Pop Stars

Presents biographical and career profiles of music superstars, including Lady Gaga and Rihanna, which feature professional highlights, secrets to success, and questions and answers.

Pop stars have provided audiences with performative moments that have become ingrained in popular consciousness. They are a lens through which deeper understandings about race, gender, politics, history and the artistic process can be understood. When combined with the most affective of mediums – cinema, the combination can be both thrilling and alarming. From the relatively early days of cinema, figures from the world of popular music have made forays into acting and contributed cameo appearances. From Little Richard and Kylie Minogue to Nick Cave and Tom Waits, Pop Stars On Film: Popular Culture in a Global Market offers a collection of essays on some of the most influential international performances from a diverse range of cultural icons. The book considers industry shifts, access and diversity, but also the notion of cultural appropriation, audience appeal, marketing and demographics. Perhaps most importantly, the publication will look at what happens when cultures collide and coalesce.

Corrupted by Spandau. Slated by Boy George. Mothered by Sade. Evicted by Bananarama. Jilted by Madonna. Author, columnist and TV writer Paul Simper had a front-row seat at one of pop stardom’s most exciting shows: the 1980s. His memoir, Pop Stars in My Pantry, is an account of a wide-eyed, wet-behind-the-ears lad from Wiltshire landing in London just as the capital’s club scene went into orbit. As a pop writer and fellow clubber, he had unique access to the artists who would become the biggest pop acts of the decade. On any given day, he might be required to fly a reader to the other side of the world to hang out with Spandau Ballet, accompany Bananarama’s Keren and Wham!’s George Michael on a blind date, help Frankie Goes to Hollywood chuck furniture out of TV studio windows in Rome, watch Boy George styling and flirting with Paul Weller in fake furs, or walk off into the sunset with a newbie called Madonna. It is also the tale of his own attempts at pop stardom with the help of former ’Nana Miss Jacqueline O’Sullivan and an unexpected bonus career as a showbiz party DJ for the likes of Prince, Whitney, Elton and even Al Pacino. This is an endlessly entertaining, behind-the-scenes ride – the ultimate back-stage pass – for 1980s pop enthusiasts and lovers of Smash Hits ... from the man who saw it all.

Fame offers a broad examination of strong and influential personalities who are influencing culture. In this collected edition, read all about the pop leaders dominating the charts today, including Katy Perry, Big Time Rush, One Direction, and Cody Simpson.

FAME offers a broad examination of strong and influential personalities who are influencing culture. In this collected edition learn about the top pop stars of the decade. Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber & Britney Spears. This series has been featured from TIME magazine to TIGER BEAT.

After punk’s arrival in 1976, many art students in the northern English city of Leeds traded their paintbrushes for guitars and synthesizers. In bands ranging from Gang of Four, Soft Cell, and Delta 5 to the Mekons, Scritti Politti, and Fad Gadget, these artists-turned-musicians challenged the limits of what was deemed possible in rock and pop music. Taking avant-garde ideas to the record-buying public, they created Situationist antirock and art punk, penned deconstructed pop ditties about Jacques Derrida, and took the aesthetics of collage and shock to dark, brooding electro-dance music. In No Machos or Pop Stars Gavin Butt tells the fascinating story of the post-punk scene in Leeds, showing how England’s state-funded education policy brought together art students from different social classes to create a fertile ground for musical experimentation. Drawing on extensive interviews with band members, their associates, and teachers, Butt details the groups who wanted to dismantle both art world and music industry hierarchies by making it possible to dance to their art. Their stories reveal the subversive influence of art school in a regional music scene of lasting international significance.

Exploring Peru's lively music industry and the studio producers, radio, DJs, and program directors that drive it, this book is a fascinating account of the deliberate development of artistic taste.

"Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 1" chronicles the lives of musical soloists and band members whose songs hit the top of the music charts in the late 1950s and in the '60s. Through conversations with them, as well as producers, managers and family members, we share fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpses into the lives of these creative, talented people."Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? -- Volume 1" includes authenticated, authorized biographical chapters on seven musical groups and solo performers: the Association (whose songs include three gold records -- "Cherish," "Windy" and "Never My Love"); Herman's Hermits (whose extensive string of hits includes three gold records -- "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter," "I'm Henry VIII, I Am" and "There's a Kind of Hush"); the Kingston Trio (whose enormous popularity reflected in seven gold albums triggered the folk music craze of the early '60s, and whose hits included million-selling "Tom Dooley," along with "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Greenback Dollar"); Chris Montez (whose hit tunes included "Let's Dance," "Call Me" and "The More I See You"); the Spiral Starecase (who recorded "She's Ready," "No One For Me To Turn To" and the smash hit "More Today Than Yesterday"); Bobby Vee (whose 30 hit records included "Take Good Care of My Baby," "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" and the million-selling "Come Back When You Grow Up"); and the Zombies (whose hits included "She's Not There," "Tell Her No" and the gold record "Time of the Season").