The LA Times published an article the other day about how rock stars are beginning to all look the same, and after a quick survey of many of today's top artists, we have to kind of agree. While we've spent many hours lamenting over how derivative and boring mainstream pop music is these days, we hadn't really taken notice of how conservative rock stars were dressing.

Where's the sex? Where's the wild hair? Where is the leather? Visionaries and rebels are few and far between in today's music scene. Instead of setting the rules for fashion, like many of their predecessors, most of today's music talent look like they're taking their cues from display windows at the mall. From John Mayer to Fergie, most of them look like they're heading to a photo shoot for one catalog or another -- and in a very real way, they are.

More and more, musicians are making their money off of endorsements or by spinning off their own clothing lines, rather than selling records. With the recording industry in decay, more and more artists are opting to let designers dress them in order to increase their cash flow. That connection to the fashion industry explains a lot of the phenomenon right there -- it used to be considered selling out.

Lenny Kravitz, for example, has teamed up with Gucci to open up his "Love Revolution" tour this summer. All of Missy Elliot's and her dancers' clothes are provided by Adidas. On their latest tour, the Spice Girls were walking billboards for Roberto Cavalli. The days of rock stars dressing themselves are over, at least temporarily.

As sad as it seems to lose the unpredictable trends that spun out of music for the last few decades, like: leather pants, fingerless gloves, big hair, cross-dressing, and mohawks. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to let fashion designers dictate what's cool for a little while. At least they're not wearing advertisements for Clorox and Levitra. Yet.