.

"I'm talking from the perspective of the parents of those young fans. The whole thing is about their children's protection.

"Is it appropriate for seven year olds to be thrusting their pelvises like pole dancers? I really don't think so. Boundaries need to be put in place so that young kids aren't barraged by market forces exploiting the 'normalisation' of explicit sex in under age entertainment.

"That means - no audiences under 18. Simple! Well - not quite. The Internet has put paid to 'boundaries' and 'simple'."