Bubblegum: The History of Plastic Pop

As I wasn't born in the early days of pop music as we know it, my knowledge of music from the early days comes from reading things in books or on the internet, watching TV shows and of course actually listening to music from that era.

When I've been doing my singles chart reviews I like to have some bands/artists in mind to look for such as those in the rock and roll hall of fame. The downside to this example and indeed many internet resources is that a fair amount of the music which gets highlighted was big in America but virtually unknown in the UK.

For years I've had a book called Bubblegum: The History of Plastic Pop, but I've only recently got around to reading it.

It is written from a UK perspective and has a chapter per decade beginning with the 50s. It actually starts in a similar fashion to my chart analysis that in the beginning the charts were dominated by traditional pop music but then along came rock and roll and the teen idol was born.

Also in the book are short pieces about select musicians that were significant to the subject. However, not all of those musicians in the 50s chapter were mentioned in my singles charts reviews so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at these. Here are the artists:

Frankie Avalon - It is said in the book that he had 7 top 10 hits in the space of 2 years in the late 50s, but looking at everyhit.com he didn't have any top 10s. Looking at Wikipedia though, he did have 7 in the US charts. In the UK his biggest hit was "Venus" which reached number 16 in 1959 which was his follow up to "Gingerbread" which reached 30 in 1958. He then had two further hits in 1960 with "Why" reaching number 20 and "Don't Throw Away All Those Teardrops" reaching number 37.

Fabian - There's a good reason why he never got a mention, he never had any UK hits. Seemed to enjoy some chart success in his native America though.

Terry Dene -  A slight improvement on Frankie Avalon, he reached number 15 with "Start Movin" in 1957 which was his follow up to his debut "A White Sport Coat" which reached number 18 a month earlier. His only other hit was "Stairway of Love" which reached number 16 in 1958.

Vince Eager - Another one who never had any UK hits. Unlike Fabian though, he was English and had no chart success, but was presumably mentioned because he was quite famous because of his music performances on the TV at the time.

So none of them really troubled the charts too much. I've also since discovered that the author of the book was born in 1967 so isn't going off memory himself.

Some of the information in the book is factually inaccurate and it seems like virtually nobody well known in music is exempt from his plastic pop definition. However, it is quite interesting reading about the evolution of pop and the way different eras were marketed to be successful for a short period of time.

At the time of writing this, you can buy the book second hand on amazon for 1p plus P&P so you have nothing to lose by buying it, I'd say overall its worth a read.