Woman's Realm: the feminisation of chart pop

With Steps the focus is primarily on Lisa on H, though with Hear'Say it does seem to be the women who are being emphasised - on the other hand it's also the women who seem to be the tabloids' favoured targets.

With hip-hop and R & B one argument has been that the retreat of rap into a playa stereotype has left more interesting and subtle emotional terrain open to women in R&B. Can't remember where I read that but there's some truth in it I think.

Westlife are an exception in terms of sales, I know, but in terms of respect (and err... being any good) they aren't. They are super uncool. As much granny pop as weenybopper bop.

My argument mixes up sales and quality, I know. N'Sync and Backstreet Boys popular too, but do we love them? Robbie Williams - beyond teen pop now and into the realm of nation's entertainer. Ricky Martin is the only big exception I can think of.

As for Hear'Say - it's not just the tabloids. Even as the band were revealed I remember thinking that they'd picked much stronger women than men.

In other words, I can't see the logic to the lines you're drawing between one chart act and another - except that you like A and dislike B. Which is fine, but I don't think it should be projected onto the eternal 'we' - it's too personal and idiosyncratic for that (and so it should be, given that it's your taste and you're a thoughtful and distinctive individual).

Anyhow, I see the point about DC being anti-male. I say it all the time - just how many songs can one act write about how much the men they date suck? Can't they get better dates than the deadbeat sorts they talk about? Sure, the songs do have a slant of "girl power" or whatever you want to call it, ie DC are all well off and have their own cash and do what they want. But the men portrayed are all useless tossers who are always doing the girls wrong and trying to take their cash. It's girl power at the expense of men, which I can see as being a bit irritating for a whole albumfull if you are a male.

Male pop stars: Well, I have been a teenage girl and I think that most boy band members are absolutely sexless beasts. I can't think of one I ever really fancied. They just seemed too clean to even imagine as having a sex life, even the "dirty" ones like Donnie Walberg or AJ Backstreet. That being said, I don't reckon I was a normal teenage girl and I'm sure loads of them like that - it's the nonthreatening aspect of liking a boy. These are not men who are going to be nasty to you; their image is carefully cultivated to be as nice as possible, and that attracts little girls who are new to this whole dating thing. It's smart, and I can also see the point as to why that'd be attractive. But ugh, I don't personally find it attractive and never did. I like a bit of drama.

I think I can accept neither machismo, nor attempts at sounding tough, as pop. OK, I guess I can, but I just not the kind of pop I can ever love. I guess others can at once not take the posing seriously, yet still engage with it. Hmm...

The process is complete. Remember the 1980s, when the BPI would resort to nominating Kate Bush in the Best British Female award, even when she hadn't released anything that year, just to pad out a crowd of Jaki Grahams and Tracey Ullmans?

For tonights Brits, the shortlist for Best British Male award includes albumless ... Ian Brown.

Well, Paul Weller is to be tonights winner for actually producing an album that interested people.

(yeah, I remember KBush getting nommed because she had produced one single, the Elton tribute "Rocket Man"/"Candle in the Wind")