Originality lacking in female pop stars

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They are young women. Hear them lay claim to the mantle of singer-songwriter.

Alicia Keys, Nelly Furtado, Norah Jones, Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton, Avril Lavigne: They may vary in aptitude and style, but they are all part of a new breed of female pop stars.

Call them the Borderliners.

Let me explain: If Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Chrissie Hynde blazed the trail of songstresses who write as well as they sing, and if women such as Aimee Mann and Lucinda Williams are keeping the trail fresh, our new X-chromosomed crop is something different.

Much of the considerable respect they enjoy today is derived from their contradistinction from their contemporaries, the Tarts: Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson.

They're not quite Britney, and they're not quite Joni. Hence the Borderline. They write, sing and play, but they need lots of outside help; they lack creative verve and imagination.

They are, to varying degrees, all talented musicians but they are all primarily performing artists, not boldly original creative artists.

Perhaps because of the pressures of MTV, they're also image-conscious to a fault (reassuringly, not in Norah Jones' case).

When did the Borderline become visible? The case could be made that it was in the late '80s, when Madonna began to affect seriousness.