Are female pop stars moving up or selling out?

Updated Feb. 7
With contributions from Lucas Aykroyd, John Lucas, and Christopher Chen.

Although Nelly Furtado gained a lot of attention for changing up her image and "selling out" to become more commercial (and Avril Lavigne seems headed in that direction), she's just the latest in a recent string of female music stars who have done so. What's more, for most women in pop music, selling out is usually accompanied by something that male pop stars don't really have to face: becoming a sex object.

(Well, for guys, it's usually taking the saccharine ballad route a la Bryan Adams.)

But there's always the pressure on women to take the T&A route for an easy sell.

Here's a review of some of the female pop stars who have faced this conundrum.

SELL OUTS

BANANARAMA
They started with a DIY vibe, a tomboy look, and a New Wave sound at a time when female pop groups were almost non-existent, but got jiggly with it when they were transformed into Eurodisco Barbies by the hit making factory Stock/Aitken/Waterman. They scored their biggest hits but ended up becoming what they started off mocking.

SHERYL CROW
She shifted gears from her grittier material to a fluffier Beach Boys sound and started shedding her clothes in a bid to maintain relevancy and reach a younger audience. Did anyone care?

JANET JACKSON
Almost the antithesis of Madonna at the beginning, she was often covered up head to toe (even wearing gloves) and demanded respect (Miss Jackson, if you're nasty) from the guys. She even took on a butch military role in Rhythm Nation. But the tom boy quickly gave way to an oversexed stereotype, which reached its climax with the nipple fiasco. What has she done for women lately?

JEWEL
Around the same time as Crow, Jewel decided she wanted some of the action and started playing foolish games by showing herself in wet t-shirts. It was supposed to be ironic (don't you think?) but it was as ill-conceived as the rest of her work.

SARAH McLACHLAN
She started off earnestly, and did tackle some insightful work. Though she never did the T&A thing (although she did pose nude in one of her videos), her work soon gave way to syrupy ballads and faux introspection, and even a cookbook. Not to mention endless compilations that rehashed her material over and over again.

LIZ PHAIR
Once the alternative queen, she quickly alienated her fanbase by doing the talk show circuit in a bid for supernova mainstream success.

POP-QUEENS-TURNED-ARTISTES

NENEH CHERRY
One of the first women in mainstream rap and hip-hop we first saw her in a bra top and mini skirt but when she broke out the ankle-length skirts and guitar-driven songs, her record company didn't know how to market her. She later moved on to meatier material, with raps about AIDS and joining forces with Youssou N'Dour.

SIOBHAN FAHEY
After she left Bananarama, she had a massive international hit with "Stay" by her duo Shakespears Sister and has gained critical praise with her less commercially successful solo work.

AIMEE MANN
As the lead singer of 'Til Tuesday, her image and hit song "Voices Carry" overshadowed everything else. When she left the group and went solo, she quickly garnered critical admiration for her songwriting skills.

SALT-N'-PEPA
As one of the first female mainstream rappers, they broke new ground with their debut but hit real paydirt when they sexed things up with "Let's Talk About Sex" and "Shoop". But when they took things into their own hands and moved into rock-driven rap, the promotion of their material faltered (Dionne Farris had a similar problem and was told by her record company they didn't know how to market an African American woman in rock).

FLIP-FLOPPED

COURTNEY LOVE
To everyone's surprise, she underwent a makeover that transformed her from grunge grrl to Prada-wearing Oscar actress. But that didn't last long, now did it?

KYLIE MINOGUE
She started off in the Stock/Aitken/Waterman factory but after years of success, she tried to escape. She started writing her own songs, and tried to become a serious artiste. Commercially, she didn't do as well. But when she went back to her old formula, she had a huge international comeback.

ALANIS MORRISETTE
Canadians will remember her one-named wonder start as a Paula Abdul wannabe with her early dance pop career that was just too hot. She abruptly changed her sound and image, and hit the international jackpot with her soul-baring songs. People soon got tired of her though, and she has since resorted to selling her albums at Starbucks and dying her hair blonde.

MICHELLE SHOCKED
She began with a butch image, but tried to do the feminine thing in videos like "Come a Long Way" to appease her record company. She quickly did an about face, and went completely indie.

On Jan. 29th, Lucas Aykroyd added:

Lee Aaron morphed from Canada's "Metal Queen" into a local jazz singer.

Heart went for the big hair and the power ballads in the 80's after striving to be Led Zep with XX chromosomes in the 70's, before reverting to a more rootsy feel after the early 90's Fall of Metal.

On Jan. 29th, John Lucas added:

Gwen Stefani, who went from sort-of rocker chick to plastic hip-pop princess.

On Feb. 7th, Christopher Chen added:

How about:
Kelis—from the man-hating first single "Caught Out There" ("I hate you so much right now!!!") to a sex-bomb in "Milkshake"

The teenage sweetheart grows up and turns all slutty—Britney ("I'm a Slave 4 U"), Christina ("Dirrty").