Fictionalizing Pop Music

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Has anyone read any good novels about pop music? The Ground Beneath Her Feet? Those by Martin Millar and John Williams? A friend claims that pop is its own best fiction, that it makes up ludicrous and creative stories all of its own. There must be more to it than that?

― Lissa, Saturday, 11 January 2003 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

great jones street by don delillo is good as i remember but i think your friend makes a good point.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 11 January 2003 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, the people that used to be involved with pop music write the best fiction about it...

A few that spring to mind: Powder by Kevin Sampson. He used to manage The Farm, in places, it's TOO accurate, but, well, the characters are a bit 2-D. For the US Indie type, The Exes by Pagan Kennedy. Spot-on on the band stuff, astonishingly beautiful on the human angle. Louise Werner's Goodnight, Steve McQueen is alright for the popband stuff, but the relationship crap seems tacked on.

It's tough to write good fiction, because invariably, the "truth" is weirder and more wonderful and more out there than fiction could ever be. Rock bios make better novels than many novels.

Gah, I wish there were more of a market for the pop novel, then someone might give me some money for _The Deep Field_.

― kate, Saturday, 11 January 2003 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

It's hard to find nowadays, but Spider Kiss by Harlan Ellison is a pretty good Elvis/Jerry Lee takeoff.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 11 January 2003 22:06 (twenty-two years ago)

My eyes are hungry for the magpie prize is great (oh wait...)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 11 January 2003 22:08 (twenty-two years ago)

A few that spring to mind: Powder by Kevin Sampson. He used to manage The Farm, in places, it's TOO accurate, but, well, the characters are a bit 2-D.

I got a hundred pages through this and have sort of bailed on it. The writing's a little flat (telling instead of showing) and also, like you say, how could anyone write fiction that tops the reality? How much weirder and more sensationalistic can you get than Hammer of the Gods or Noone Here Gets Out Alive?

On the other hand, it seems useful in terms of how detailed it is about the business.

― Chris Dahlen (Chris Dahlen), Sunday, 12 January 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

that nik cohn thing that they turned into saturday night fever is really good but he passed it off as fact at first & it's not about a band or anything but def a pop fiction piece

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Sunday, 12 January 2003 03:31 (twenty-two years ago)

i remember liking espedair street by iain banks when i read it,but that was when i was about 15,dunno what i would think of it now...
the band in it is allegedly based on pink floyd...
i can't remember all that much about it,the main character was a reclusive rock star living in a castle,the band's heyday in the seventies was discussed,i can't even remember what the narrative was about though...

― robin (robin), Sunday, 12 January 2003 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

destroy Lewis Shiner's Say Goodbye; search his Glimpses. former's about a band-that-should've that, from Shiner's descriptions, shouldn't've (plus it's way too self-pitying-boomer); latter's about a stereo repairman who gains the ability to channel great lost unfinished albums (Smile, First Rays of the New Rising Sun, Celebration of the Lizard) directly onto tape from his un/subconscious.

― M Matos (M Matos), Sunday, 12 January 2003 07:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Hrmmmm. Maybe I liked Powder so much because I was reading it at the same time as the Blur 3650 or howevermany Days biog, and the two kinda blended together in my mind. Kevin Sampson isn't a very good *writer* which is the problem with that novel. Read The Exes, the writing is utterly *superb* and I can tell you, that is the closest you'll ever get to being in an indie band without having to carry a drumkit.

― kate, Sunday, 12 January 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

mmmm, Harlan Elison. . .

― That Girl (thatgirl), Sunday, 12 January 2003 10:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Very much rock instead of pop, but there is The Tale Of Willy's Rats by Mick Farren. Worst fictional depiction of pop may be in the old Marvel comic Dazzler. She did a disco Bob Dylan medley, you know.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 12 January 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I got Goodnight Steve McQueen by Louise Wener out of the library yesterday and read in about four hours. It's about a bunch of sleeperblokes and it's not very interesting. Or well written for that matter. Kate is OTM re the relationship stuff in it, but the band stuff really isn't much better. To Be Someone by Louise Voss was better, but it wasn't really about music - it was about relationships with the music thing tagged on. Didn't seem like it was trying so hard.

― ailsa (ailsa), Sunday, 12 January 2003 17:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Willy Russell's book about a guy obsessed with Morrissey is pretty good - need to check what it's called, though. "The Wrong Boy", that's right.

― Mark C (Mark C), Sunday, 12 January 2003 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked both Powder and The Exes but they were both pretty fluffy really. When Starsailor appeared I immediately thought of the band in Powder for some reason.

There's also Our Noise and Geniuses of Crack by Jeff Gomez. The first is an OK-ish novel with massive amounts of indie band references, the second is a shockingly bad sequel with minimal references (and obviously minimal research).

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 13 January 2003 00:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I've not read the Louise Wener novel - it seemed a bit humdrum and local when I was flicking through it. Do you think it's possible that the best rock/ pop fictions aren't actually about rock or pop itself? For example, Ballard's Crash and Burroughs's The Naked Lunch both seem to be pop novels (and not just because they've been cited by lots of musicians). Maybe it's something to do with their originality, extremism, their short (45rpm?) lengths, and the way they embrace the modern world (for good or for bad).

― Lissa, Monday, 13 January 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

three weeks pass...

Nik Cohn's "I am still the Greatest says Johnny Angelo" is fantastic. Said to be based on PJ Proby and a major influence on Bowie.

― Simeon (Simeon), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 12:03 (twenty-two years ago)

and then there's Jeff Noon's Needle in the groove. Not my cup of tea but entertaining enough.

― Simeon (Simeon), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I am still awesomely offput by Jeff Noon because of seeing some BBC2 special about him YEARS ago. When someone mentions 'Vurt' the bile almost literally rises in my throat. Gah. After all, the premise as advertised was good if wanky, but the execution...*shudder*

But anyway. I love 'Espedair Street' to bits - not quite Banks' most cuddly novel (that's 'The Crow Road', his Aga saga), but ever so sweet, and includes electrocutions and allsorts. I thought the fictitious band were more like Fleetwood Mac (intra-band shagging and suchlike) than Pink Floyd (public school prog-pixies). However, the Radio 4 adaptation a couple of years back was a bit rubbish, and had Monica Queen wailing like a banshee in it.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

uh delillo's grate jones streetah was pretty gewd but as far as i remembah very nihil-i-stick. and what about cooper's guide. not really fictionalized po(o)p but entertaining nonetheless.

― nathalie (nathalie), Wednesday, 5 February 2003 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

I just can't get over the revelations upthread that Louise Wener's first novel wasn't very good.

― the bellefox, Saturday, 26 November 2005 14:08 (nineteen years ago)

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