Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney Spears
Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth: The Dark History of Prepubescent Pop, from the Banana Splits to Britney SpearsEdited by Kim Cooper and David Smay
Feral House, $20
This history/discography/rant exhaustively covers the dippiest pop songs ever written. Bubblegum encompasses any kind of music that ever seemed vaguely uncool, though a genre that includes the Jesus & Mary Chain and Rodney Allen Rippy is a broad one. These essays’ claims of bubblegum’s subversive streak are disingenuous, but it’s fun to read the fervently researched artist studies (you will probably never see another profile of Grass Roots/Jan & Dean songwriter Gary Zekley) and the amazing discography of cereal-box records.
—Douglas Wolk
