London, March 2 : Veteran Scottish pop star Lulu, 60, has slammed the music industry for exploiting present-day singers as sex symbols.

She said that young female artists were being forced to dress in sexy outfits and perform provocative acts.

She blasted industry bosses saying that semi-naked routines-like those performed by the Pussycat Dolls, Katy Perry and Girls Aloud-had become more important for them than the music itself.

"Young girls today have to straddle naked before they can get noticed. It''s cheapened the music and I think it is exploitative. I would never have stripped off like that and gyrated up and down a pole," the Scotsman quoted her as saying.

"There are talented kids who don''t need to do that, but it is just expected of them. It''s so regressive. I feel bad for them.

"To be a singer, you have to be naked and do things with your body and men on video. What has that got to do with the music?" she added.

Lulu also criticised the competitive nature of the modern pop industry, saying that talent alone was no longer enough to be successful.

"I would not want to be launching a career now. Nowadays, you have to achieve world domination or you get dropped by the record company. If the first single''s not a hit, you''re out. Today, to be successful, it is not enough to be a good singer. You have to have an army of people all focusing on that goal relentlessly," said the singer, who achieved stardom after her hit `Shout' reached the Number 1 spot in the charts, when she was just 15 years old.

"You don''t just have to have talent and appeal. There has to be a big strategy.

"You have to be able to hold your head together, because the celebrity thing is completely out of whack. I think it''s crazy," she added.

Lulu revealed that she loved listening to the music produced by Pink, Christina Aguilera, Duffy, Alexandra Burke and Amy Winehouse.

"I love Duffy and Alexandra Burke who just won the X-Factor. They are really talented. I''m an Amy Winehouse fan - she''s a great writer. She reminds me of the Ronettes," she said.

She, however, also revealed that she did not like the current pop culture.

"It''s like a McDonald''s world. Everything is instant - instant success and instantly disposable," said the Glasgow-born singer.

"Even when it was really crazy in the 1960s, it wasn''t like it is now. It is beyond insane."

"Everybody is a celebrity. There is nobody to aspire to be. Everybody is famous and everybody is documenting every time they breathe, spit, cough or close their eyes.

"No wonder the music business doesn''t mean much any more. Then, there was a mystique about things," she added. (ANI)