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

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Adele’s acceptance speech for best album (for 21) was cut off to fit in a live performance from Blur (whose frontman Damon Albarn would, years later, accuse her of being “insecure”). Adele flipped the bird to “the suits, not the fans”, and ITV apologised. If you're interested in pop history, I recommend this new book which explores in fascinating detail the dizzy, competitive and lost world of 'manufactured' nineties and noughties pop.' -- Neil Tennant, Pet Shop Boys

Reach for the Stars By Michael Cragg | Used | 9781788707244 Reach for the Stars By Michael Cragg | Used | 9781788707244

You won't find a more comprehensive and entertaining pop book than this.' -- Jordan Paramor, journalist and author The latest Ofcom figures show that broadcast viewing by 16- to 24-year-olds has dropped by two-thirds in the past 10 years. Additionally, the Brits’ viewing figures for all ages halved in the past decade, showing a bigger decline than the Baftas, and one worse than the overall all-ages viewing decline, said TV analyst Tom Harrington, of Enders Analysis. The BPI stressed the Brits’ engagement with young fans across social media and YouTube, citing 44m views across performances and highlights from the 2022 show on its official YouTube channel, in addition to viewing figures that gave ITVX its best single day of 2022 until Love Island started in June. Alongside Ian Winwood’s excellent ‘ Bodies’, ‘Reach for the Stars’ acts as a love letter to music and also as a cautionary tale of how the industry consumes, adapts and sets the agenda without any regard for the artists.The late nineties to early noughties was the golden era of TV talent shows making sudden pop stars of ordinary people, writes Natasha Wynarczyk. From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: Vivid moments in your life reduced to long forgotten anecdotes. Historical events reduced to kitsch. And things that you had considered appalling have now been reappraised as cultural milestones by people two decades younger than you.

Reach for the Stars: The perils of being a 90s pop star Reach for the Stars: The perils of being a 90s pop star

In the period covered by his book Reach for the Stars, Cragg said, pop stars wanted to win Brits “because it was a shot at recognition that they weren’t getting elsewhere. It was pop versus indie, and winning offered credibility.” But two decades later, pop is taken seriously by critics and every popstar can reach fans directly online. What is a Brit award worth in 2023? An outstanding music book. England's Dreaming for people with a working knowledge of 5ive.' -- Fergal Kinney Nobody buys books. No one's going to read this. No one's going to read these sorts of things. They just don't.' -- Louis Walsh There was a relentless onslaught from Leigh Francis, which I could never quite understand. The impact it had on me was I was trying to save face and be like the music is the thing. Using the oral-history format, Cragg goes beneath the surface of the bubblegum exterior, speaking to hundred's of the key players about the reality of their experiences. Compiled from interviews with popstars, songwriters, producers, choreographers, magazine editors, record-company executives, TV moguls and more, this is a complete behind-the-scenes history of the last great movement in British pop - a technicolour turning-point ripe for re-evaluation, documented here in astonishing, honest and eye-opening detail.An outstanding catalogue of oral testimonies from major and minor players in UK pop in the decade before the financial crash.' -- New Statesman Described in 7 Heaven as “a bit of thinker”, he was often the one who cared about the band’s perception. After the excellent, disco-tinged Don’t Stop Movin’ earned them a slither of credibility – helped by Cattermole, McIntosh and Jon Lee being arrested for smoking weed in central London, leading to copious “Spliff Club 7” headlines – it was Cattermole, realising the chance the band had to move beyond DayGlo kid-friendly pop, who pushed for the follow-up single to be equally as exciting. He didn’t get his way.

Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg - Signed Edition Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg - Signed Edition

Yet that earnestness runs the risk of missing the point, they said. “You want the Brits to effectively dance like no one’s watching, and worry less about getting it wrong than recapturing some of the fun and chaos that made it a must-watch in the 90s. But if you’re nostalgic for what it was, you’re also probably not who the music industry is worried about right now.” The Brit awards: the highs … The Brits’ truest form of relevance, said the publicist, may be that “when you see uncertainty around the Brits, you’re watching the anxieties around the music industry play out on stage: how do we break British acts on a global scale? What does diversity, equality and inclusion look like within a label, or in the nomination process? Are pop stars so ‘online’ that they’re scared of doing or saying anything interesting?” Music journalist Michael Cragg, who interviewed key players from 1996-2006 for his new book Reach for the Stars, said: “Nearly everyone I spoke to go misty-eyed.”I never wanted to be on TV. I was very naive to television. But I think it helped that I was naive. I had absolutely no doubt we were going to make it. We found out Simon Cowell was a big deal in the industry, drove up to London really early and jumped out on him singing Wannabe along to our tape. So funny and detailed and, most importantly, with such a clear love and understanding of the people in it. (Michael) strikes such an entertaining balance of fan worship and camp detached wit.' -- The Times