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What is pop? Since the 1950s it's been used in its abbreviated form to denote popular music. Before Bill Haley appeared on our shores, popular music was much more refined - and, of course, controlled by those nice people at the British Broadcasting Corporation. 'The organist entertains in a thirty-minute programme of today's most popular tunes.' Gradually things changed and before long in New York, London, Paris and Munich, everybody was talking about pop music.
"I'm not a pop snob whatsoever" - Elton John
Because it's short for popular music, what's to stop us including any kind of music in this book? Absolutely nothing. Often as not, 'pop' is used in a kind of dismissive way - oh, that's just pop; it's as though other musical genres are far more important. However, pop is the single most appreciated art form in the world today. Creating music is an art form, just as much as painting pictures, some of which may even be pop art, or sculpting or opera or classical music, or, for that matter, any kind of art. Arguably, more people appreciate pop music than all other art forms put together.
Pop and politics really don't mix. There was talk last year that the then Mayor of London, the man formerly known as Red Ken, was thinking of recording with the Cheeky Girls, one of whom was once engaged to Lib Dem Over MP, Lembit Opik. It's yet another strange tale in the strange business of politicians attempting to 'engage with younger voters'.
Pop is crammed with more than 600 pictures (many never previously published). Here you'll find bubblegum pop, Brit pop, pop-rock, jangly pop, sub pop, sunshine pop, straight pop, pink pop; and all other kinds of popular music. Rock, soul, R&B, blues, jazz, folk, rap and hip-hop are all included - because if it's music that's popular, it's pop!
Lez Zeppelin is an all-girl tribute band
Pop includes those that have brought us big hits, small hits and 'one-hit wonders. Pop celebrates the weird, whacky and wonderful world, the bad hairstyles, the pets, cars and fashion faux pas, the feeble attempts to get noticed and the pictures the performers would rather you not see. It's a nostalgic light-hearted and sometimes irreverent look at the pop business.
At seventeen, Victoria Adams attended Laine Theatre Arts School in Epsom and afterwards was briefly in a band named Persuasion. Oh how very different it all might have been...
Author, Richard Havers, spent twenty years in the airline industry before deciding to pursue his passion for music. He's made videos, in-flight radio shows for airlines, and has produced concerts for artists including Paul McCartney and The Beach Boys. His books include Bill Wyman's Blues Odyssey, Rolling with the Stones (co-written with Bill Wyman), Sinatra (an illustrated biography of Frank Sinatra) and Havers co-authored My Take, Gary Barlow's autobiography. He's written sleeve material for various record labels and appears regularly on TV and radio shows, usually talking about music.
The youngest female singer to ever have a British number 1 did so in 1961;
she was 14 years and 10 months, what was her name?
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Richard Havers in available for interview
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