Shirley Manson
THE EARLY-MADONNA INFLUENCE: Manson, the lead singer and provocateur of Garbage, learned the lessons Madonna taught wayward girls in the eighties extremely well. She uses her sexuality like a born tease--no matter how ready she looks, that poised, willowy voice somehow never makes it all the way to a direct come-on.

THE LATTER-DAY MADONNNA INFLUENCE:Manson has learned to say more with less. Though she stomped her way through Garbage's first single, "Only Happy When It Rains," by the second, "Stupid Girl," she'd developed a pouty, more restrained approach. And on Garbage's Version 2.0, released in 1998, she'd found a persona that was equal parts postpunk brat and coy techno chanteuse, and this transformed her phrases from overt declarations into an intoxicating shorthand of sighs and implications.