I look at the buckling towers of CDs that dominate a corner of my living room and ask myself "Of these artists, whom did I select on merit of stage performance, character or persona?"

That quickly ruled out the classical section, leaving me with an eclectic assortment of artists from the 60's onwards. Hand on heart I can honestly say it's for the music - whether it be as mainstream as The Beatles, as rebellious as The Stones, or as psychedelic as The Floyd - there really aren't that many novel gifts that a stage performer can offer under the tag of 'modern music'.

People now seem to be influenced by performances gauged on an 'MTV-type' scenario, yet how many of us truly appreciate a group based on its 'in camera' credentials? Am I an old fuddy-duddy or what? Listen to these performances on Rockstar without the visuals - the same basis that one would hear a song and think "Sweet baby Jesus, who IS this singing?" - akin to playing back a CD in the comfort of your living room. Gone is all the mascara and cheap props; no longer is there a band of critics sitting to one side to whom one must pander. It's a whole new ball game and I truly believe the only ones qualified to judge a candidate's credibilty are the sound engineers who know how to doctor or rearrange a vocal.

Lukas and Dilana appear to stand out by miles, yet they both are so constricted in their vocal range it's not funny. An album of either of these artists would render the listener bored s**tless after track 4 due to the monotony and duplicity of their voices.

Regrettably the show has become somewhat vulgar. The ideas are wearing thin and the dialogue's becoming strained.

"Hey...pity you didn't smash the guitar!"

yawn....how contrived does it have to get?

Funnily enough I couldn't stand Zayra, yet as the show lunged on towards its inevitable conclusion she became the one artist that brought an air of the unexpected to the screen. Seeing as how the 'chosen few' are not being judged on their vocal ability (a simple exercise at the end of the day) I would have thought her presence would have been maintained to this day - certainly beyond that of Patrice who, unless your surname's Keller, should have plunged the depths many moons ago.