#cherion

Idol by day, crime-fighter by night (or something like that)

There’s a reason entertainment is called a medium: because little of it is either well done or rare.  Leader of a boy band formed to copy Amai Mask’s idol/hero combination, he’s one of only two who actually managed to pass the hero test. 

He has the unenviable distinction of being the only hero actually called ‘ugly’ by Amai Mask.  Ouch.

writer Max Martin

At what point did I promise to stay seventeen for the rest of my life?

Part of the UncoolTwo50 project, marking the best singles from 1977-99.

Over the years, the honour of Biggest Thing in Pop has changed hands a lot. From David Soul to Blondie to Spandau Ballet to Culture Club to Duran Duran, to Madonna and A-ha, to Kylie and Jason to New Kids on the Block. After a short interregnum known as the Bryan Adams error, to Take That, to Boyzone, to the Spice Girls. At the end of the UncoolTwo50 period, the Biggest Thing in Pop was Britney Spears.

Max Martin's precision songwriting, and his drilled approach to recording, make for meticulously crafted songs. Some call them cold and impersonal, and many of the post-Cherion imitators make music that is cold and impersonal and frankly rather dull (glares in Loreen's direction).

This didn't matter in late 1998, when "…Baby one more time" lit up America's Greatest Hits like a house on fire. (It's just over 15 minutes into the show). Britney sings with meaning, she's been through this herself - or she's a great actor. Pop vocals in the style of Mariah Carey just without the ornamentation, a beat with energy and zip, the song sounded like a surefire hit.

Only in the new year did we get to see the video.

Britney had pushed for it to be at a school, wearing uniforms "so that the change to our street clothes would be more exciting". Blimey, the gal can dance! Searing out of Live and Kicking, setting Videostir alight, "…Baby one more time" rocketed to number one, and did something remarkable - it stayed there for a second week, something no other chart-topper had managed in months.

Life has not been kind to Britney Spears. Always dogged by attention about her body - not helped by an infamous Rolling Stone cover with a Teletubby - Britney's personal life turned from bad to worse, including drunken marriages, stoned hairdressing, and a court-ordered "conservativeship" that kept her infantilised into middle age. We can only imagine what could have happened in the wasted years.

Britney had the songs, and the image, and the brand personality to remain Biggest Thing in Pop through '99 and '00. She set in train a whole host of imitators - Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, choreographer Mandy Moore. The Cherion sound went on to dominate for a few years, until it fell the way of all fashions.

Most influential song of the late 90s, worldwide? Almost certainly. Best song on that edition of America's Greatest Hits? Well, "You get what you give" came at 37 minutes, and "Doo-wop (that thing)" at 86 minutes so yes. (This may be a spoiler that I won't include Céline Dion and Andrea Bocelli's "The prayer" in my top six. Deal.)

Other songs Paul Gambaccini introduced me to on the 100-song shortlist: "Kiss me", Sixpence None the Richer at 52; "The boys of summer", Don Henley in the low 60s; "Crazy in the night (barking at aeroplanes", Kim Carnes somewhere in the 80s; "I will go with you", Donna Summer also in the 80s.