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

by Kim Cooper, David Smay (Editor)

The truth behind the pop music we love most.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Pop Culture, Reference

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2001

About the author

Kim Cooper is the creator of 1947project, the crime-a-day time travel blog that spawned Esotouric's popular crime bus tours, including Pasadena Confidential, the Real Black Dahlia and Weird West Adams. Her collaborative L.A. history blogs include  On Bunker Hill  and In SRO Land. With husband Richard Schave, Kim curates the Salons of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. When the third generation Angeleno isn't combing old newspapers for forgotten scandals, she is a passionate advocate for historic preservation of signage, vernacular architecture and writer's homes. Kim was for many years the editrix of  Scram,  a journal of unpopular culture. Her books include Fall in Love For Life, Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth, Lost in the Grooves and an oral history of the cult band Neutral Milk Hotel. Her debut literary map is The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles: A Guide to the Usual and Unusual, illustrated by Paul Rogers. The Kept Girl is her first novel.

Reviews

[Kurt Basham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm. I wanted to like this book more, but I just couldn't. I had a number of problems with the book, not least of which is that the authors had a pretty squishy idea of what should be counted as bubblegum music. The Archies? Definitely. Partridge Family? I'd buy that. But Duran Duran? Paul Rever & The Raiders? Tommy James and the Shondells? Nah, I don't see that.

The book is comprised of small pieces from over 40 contributing editors, and it shows. The writing style is wildly uneven, and because so many folks are covering a lot of overlapping material, it tends to be repetitive in places as well.

[W Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I refer to this book constantly - as there's so much information and fun stuff to read about. It also casts a wide net over the Bubblegum genre by taking in artists from all over the world. There's even a big article about Luv'! It really is fantastic, I just wish there was a full colour companion version with photos of all of the records.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was writing a story years back about a former bubblegum star who refused to hit the comeback trail. I couldn't have done it without this book. Besides teaching me everything I ever wanted to know about Tony DeFranco and the DeFranco Family (and then some), it's a fun book and doesn't condescend to the subject or the audience.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cast of contributors (from cartoonist Peter Bagge to the bizarre Partridge Family Temple to Greg Shaw) document the history of, and opine on, and celebrate the unknowns of bubblegum music. Pete Townsend once remarked, "some of the world's best music is bubblegum" and most of these contributors agree. Their overlapping and amorphous definitions of the genre cause the chronologically laid out volume to act as a history of pop music from the 60s to today with a focus on that music created with marketing in mind. Entertaining and enlightening, this lively tome sheds light on the names behind the manufactured sounds, the true stories of the real people leading or trapped in the movement, and institutions that fostered its growth. As educational as it is fun, this excellent collection of essays and interviews is a must for any music fan.

Audio for tmy interview with contributor Becky Ebenkamp is archived to #102 at https://archive.org/details/BrucePollockOnOutsightRadioHours.

[Kate Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears by Kim Cooper and David Smay was the most disappointing book I’ve read this year (so far). On the cover, it is advertised as revealing ‘The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears’, but sadly this book contains next to no information about any ‘dark history’. I was under the impression that Bubblegum music referred to the cheesy pop songs that were popular in the 90’s and early 2000’s, but no. Apparently, it is more focused on a genre of music from 1967-1972, then goes onto say that some of the 2000’s music could be classed as new age Bubblegum music which appeals to preteens. I was expecting to read about the dark side of the music business, how people are ticked into signing crazy contracts at a young age, creepy producers which hung around young kids dressing rooms, or how deranged parents force their children into the limelight to fulfil their own fantasies. But instead, I was left slowly struggling through a collection of essays and interviews from over 40 different ‘experts’ and music fans – and when I say struggling, I mean struggling. This book took me like, over two weeks to read and I was so tempted to give up. For a book which uses Britney Spear’s name on the cover, it only mentions her 20 times throughout the 300+ pages.
In the overview, Cooper tries to argue that Punk music originated as Bubblegum, and that the Spice Girls also fall into this genre - ?? – also she discusses how a lot of songs during this time used food connotations and descriptions to hide sexual innuendos. This food imagery apparently appealed to preteen listeners because “often, it is only at the dinner table that children are able to exert power over their parents. Bu pointedly not eating, or by gorging, and child can focus the attention of the gamily directly upon himself”. This is such a reach here, saying that kids like music with food-based lyrics because they want power over their parents, I just can’t.
A lot of the essays/interviews included were repetitive and frankly dull, but for a subject I have no interest in, this is unsurprising. I hadn’t heard of 99% of the bands and artists included, so this really wasn’t my subject interest. However, there was one interesting essay, The Partridge Family Temple: Religion is the Bubblegum of the Masses by Go-Go Giddle Partridge and the Risen Keith which discussed the followers of a Now Cult called the Partridge Family Temple which worship the 70 musical sitcom. This one was unexpected, and the madness was welcomed after so much discussion of bands unbeknown to me – I didn’t know who the Partridge Family were either, but the cult stuff was cool to read about. Peter Bagge’s Raiding Hannah’s Stash: An Appriciation of late ‘90s Bubblegum Music was easily the worst thing I’ve read all year. Some of his sentence choices were absolutely wild: “Alternative: Always white, usually male, always wearing throwaway t-shirts and pants, always WHINING WHINING WHINING about who knows what and WHO CARES?... Followed by the worst “genre” of all: Chick Singers” by ranking this man’s least favourite genres, his descriptions and reasons show that he is a very angry person. He said that a colleague of his went to see the Spice Girls and said that “‘they can’t sing, they can’t dance – and their fat!’ Six months later, all of these people each owned the complete line of Spice Girl dolls. I guess ‘fat’ was ‘in’ all of a sudden” like, why include this awful conversation, what is the obsessive need for people to comment on peoples bodies? This is without touching on the point that those women couldn’t have been skinnier. He tries to justify himself by saying that he likes “that the Spice Girls are ‘fat’… they’re built like women are NATURALLY built” and that he likes “that their personalities have been simplified and boiled down to five easy recognisable cartoon characters” – god. He tries and fails to argue that “girls are fascinated by the S. Girls sex appeal.” He then goes onto discussing Britney Spear’s sex appeal as a young teenager, stating that she had breast implants (not according to her autobiography, and I definitely believe her over this creep who was so interested in this young girls body, either him or the publisher decided to include an gross cartoon of Spears to emphasise his leering over her – the Spice Girls cartoon is similarly overly sexual and just weird. Why anyone thought it was a good idea to include this man’s absolutely misogynistic and perverted dribble is completely beyond me.
The one thing I can comment on liking is the books page layouts and designs. Titles and headlines are done in cool fonts, there are photos included frequently of adverts and album covers and fun contributions like ‘The Ten Commandments of Bubblegum’ which helped break up the monogamous text. But I seriously wouldn’t recommend anyone to waste their time or money reading this book – unless you want to read about some band named the Archies.

[Garrett Cash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best music books I've read. It takes a genre that is almost universally derided by critics and gives it the respect it deserves. I've always thought The Archies's "Sugar, Sugar" is one of the most brilliant songs of all time, and it turns out there's a lot more where that came from! I haven't learned as much from a music book in a long time, and it stayed entertaining too! The book is comprised of essays by different authors on an exhaustive variety of subjects surrounding the music. Artists, producers, interviews, merchandise/cereal records, international scene, influence on other genres, etc. It's everything a reasonable person could want on the subject, but it hooks you into its world so deeply that you end up wanting more by reading it! If you want to retain any hope of having an "alternative cred" cool card then I don't recommend reading this, because as soon as there's a lull in the discussion on Joy Division you'll end up saying "Who's heard The Archies's "Jingle Jangle" album? Jeff Barry sure did some incredible stuff...so did Kasenetz-Katz, and The Monkees are the bomb!"
*promptly gets kicked out onto the street*
"But guys! Joey Ramone loved all that stuff! And so did Lester Bangs!"
*door shuts*

[Eric Cecil · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have even a passing interest in bubblegum, read this. You'll learn something.

[Paul Mackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jermaine Jackson turns 70 today + my 19 favorite Jacksons songs

https://popculturelunchbox.substack.c...

Tito Jackson of the Jackson 5 passed away a couple of months ago at age 70, and today another Jackson—Jermaine—celebrates his 70th birthday, hopefully with many more ahead.

This reminded me that I used to spin his 1984 solo release Dynamite, which benefited greatly from his brother Michael’s godly popularity at that time. But listening today to “Tell Me I’m Not Dreamin’ (Too Good to Be True)” and the title track, I’m newly realizing that, rather than being submitted to the cutout bin of history, they’re not bad at all and have catchy Thriller-like hooks.

They also aren’t far from the original vibe of the Jackson 5, which had conquered the world a full 15 years earlier. It’s no wonder second singer and bassist Jermaine was still making music that holds up today—perhaps even a little too cutting edge at the time to be fully enjoyed—since his former band almost single handedly brought the Motown Sound “up to date for the 70s, spawning a host of imitators,” and created “an animal that had never previously existed: the black teen idol,” according to James Porter in a 2001 anthology I’m reading called Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears.

The Jackson 5 got so big that another group of brothers, the Osmonds, started creating solid bubblegum that had enough gusto to be played on black radio. A series of other young performers was heavily influenced by the bubblegum pop of the Jackson 5, and the book notes that “the initial rush of the J5 came to a halt sometime around 1975. The Jacksons themselves continued to refine their sound through the years, which is why you know Michael Jackson today and Chee Chee and Peppy have been lost in time.” Bubblegum bands influenced by the Jacksons, however, did capture a lot of my imagination as a kid. I absolutely loved and bought all the albums of Musical Youth and New Edition (c’mon, you know you can’t deny “Pass the Dutchie” and “Candy Girl”)—still albums I occasionally spin today.

I view there to be three distinct eras of this great musical family:

- the powerhouse Motown hit era of the Jackson 5

- the far more low-key post-Motown disco soul era of the Jacksons (which, incidentally, Jermaine Jackson had stepped fully away from to release a whopping 14 solo recordings, and don’t forget that 1982 appearance as himself in an episode of The Facts of Life. All that said, he did rejoin his brothers for albums Victory and 2300 Jackson Street), and then

- the solo career of Michael Jackson, which is far greater than just what’s on Off the Wall and Thriller.

I’ll save those other eras for some other time. For now, in honor of Jermaine (who, I repeat, wasn’t involved until the last two albums), here are my favorite 19 songs of the Jacksons, in order. I think it would make a pretty great playlist or greatest-hits collection:

Can You Feel It (Triumph, 1980)

Blame It on the Boogie (Destiny, 1978)

Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) (Destiny, 1978)

Torture (Victory, 1984)

State of Shock w/ Mick Jagger (Victory, 1984)

One More Chance (Victory, 1984)

Walk Right Now (Triumph, 1980)

Push Me Away (Destiny, 1978)

Give It Up (Triumph, 1980)

Wait (Victory, 1984)

Good Times (The Jacksons, 1976)

Body (Victory, 1984)

Enjoy Yourself (The Jacksons, 1976)

Be Not Always (Victory, 1984)

Time Waits for No One (Triumph, 1980)

That’s What You Get (For Being Polite) (Destiny, 1978)

2300 Jackson Street (2300 Jackson Street, 1989)

Music’s Takin’ Over (Goin’ Places, 1977)

Bless His Soul (Destiny, 1978)

My main gripe with this era is that many of the songs are too long and they are often a little bit of the same. Almost all of the albums start fairly strong, hinting at signs of what was to come for Michael, but tend to tail off, so the band, even though it released albums at a fairly regular clip, was far from prolific through this 1970s period. That said, I did enjoy revisiting these recordings before I go back to spinning my immaculate double vinyl of The Jackson 5ive Anthology on Motown.

[Kevin Hogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of this book falls somewhere in between good and great. It gives a pretty solid overview of the bubblegum scene from its beginning, although the format (a series of essays/reflections) leads to a lot of repetition and some notable omissions. There is some implied knowledge, such as frequent references to the Brill Building without actually discussing it directly--perhaps each author assumed someone else would be covering it?

I learned a lot about the history of bands like The Archies and The Monkees. I heard about a lot of bands for the first time. I found a lot of interesting facts about cartoons I grew up with (whether contemporary or many years after the original run ended). It gives a fairly concise summary at the end of how to track down the best compilations from many of the bands discussed, although this might be a bit obsolete in the days of music streaming.

I think the book may reach too far at times. While I get that the definition of bubblegum can be debated, some of the groups discussed just seem too far removed from the genre to warrant inclusion. Some, in fact, are directly stated not to be bubblegum acts or to have even released bubblegum songs, but they are included anyway. Some of that could be trimmed, as I don't think the book actually needs to be 300 oversized pages.

Two sections possibly bring this down to three stars. The first is the "Bubblegum Fantasies" section, which has a few fan fiction pieces in which authors let out their dark thoughts about several bubblegum acts. Perhaps this appeals to some people, but I didn't see the purpose of including it. The second section was one that I hoped would be interesting but turned out to be frustrating and offensive. Some pieces in the "It Won't Go Away!" section discuss 1990s acts but do so in a way that not only hasn't aged well, but really opens the reader's eyes to what was considered acceptable in the 1990s (note: the book was published in 2001, but some articles were written during the early Spice Girls/Britney Spears/Backstreet Boys/NSYNC years. One article features a grown man talking about young women's bodies, casually tossing around homophobic language, and stating that anyone who doesn't love the Spice Girls' second album should be "putting a bullet through your miserable f***ing head." The same article also features a cartoon drawing of Britney Spears with enormous breasts (labelled "Britney's New Boobies," in case it was too subtle). Another article in the section includes the following exchange between the author and her young siblings:

10-year-old: Can I say they're gay if they're gay?
Interviewer: You can say if they're gay.
...
Interviewer: What about...Hanson?
10-year-old and 11-year-old: Gay! Gay! Gay!!!
Interviewer: Does that mean that they're homosexual or that they suck?
10-year-old: Suck.

Not all of the articles in this section go so far overboard (and I hope and trust that the authors of these two pieces wouldn't stand by their writing today). The date of the book leads to some almost comically outdated statements and predictions (e.g. This new group All Saints might do well if they go on to release an album. Len is the newest incarnation of Nirvana...although the phrasing of that one is unclear, and it might be saying Len is the new Beatles.).

So, the books is quite good. The discussion of 1960s-1970s bubblegum is great. The discussion of 1990s bubblegum could be scrapped and rewritten from a more informed perspective. As it is now, I don't know that I recommend reading everything from start to finish. Fortunately, there is an index at the back that can help readers find the information about the specific bands they want. Despite some skippable pieces, it's a good contribution to music scholarship that could stand an update.

[Pug · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a mean book! :(

Of course, being a 90's girl, who lived through (and dove headfirst into) the heyday of two of the biggest boy bands in the world, and who is now an over-grown teeny-bopper who still loves the aforementioned boy bands of her youth, I snagged this book off the shelf with glee.

I don't mind a little joshing on boy bands... Yeah, I can appreciate the absurdity of the situation, and how silly they and their fans can be. But one would think that this author, who, having written a thick and detailed book on pop music, would at least have something insightful and redeeming to say. That was not the case. Really??? She had nothing positive to say about the upbeat songs, the talent of the guys, the harmonies, the dancing? (And most importantly, their good looks? LoL) Nope, she was rude and insulting. But what can you expect from someone who was touting the songs of the Spice Girls, Britney, etc.? Didn't understand it then, still can't understand it now. Sigh.

[Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fine compendia of essays about one of my favorite strands of pop music. The book gathers material from many authors covering artists, labels, recordings, song writers and more. There are pieces on related styles of music as well. As its' name suggests, Bubblegum is light hearted fare, and the pieces in this collection that most connected with me were those that reflected the spirit of the music. Recommended for music and pop culture enthusiasts.

[Htom_sirveaux · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Ravachol · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're really really REALLY keen on bubblegum music, you probably already have this thing resting on the altar in your bubblegum basilica. (You weirdo).

This book is congested with layers and layers of information, yet I feel like I've learned practically nothing. Probably because I skimmed over most of it. It's just way too in-depth on a genre, it turns out, I'm not actually all that interested in.

Yeah bubblegum music is super cool, and without it we wouldn't have Tommy James or The Archies, or the Ramones! But I already knew that and, ultimately, that's all I needed to know.

91% REDUNDANT.

[Stephanie Soltes · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS is the book to read about the history of bubblegum music,pop music,groups made from the studio using groups like the Wrecking Crew to record albums,but mostly singles. It was primarily driven by producers,and record labels to cash in on happy teen pop music. There are also many bands simply forming and making these one hit wonders and releasing them to the world. Information about the likes of The Monkees,The Archies,Josie & The Pussycats,Crazy Elephant,The Ohio Express,the Banana Splits,Tommy James & The Shondells,Bobby Sherman,Kasenetz & Katz,Edison Lighthouse and more!
Anything about appealing to pre-teens and teenagers! Wonderful!

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is sort of one of those books of articles that you can keep going back to when you're ready to learn more. It was just great to find a book that justified my love of bubblegum pop, and let me know that there are plenty of people out there who take it WAY more seriously than me! In addition, it's a great resource for learning about other bubblgum acts of the past. I highly recommend it for anyone who has ever been made to feel bad about loving The Partridge Family, the Archies, Sweet, the Bay City Rollers, Cleopatra, BSB, NSYNC, or Britney.

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

i was writing a paper on bubblegum, so i read this book and a few others. this was by far the most helpful, and you can tell kim et al are writing from a perspective that is mildly ironic but serious when it really counts. they appreciate the music while understanding what it was made for and this is key. not many people would want to read this book because most don't know what bubblegum really is. maybe they should? or maybe it should just be our dirty little secret.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of super happy pop music who are into collecting stuff from the Bubblegum era of music will really like this book. Talks about the Banana Splits and a lot of the late 60's early 70's one hit wonders of bubblegum pop. Shares some interesting stories about the songwriters and some pretty weird ones too.

[Readersaurus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just got this via ILL and can't wait to bite in! God, I loved the Banana Splits!

Later:

Written by several different people, this book is repetitive, schizophrenic, self-contradictory, and uneven in quality of writing. That said, quite a bit of it is fun! I am now reading just the chapters that catch my interest. Wish it came with a CD.

[Garry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dual Purpose. Serves as a reference book for an otherwise overlooked musical genre. On the other hand it provides a look at the blatantly commercial, sometimes deceptive and occasionally cynical aspects of POP music.

[BCPL Youth Services Librarian]

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