Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears [Paperback]

Kim Cooper (Author), David Smay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2001

The truth behind the pop music we love most.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Dedicated to the late music critic Lester Bangs and recently deceased punk legend Joey Ramone, this wonderfully quirky title leaves no stone unturned in its coverage of bubblegum music. Cooper, publisher of underground culture 'zine Scram, and Smay, a Scram contributor, lay out this music's long and winding parameters, concentrating on the "classic" years (defined as 1967-72). More than 30 contributors offer essays on forgotten artists whose songs are still played on oldies radio stations: the Archies, the Cowsills, and 1910 Fruitgum Company, among others. The book excels at showing the human side of these mostly forgotten artists and their producers. Also included are pieces on bubblegum progeny of the 1980s and 1990s, including Britney Spears. And there's more: surveys of the media as it relates to the music, the international scene, and various bubblegum artifacts (remember cereal box records?). An excellent "Recommended Listening" section and a useful index round out the volume. Full of illustrations of classic album covers and artist photos (regrettably in washed-out black and white), this quirky and entertaining book is recommended as a reference for all comprehensive music collections. University libraries should also purchase for popular music studies collections. David M. Turkalo, Suffolk Univ. Law Sch. Lib., Boston
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Into the flaccid world of mainstream pop-music culture ride editors Cooper and Smay and the other contributors to this expose of the scaly underside of . . . bubblegum music, which the coeditors call "rock . . . revamped into . . . nursery rhymes [with] a backbeat that even the klutziest infant can't miss." Coyly merchandising carnality to preteens and young teens is bubblegum's stock-in-trade, and the many ways it has been done are this book's subjects. They are treated piecemeal, in scores of articles on particular bands, record labels, and bubblegum spin-offs on TV, radio, and the silver screen. KISS--face paint, overtaxed amps, and all--is one of the targeted bands, and its Dressed to Kill album is characterized as "the most inarguable bubblemetal mixture ever," whose lyrical content renders "sex through the eyes and fantasies of a 13-year-old." The Cowsills, the Ohio Express, and the Backstreet Boys are treated, too, of course, though no mention is made of the psychedelic bubblegummers, Bubblepuppy. Insightful and highly readable popular-culture chronicling. Mike Tribby
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Feral House (May 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0922915695
• ISBN-13: 978-0922915699
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.9 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #852,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #68 in Books > Arts & Photography > Music > Musical Genres > Dance

More About the Author

My most recent book is my grandma Barbara "Cutie" Cooper's memoir, "Fall in Love For Life: Inspiration from a 73-year Marriage" (Chronicle), which comes out of the viral sensation that was my grandparents' video blog, The OGs (http://www.the-ogs.com). Previously, I wrote an oral history about "Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over the Sea'" (Continuum 33 1/3), co-edited the anthologies "Lost in the Grooves" and "Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth," and for many years published Scram, a journal of unpopular culture (back issues at http://www.scrammagazine.com). I took a break from music writing to create the time travel blogs 1947project, On Bunker Hill and In SRO Land, which offer alternate histories of early Los Angeles, and which opened up a new world of creative possibility. Now, with my husband Richard Schave I lead curious souls on Esotouric's offbeat bus tours into the secret heart of Los Angeles (The Real Black Dahlia, Raymond Chandler's LA, Charles Bukowski's LA, Blood & Dumplings, East Side Babylon). We've also hosted quarterly literary Salons at Musso & Frank, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood. Learn about our L.A. history events, many of them free, at http://www.lavatransforms.org. My campaign to save the historic 76 Balls from destruction resulted in ConocoPhillips agreeing to donate the gas station signs to museums nationwide.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Yummy, yummy, yummy July 30, 2001

By R. Riis VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

A pleasant surprise. I picked this up even though I thought it would be another disposable hoot at popular culture. It turns out, however, to be a thoughtful and intelligent, only-partly-tongue-in-cheek collection of biographies, essays, and analyses of "bubblegum" music (and related media). Lots of detail, critical discography, and a clear love of the form by its collective authors. Covers everything from 60s kid-pop through 70s/80s bubblegum-punk to 90s teen-pop, everyone from Steve Barri, P. F. Sloan, and Kasenatz-Katz to Lou Perlman, the Bugaloos to Vitamin C. A cover-to-cover read.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars SPLAT! January 21, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The naked truth, indeed!

Editors Kim Cooper and David Smay have outdone themselves in producing the definitive work on the wildly popular yet strangely esoteric world of bubblegum rock, compiling dozens of essays written by some of the finest scribes of the underground press.

Case in point: "Looking for the Beagles" by Steve Mandich, the author of the fantastically comprehensive biography "Evel Incarnate: The Life and Legend of Evel Knievel." Here Mandich sheds a similarly swell light on the all-but forgotten rockin' doggie duo the Beagles, who starred in their own short-lived late-'60s Saturday-morning cartoon series and released one gleeful pop album.

Other contributors include the comic world's Peter Bagge ("Hate") with a hilariously enthusiastic overview of his young daughter's contemporary bubblegum CDs, Jake Austen ("Roctober") deconstructs KISS, and, in the interest of fairness, Dennis Eichhorn ("Real Stuff") bursts the bubble with "I Hate Bubblegum!"

Buy for its long-lasting flavor.

Splat!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Won't Stick To Your Face August 14, 2001

By David J. Schwartz

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Why don't you own this already? Don't you want to know the connections between the Ramones and the Bay City Rollers, or the Beatles and the Backstreet Boys? At times frightening, often hilarious, and always illuminating, this collection of essays is written by people who clearly know music--not just the sub-genre known as Bubblegum Pop--backwards and forwards. This is a smart book, and a must for everyone from music criticism completists to closet Partridge Family fans.