Pop Babylon tells the story of a boy band from creation to demise and along with that story gives the reader the low down on the music business, it gives the real low-down and dirty story! I enjoyed reading the book, but sadly not because it was a brilliant story or because it was brilliantly written but in the way we rubberneck at an accident on the motorway, you know you shouldn't but you have a look anyway. So with this book it was I know I really ought not to read it, let alone enjoy it, but I did.
This book is part of the Babylon series which includes Hotel, Fashion, Air and Beach and it fits firmly into the guilty pleasures scenario, one of those books that you really aren't sure you should even admit to having have read at all. (A bit like watching Hotel Babylon which I only ever did once when John Barrowman was in it, and even he struggeled to drag it into something remotely watchable). Whilst the book is very readable and keeps you turning the pages, there is really nothing in the story to surprise you. The book reads like a name dropping manual of pop music in 2008/2009, with Simon Cowell the butt of many a snide remark (not necessarily a bad thing).
The story tells of an indie music manager, who tires of not getting very far with the bands and artists he is working with and attempts to get into the lucrative if flimsy world of the boy band. The books takes us through the whole process from the auditions, to recording, to touring and finally to the inevitable break-up of the band. We are treated to much name dropping from names such as Simon Cowell and Sharon Osbourne to anecdotes which may or may not refer to the likes of Stevie Nicks and Don Henley. What we see when Edwards-Jones describes this world to us is a sordid, lieing and cheating world where microphones are turned off in the recording studio, crotches are padded out to appeal to the teenybopper and band members are recruited not for their singing talents but for their six-pack and all problems can be corrected via pro-tools.
It is difficult to think of anyone in this book who is a likable character, or where true talent is rewarded, it just doesn't happen. But the major success of this book is that it does keep you turning the page and wanting to know what does happen to the band. You are also all the time thinking, who could the whistle blower be, surely not Louis Walsh, or maybe some other boy-band manager. And you are always thinking I wonder if she mean Robbie! Just like the band it describes, enjoyable, slightly tacky and very transient, a summer holiday read.
Ciao
Sue
XX
Reading challenge 4/16 - currently reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Louis Carroll
Jamie's Reading challenge 2/12 - currently reading Bed and Breakfast Star by Jacqueline Wilson SLYMI - 1/52
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