The relationship between dance-pop music and musical instruments has been undergoing a three-decade divorce. First it was the drum machines and synthesized strings of the disco era, then the keyboards of the '80s. By the teen-pop explosion of the late '90s computers had made pop stars' voices endlessly malleable and easily homogenized.
The logical progression is realized to the extreme with the Pussycat Dolls' sophomore release, "Doll Domination" — an album that is, for the most part, completely devoid of music.
After more than half of their 2005 debut, "PCD," became number-one singles, group architect Robin Antin brings the former burlesque act back for more of the same slick music videos, pounding dance beats and carefully-orchestrated commercialism. As usual, it's no secret that these women are intended to serve more as sex objects than as musicians (or, heaven forbid, as role models).
The undisputed star of the group is Nicole Scherzinger, a former reality-show contestant on the WB's "Popstars" and member of E-list girl-group Eden's Crush. Her presence on "Doll Domination" is ubiquitous. The four other Dolls are as faceless in these songs as they are in their music videos.
Unsurprisingly, the opening track is the smash-hit single, "When I Grow Up." It's a veritable barrage of tweets, zaps and booms with a sea of vocals that swarms but never hits its target. Like much of "Doll Domination," the "singing" on "When I Grow Up" is a mix of talking, breathing and yelling with no real melody attached.
Very little of the album has any real tune. The few songs that attempt it are trite ballads, sprinkled with amateur-sounding piano and husky vocals that mask any musical limitations. Poorly-written choruses repeat endlessly. These down-tempo songs are either about leaving a man ("Happily Never After," "I Hate This Part," "Hush Hush"), cheating on him ("Halo"), or finally getting a good one ("I'm Done").
In fact, the vast majority of "Doll Domination" is about a man. Nicole chastises him in "Who's Gonna Love You" while she screamingly threatens him with violence in "In Person." "Out of This Club," a collaboration with R. Kelly, details the delicate art of hooking up with a dude in a dance club and then going home with him. "I smiled enough/ I flirted enough/ I posed enough/ Got freaky enough," pout the Dolls, like a step-by-step guide to sluthood for tween girls.
"And she ain't scared to get dirty/ Even though she's so purdy," Kelly adds appraisingly. Clearly, this album is not directed at feminists or linguists.
"Out of This Club" is the first track on "Doll Domination" on which Auto-Tune, the trendy computer program that makes a singer's voice sound robotic (think T-Pain), rears its ugly head. However, other computer effects are used on nearly every, if not every, song on the album.
Producers clearly tried to spotlight a couple of Dolls other than Scherzinger, but since these women were hired to dance and wear latex bikinis instead of sing, this became an interesting challenge. Vocals have been homogenized beyond individual recognition. They were then masked by every accoutrement available in Pro Tools, the digital audio engineering tool. Undoubtedly, even solos by the minor Dolls have Scherzinger's stronger voice layered underneath.
A bonus disc included with "Doll Domination" includes solo efforts by each individual Doll, but they are, for the most part, unlistenable. The E.P. also features a duet of sorts with the recently-reunited and no-longer-new New Kids on the Block and an overly-slick cover of the bossa nova classic "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps." Hilarity ensues.
