Pop Perfection

Two of my pop music themed illustrations feature in the new Spindle magazine. The first accompanies ‘Pop Perfection’, a diatribe against manufactured pop music.

The stars of this piece are; Jedward in the middle / clockwise from the top, The X Factor judges, Peter Andre, Britney, Katy Perry, Ga Ga, Ashlee Simpson, H from Steps, Kerry Katona and Busted.

The article itself showers undiluted contempt on these talent-free floor scrapings although, as friends of mine will know, my attitude towards bubblegum pop can more fairly be described as a gentler form of ‘love/hate’. I like to think a little fondness comes through in my picture. Manufactured pop ain’t necessarily all bad. (Journalist Taylor Parkes, in an article for Jarvis Cockers blog -click here- makes this point more eloquently than I ever could.)

Here is an appropriate moment, perhaps, to shamefacedly confess that I always quite liked Busted.

My second illustration for Spindle, thematically linked of course, sits alongside an interview with current pop clothes-horses ‘The Wanted’.

As well as putting some screaming fans in the illustration, for balance I felt duty bound to add some more sarky details – like a recycling symbol, and an hourglass running out. However I recently heard on Radcliffe and Maconie that fans of The Wanted have been known to issue death threats to those who slag off their beloved idols... oops.