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06/01/2007: "Wannabe Singer ... Genuine Eye Candy!"
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I'm an old-school rock 'n roller, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate new music. Scroll through my iTunes collection and you'll find a lot of songs from new artists in many different genres - from Sarah Buxton to Caesars to Nickleback to Wolfmother, the common thread is talent. Either the song is well played, or well sung, or well-written - the talent shows through in the final measure.
Which brings me to the Pussycat Dolls - possibly the worst thing to happen to music since Milli Vanilli, and just as artificial. Here's how it works: take a burlesque troup out of the strip clubs, add a singer from an American Idol knockoff show, skank 'em all up (oops - they already were; never mind ...) and call it a pop group. Add heavy handed production and a zillion overdubs, and voila' - music magic! Even those critics who enjoy their music find it hard to handle the "girls" in the group; caked in about 10 pounds of stage makeup and wearing threads most hookers would dismiss as tacky, they look like a group of pre-op transsexuals trying to become comfortable with their new lives - scary!
To every rule there is an exception, and we're gonna make that for PCD lead singer Nicole Scherzinger. No, you're not going to confuse her pipes for Maria Callas, but at least the folks pulling the groups strings were smart enough to put her out front to deflect the view from the others. It was hard to tell with all the skank makeup, but I always thought there might be something of value underneath. As you can tell from this picture of her playing on the beach in Hawaii recently, I was right - beneath all that clown paint resides a true hottie!
Nicole sang all the songs on the PCD's first album, but don't think that means she has any particular value to the group. When she decided she wanted to make a solo album, she was shown the door and a new singer found - via a reality show, naturally!
Well, she'll always have being our Weekend Eye Candy to fall back on ... 
