Review by Booklist Review
Princiotti, staff writer at The Ringer and host of the Every Single Album podcast, explores how major technological and social shifts in the 2000s shaped modern pop music, with female artists at the forefront. This compelling study is both a deep cultural analysis and a "love letter to those millennial middle school jams we're still scream-singing at wedding receptions." Princiotti highlights that the aughts remain the only decade in U.S. music history when women comprised over half of the 25 top-grossing artists. Yet while these women dominated, they were also confined by rigid industry expectations--ones they worked tirelessly to dismantle. Each chapter examines an artist's impact, weaving insightful analysis with vivid storytelling. In "How Taylor Swift Invented the Internet," Princiotti traces Swift's early MySpace strategy, illustrating how she pioneered the intimate, interactive fan-artist dynamic that defines modern pop. In "When Rihanna Met Reverb," she credits Rihanna as the essential catalyst for EDM's mainstream explosion, leveraging new digital tools like Auto-Tune and GarageBand to become the "beating heart thumping at the center of the dance floor." Princiotti's writing is celebratory and incisive, blending the enthusiasm of a superfan with the precision of a critic. A must-read for pop music lovers.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Every Single Album podcaster Princiotti throws it back to the early aughts in this nostalgic debut essay collection analyzing how the era's female musicians redefined what it meant to be a pop star. The opening chapter details how Britney Spears rose from Mickey Mouse Club cast member to adolescent superstar, precipitating a "surge in resources and enthusiasm for young, female pop singers." Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" marked the moment that indie music went mainstream, Princiotti contends, discussing how producers Max Martin and Dr. Luke wrote the song as a popified version of "Maps" by indie rockers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Exploring how other stars distinguished themselves with new technologies, Princiotti discusses how a teenage Taylor Swift changed how artists interact with their fans through her MySpace page, and how Rihanna harnessed the possibilities of digital recording software to move pop in a more dance-centric direction. Princiotti's voice is akin to gabbing with an erudite friend who doles out insight and humor with equal aplomb (she writes of Spears's idiosyncratic phonetics in "...Baby One More Time" that "it's as if she took a look at the lyric sheet and thought, I have better plans for these vowel sounds"). It's a boisterous celebration of how women moved pop forward in the early 21st century. Agent: Anthony Mattero, CAA. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
From Britney Spears and Beyonce to Taylor Swift and Rihanna, women commanded the pop music scene during the 2000s. Their singular hits and innovative personal styles led the way. Reporter and Every Single Album podcast host Princiotti analyzes these celebrated artists, identifying what set them apart from performers of previous decades as they blazed a trail for those who followed. She precisely delves into the essence of this pop music category, acknowledging its relationship to rock, hip-hop, and R&B while describing its expansion into new, unique pathways. Focusing on a representative group of star performers, both as individuals and artists, she looks at their distinctive contributions, including as role models for young women. Princiotti's knowledge is impressive, as is her ability to place it all within the context of the era--especially her analysis of the vast role that emerging technology and social media played in giving rise to this unique blend of pop music and celebrity as it reflected and impacted contemporary culture. VERDICT A thoughtful introduction sets the tone for this well-written, informative work. Readers interested in pop music and celebrity will be rewarded with keen insights into a pivotal decade in its development.--Carol J. Binkowski
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A journalist takes a new look at the pop stars of the early 2000s. Journalist and podcaster Princiotti isn't ashamed of her pop-music obsession, and thinks you shouldn't be, either. She traces her love of the genre back to 2003, when she was 9, and "Hilary Duff was the single most important person in the world to me outside my immediate family." The subject of Princiotti's book is the female pop stars of the early 21st century, who, she says, "expanded our understanding of what a pop star could be and forced the industry around them to take them seriously." First among equals in this cohort is Britney Spears, who introduced young fans to "independence, agency, and self--expression" and who was the subject of misogynistic sneers from the media and "girl-on--girl crime and slut--shaming" by some of her peers. Princiotti considers the rise and fall of other pop singers, including Avril Lavigne, who claimed to have "created punk for this day and age," and Ashlee Simpson, whose career was derailed by a disastrousSaturday Night Live performance. She also writes about the singers who maintained their star power, including Beyoncé, whose "Crazy in Love" launched her solo career, and, of course, Taylor Swift, who along with her fans and the internet "built modern fandom to be massive, persistent, and motivated." Princiotti's argument is that these stars never got the respect they deserved for "confronting old assumptions about genre, challenging the perception of celebrity and utilizing new technologies and the burgeoning internet to its fullest," and she argues it very well, drawing on cultural history and journalism to prove that the singers were sui generis and not just retreads of earlier entertainers. As she convincingly asserts, the musical era was richer and deeper than some give it credit for. A smart and funny look at pop music from a writer who's crazy in love with the genre. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
