Paltrow the pop star: it’s not just harmless fun

The all-singing, all-dancing, all-grinning TV show Glee was a lot of fun when it started: tongue-in-cheek, upbeat and sharp, but with the kind of dance routine extravaganzas that were both a throwback to MGM musicals and those 1970s TV summer specials.

It was old-fashioned feel-good TV. The adults were given sassy dialogue, the students got romance and "issues". The show also gave us one of the meanest characters in TV comedy history in Jane Lynch's Sue Sylvester.

Increasingly, however, Glee has became less about the storylines or characters and more about providing a vehicle for the back catalogues of artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. The latest twist is that the show is now also a source of redemption for a Hollywood actress in need of some quick career rehab. Others will follow.

Gwyneth Paltrow's appearances in Glee - the second one aired in the States earlier this week - have helped young Americans realise that the London-based actress isn't just the pretentious snob they thought from reading her "enriching" website goop.com where we learn such details as the divine deliciousness of Kale shakes and tips on where to stay in Paris (the Ritz-Carlton).

Glee has reminded America that Chris Martin's wife can act - especially if her character has a kooky name like Holly Holliday, her inconceivably monikered substitute teacher in Glee - and sing, a fact that you may have already realised from Duets, her terrible 1990s karaoke film with Huey Lewis, and from recent appearances to promote the equally mediocre Country Strong.

Due to Channel 4's delayed scheduling we won't see this particular Glee episode for a few weeks yet but already it raises the unwelcome spectre of yet more cover versions featuring Paltrow and her faux-teen chorus-line littering the UK singles charts. Indeed a quick YouTube search will reveal the sadistic murder of Prince's Kiss.

Following her first appearance on the show, her versions of Umbrella, Forget You and, most painful of all, Do You Wanna Touch Me all appeared in the singles charts on both sides of the Atlantic. These hits are an example of the continued bastardisation of the charts and of the power of TV.

Both are now intrinsically linked. If a song appears on a talent show or programme - even an advert - it will come back from the dead like a re-animated musical zombie no matter how long ago it was first released.

You could look at this trend as the charts doing their job of measuring the pop culture zeitgeist. But a more likely reason for the volatility is that the Top 40 is now controlled by a very small demographic of people who buy music in the same absent-minded way that others buy smartphone apps.

I am not convinced that people particularly like Paltrow as a singer at all. Yet Glee and the success of the songs is actually encouraging her to become a full-time singer. Indeed, reports this week suggest that she has already signed to Atlantic Records.

Kylie fans may beg to differ, but little good has ever come from an actor taking up a singing career. The car boot sales and charity shops of the world are littered with the failed musical projects of Don Johnson, Nicole Kidman, Joe Pesci, William Shatner and countless other thespians.

Why do they do it? Are they so seduced by fame and the fact that they can actually hold a note - not true in William Shatner's case - that they feel compelled to share their gift? Are their egos not sated enough already?

The fact is that Paltrow is not that bad a singer - but she's not that great either. Her voice lacks character and emotion, it's plain and as taut as the skin over her bird-like bones. But what really sticks in the craw is that Paltrow and actors like her are given these opportunities and platforms when thousands of talented singers and musicians are ignored - especially by major record companies such as Atlantic.

These companies are making fortunes from their back catalogues thanks to programmes like Glee and The X Factor without having to do any work and without using those profits to invest in new talent. Glee may seem harmless but it's helping fuel the desecration of pop. ·