By Cara Sulieman
SCOTTISH singing sensation Lulu thinks that the music industry today is “crazy” and is glad she launched her career in a much more innocent time.
It is the pressure on young singers to be more than musicians that puts her off the industry – and she doesn’t think it is producing the best talent.
She said: “I would not want to be launching a career now. Nowadays you have to achieve world domination or you get dropped by the record company. If the first single’s not a hit, you’re out.
“Today, to be successful it is not enough to be a good singer, you have to have an army of people all focussing on that goal relentlessly. You don’t just have to have talent and appeal; there has to be a big strategy.
“You have to be able to hold your head together because the celebrity thing is completely out of whack.
“I think it’s crazy.”
And it’s not just the pressure to be successful that disturbs her – Lulu also thinks the music industry is exploiting young women by making them wear next to nothing when they perform.
She said: “Young girls today have to straddle naked before they can get noticed. It’s cheapened the music and I think it’s exploitative.
“I would never have stripped off like that and gyrated up and down a pole. It’s so regressive. I feel bad for them.
“To be a singer, you have to be naked and do things with your body and men on video. What has that got to do with the music?”
With the changing pace of music, Lulu is appalled by the way the industry treats it’s young talent – using them and then casting them aside.
She said: “It’s like a McDonald’s world. Everything is instant – instant success and instantly disposable. It is beyond insane.”
But Lulu does admire some of the female singers out today, and thinks that they have real potential.
She said: “I love Duffy and Alexandra Burke who just won the X Factor. I think they are really talented. I’m an Amy Winehouse fan – she’s a great writer. She reminds me of the Ronettes.”
