Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Party: A Times Summer Read 2023

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Carl Schurz, a 19th Century politician, and former U.S. senator was the first one to use the quote 'reach for the stars' indirectly in one of his speeches. Since then, many influential people have used this quote in many of their saying and speeches. p>An aspiring media professional, Srija is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Mass Communication at St. Xavier's University, Kolkata, after completing her degree in journalism. With experience in PR and social media, she has also honed her leadership skills through her participation in a youth parliament. Srija's interests include devouring books, watching movies, and exploring new places through travel.

I will happily devour music books of all sorts as I am fascinated by the music industry and am a music obsessive. The Spice Girls (with whom the book starts) were unavoidable at the time despite my best efforts. I was more interested in indie and the death throes of britpop at the time. And if I wasn’t going to give Spice Girls the time of day, then Steps and S Club 7 had no chance. Scott There would be rows that would break into fights. And J would always be in the middle of that. There were points where a couple of us would be recording and then we’d go and the other three would come in.

Expect while reaching for the stars, people to whirl by with their dark clouds and storm upon you."All of this shiny, happy, factory-formed pop was catnip to critics who saw music loved by children, girls, gay men, and large amounts of the population, as inferior. Something to be grown out of." I am so happy to have had the opportunity to review an advanced listening copy of the REACH FOR THE STARS audiobook. We are big fans of Emily Calandrelli in our house! Despite enjoying this book my reason for rating this book 3 out of 5 is because at times it felt that if you weren't a band that the author personally liked then you weren't featured or not featured very much, so bands which were very successful like All Saints barely get mentioned in comparison to bands who arguably had less success such as Triple 8 who are featured a lot. Potentially this is because some of their members were contributors to the book. There were also a few disparaging remarks about Westlife so I assume the author isn't a fan of theirs which is fine but they were one of the most successful bands of that period so to skim over them doesn't really give an accurate picture. I enjoyed the last section on the rise of programmes like Pop Idol, Popstars etc and the artists that they created but there was only one passing reference to Fame Academy which was also popular at the time. Ritchie I personally harbour no ill-will to J or Abs. I would want nothing more than to hear that they’re happily getting on with their lives. J was quite a domineering character and he wanted things done his way. He was willing to get that point across in a physical way sometimes. Broadly chronological, the book spans ten years. It begins with the Spice Girls in 1996, ending in 2006 with the demise of three major media sources for pop music - Smash Hits magazine, Top of the Pops magazine, CD:UK on TV. 2006 marked the end of an era for myself also, as this is when I stopped following the charts, having become disenchanted with the manufactured sounds of pop music and taking an interest in music I considered more authentic and complex. I wasn't so familiar with the music discussed towards the end of the book, particularly the acts resulting from TV talent shows, which I've never watched. Most of the featured acts I remembered very well, however. I liked the chapter on Girls Aloud because of their strong personalities, even though I was never a fan of the music. I especially enjoyed the chapters about 5ive and S Club 7, my two favourites. Sadly, Paul Cattermole of S Club 7 died a week after the publication of this book.

If you watched The Big Reunion on television a few years ago (or any similar programmes) or read any of the many official band books from the late 90's and early 2000's then you probably won't learn anything new from this book. That's not to say that it isn't still an interesting read but most of the interview pieces with band members are taken from past interviews or books that are already published. The text is simplistic and straightforward, yet captures the hopefulness and youthfulness that is quite unexpected. The illustrations are beautifully rendered and wonderful done filled with wit and whimsical line drawings and photography, which give a delightful and charming aura for the book.REACH FOR THE STARS is such a sweet story and was an absolute joy for me to experience with my children! I love the tenderness each precious moment of the story offers from the view of the caregiver. It evokes so many emotions as you go through the different experiences and shared discoveries, with hope and wisdom bestowed along the way. Fun bonus: There are several parts that made me grin wider and think "That is SO Emily!" The book attempts to chart the mainstream pop industry from the days of the Spice Girls through to The XFactor and it features lots of interviews from many of the main players within these bands and the music industry at the time. I particularly enjoyed the sections where the production of the music was discussed as this was new information that I hadn't seen elsewhere and it gave a great insight in to the production of the music and featured interviews with people such as the Xenomania team.

From Emmy-nominated science TV star and host of Netflix’s hit series Emily’s Wonder Lab Emily Calandrelli comes an inspirational message of love and positivity. Cases are regularly made for this or that period of pop history to be recognised as a “golden era”, and random chunks of the 1950s to the 1990s have been widely exalted. It is to Michael Cragg’s great credit that his new book, a thoroughgoing oral history, focuses on a period until now almost entirely shunned by critics: British millennial bubblegum. It is an utter triumph. There's so much that I didn't know about these bands. Being able to delve into the record label perspectives, the magazine/journalist perspectives, the TV perspectives etc was awesome, let alone discovering exactly how the songwriters came up with the music. Brian Higgins is the British mega-producer who, along with Miranda Cooper and the rest of his Kent-based pop factory Xenomania, was the brains behind some of the most celebrated, most innovative and frankly best pop tunes of the past two decades: Girls Aloud’s Biology, The Promise and the aforesaid Sound of the Underground; Sugababes’ Round Round and Hole in the Head; Rachel Stevens’ highly underrated album, Come and Get It – acommercial failure, but so good it landed on The Guardian ​ ’s list of 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die. Mark Beaumont If you see the indie versus pop thing as a bit of a battle, which to some degree it was, it woke the pop world up to the potential of what could be done with the internet. Over time, they certainly weaponised that.I'll teach you how to reach for things that are very hard to do. You may succeed, and that is great, but failing's common too."