Is Adele the anti-Gaga?

I wonder what effect the record breaking success of Adele will have on the slavishly imitative music business? Whenever an artist has a massive commercial breakthrough, major record companies practically fall over themselves in a frenzy to sign someone just like them. Or, failing that, they try and manufacture a new star in their image, whilst giving the rest of their roster a makeover.

The model for female pop stars over the past couple of years has undoubtedly been Lady Gaga, with even established stars having to adjust their wardrobes accordingly. The pop fashion parade has been getting increasingly outrageous, as would be divas try on outlandish costumes, dial up the autotune and make videos which seem to have been inspired by the art of Hieronymus Bosch, with added lingerie.

Now along comes Adele, who doesn’t use autotune, doesn’t do choreography, doesn’t court controversy, doesn’t show off her flesh in salacious magazine shoots and bacchanalian promos. When it comes to special effects, Adele’s revolutionary idea is to put a bit of heart and soul into her singing. She looks like her preparations for going on stage amount to slipping into a nice dress and slapping on a bit of lipstick. And the people love her for it. This week, Adele overtook Madonna as the female solo star with the most consecutive number of weeks at the top of the UK album charts, shattering a record held for 21 years.

The thing about Adele (as she told me herself when I first interviewed her), was that she was signed in 2006 in a frenzy of record companies scouring the website myspace, looking for the new Lily Allen. XL picked on the bright young teenager with a very down to earth, London attitude, even though Adele had only written three songs, and was still finding her own style. Then Amy Winehouse broke through big and Adele (along with Duffy) was marketed as a retro soul singer. But all the while she kept doing what she wanted, which was writing emotional songs, recording them without any regard for pop trends, and singing them to the very best of her ability. She is the anti-pop star, the girl who beat Gaga without even trying. Now let’s find out what the rest of the new pop divas look like without their make up or autotune.

By Neil McCormick 

From http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk