The Perfect Diva Package

Swifts case contrasts with that of another young,huge-selling female musician. Leona Lewis,whose second album,Echo,was released last week,had the most popular single of 2008 with Bleeding Love. A gorgeous 23-year-old Londoner,Lewis has a voice like the young Whitney Houstonsmassive and sleek,athletic yet ethereal. But Lewis has a problem too. Her critics perceive her as hollowall voice and no personality.

The female stars who have come to dominate pop in the past decade all express some aspect of that tension between the Perfect Personality and Perfect Voice. We can go back to the end of the last decade to understand how this particular story has played out. The year 1999 saw the debuts of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera,and the release of The Writings on the Wall,the breakthrough album for Beyonce,then the primary member of Destinys Child.

Physically,all three women worked variations on the classic bombshell persona,foregrounding their sexuality in ways that played into fantasies that men have long enjoyed and women,however reluctantly,have adopted. Spears and Aguilera were hot ingenues and Beyonce was a Glamazon in training. But their singing told a different story.

Its hard to remember now but Spears started out in the role Taylor Swift now occupies. Her voice was cute,flawed and highly individual. Aguilera had the Perfect Voice,giant in her tiny body. And Beyonce was a Personality with a Voice in training. An often inaccurate singer in Destinys Child,she developed her chops along with her image,both growing more formidable with each recording and tour. The mainstream stars since these ladies set the standard have played variations on the earlier themes.

Susan Boyle,the singing-contest Cinderella whose debut album will be released this week,is the prime example. The stout,middle-age singer is the kind of woman who should have only personality going for her. When she opened her mouth on Britains Got Talent to reveal a voice brimming with a golden glow,peoples bewilderment soon gave way to delight,not because she seemed to have worked hard to become so good but because she didnt: Boyle was a natural beauty in disguise.

Norah Jones,meanwhile,found record-breaking success with a sound that felt like the easiest form of grace; she possesses a Perfect Voice of an earlier vintage. Jones irresistibly seductive 2002 debut,Come Away With Me,became the 10th biggest-selling album of the decade. Shes tinkered heavily with her formula on The Fall,a breakup album that greets freedom with a clatter of drums and electric guitars. The Fall is more first step than giant leap,and Jones cant turn off the loveliness of her tone but sometimes even reverse makeovers take time,and shes made a start.

Then theres Rihanna,who releases her third album,Rated R,this week. The 21-year-old Barbadian might be at the first apex of her career,but she doesnt have the luxury of time. Given her start by the rapping record man Jay-Z,she immediately registered as a younger Beyonce,acting out the same struggle to find a voice that would suit her tough,perfect,fashion-forward image.

Then,in February,her boyfriend at that time,Chris Brown,assaulted her. Until recently,Rihannas response to the violation of her privacy was silence. Rated R is Rihannas artistic statement on the incident,and it shows her working to strike a balance between the openness of a real voice and the self-protection offered by a perfect one. Russian Roulette,its first single,shocked many listeners; its depiction of love as a deadly game played by peers seemed,to some,to be a case of the victim defiantly blaming herself. For all its melodrama,Russian Roulette reminds us that actual womeneven pop starsare never perfect. Trying to find herself within everyone elses version of perfect,Rihanna is giving us a picture of imperfection thats worth considering.