Reach for the Stars: 1996 – 2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Party by Michael Cragg – Book review

As someone who grew up loving pop music, Reach for the Stars was an absolute treat to read. Although, as author, music journalist, Michael Cragg points out – this is not just a book for pop music lovers. The genre is often overlooked as a significant force within the industry and this book looks to address that.

Reach for the Stars records pop music’s most powerful era (1996-2006) through archive interviews by Michael Cragg and new interviews. He gets amazingly candid quotes from the biggest pop stars around – it is SUCH a fantastic, funny, secret-revealing, insightful read.

Opening sentence: I’m going to start with a confession.

So many gasp moments

I will start by saying I ended up texting my friend a running commentary of me reading Reach for the Stars as there were so many outrageous things I didn’t know and they had to be shared with a fellow pop-lover. It turned out he had already read this book so delighted in talking about it.

Michael Cragg’s commentary is really funny (many of my notes were simply a page number followed by lol). His observations and summaries were just 10/10, example calling Craig David’s 7 Days his ‘musical sex diary’, and this description of Steps: ‘If the Spice Girls seemed like a gang you might want to join, Steps were the Butlin’s Red Coats you initially wanted to avoid.‘

Pop is a cruel world

It’s so interesting that the shelf life of a pop band at their peak was only around four years – not long at all. Reading the interviews, you have to feel sorry for these kids who had talent (mainly) and ambition and would do anything asked of them – only for it to lead to burnout, or them being cast aside.

Reach for the Stars starts in 1996 as that was the year the legendary Spice Girls made their arrival. There were, of course, pop bands before them, but they truly heralded a new level for pop music. Then the book goes on to explain how the TV talent show format (Popstars then X-Factor) basically destroyed the pop world as everyone knew it.

They’re still such a part of popular culture. I don’t think any other band has been so globe-conquering but lasted for such a short period.

joe stone on the spice girls

While reading the Spice Girls chapters, I had to re-watch their iconic 1997 Brit Awards performance (at the time, I taped it and literally watched it on repeat for months) and the Wannabe video. Both still stand the test of time – both still iconic.

There was just SO much I loved about this book, my highlights include…

Pop facts I loved:

• Totally forgot Geri, Emma and Mel B from the Spice Girls announced a trio side-project, GEM which never saw the light of day;
• Blue directly witnessed 9/11 happening, which added context the controversial comments Lee Ryan became known for;
• Mutya Buena (founding Sugababes member) has songs with George Michael and Amy Winehouse on her solo album – she was highly regarded by others in the industry;
• The original format of the Popstars show is from New Zealand. Very interesting how the show changed the face of the pop music industry. The failure of winners Hear’Say but success of ‘losers’ Liberty X was also a brilliant parable for our time.
• Writers and producers Xenomania transformed the pop landscape – they made Girls Aloud the icons they became by pushing the boundaries of what was considered a pop song;
• Britney Spears first recorded Graffiti My Soul (with Xenomania) but didn’t release it. It is, of course, loved as a Girls Aloud banger;
• Christina Aguilera was sued over her song Make Over by the producers of Sugababe’s first hit Overload as it sounds so much like it – it really does!
• The garage scene chapter was really interesting as I hadn’t considered the crossover before between garage and pop. Also this quote from journalist Chantelle Fiddy: ‘The nail in the coffin for UK garage was Victoria Beckham and Dane Bowers’ ‘Out of My Mind”
• Jamelia is hilarious and should have her own book on insights in the industry based on her quotes here;
• Nadine from Girls Aloud has far more attitude than I ever realised – in a great way;
• Lastly, while they are mentioned in passing in the Sugababes section, it feels like there could have been more about All Saints in the book? Bet they had some good stories.

Amazing pop insight

From a fascinating look into how the UK record industry operates (a lot of middle-aged men called Simon had a lot of power over the UK pop scene…) to highlighting the homophobia and racism experienced by some, to the no-shits-given quotes from pop stars as they reflect on their time in their respective bands, Reach for the Stars is a fantastic read.

There is a handy index of all the people mentioned at the front to refer back to when reading and – even better! – there is an official Spotify playlist with every song mentioned in the book so as a song was referenced, I played it and truly fell back into the pop times of my youth. The nostalgia hit was amazing.

An absolute must-read (despite what Louis Walsh says).

• Get your copy of Reach for the Stars here;
• Published by Nine Eight Books March 2023;
• 528 pages;
• My rating: