Vanilla Pop: Sweet Sounds from Frankie Avalon to Abba

Lanza celebrates an oft-maligned musical genre-the ""honey-coated crooning, creamy choral harmonies, and rippling guitar"" of the likes of the Cowsills, Pat Boone, the Carpenters and ABBA-in this fond history. The author of Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak argues that dismissing such artists and their music as ""white-bread"" and ""vanilla"" belies their achievements and influence; it also, he suggests, ""reveals a tendency to fetishize 'blackness' as an antidote to romanticism."" And just because someone performed pretty, easy melodies didn't mean he or she led a pretty, easy life: of the gifted, troubled British producer Joe Meek, Lanza writes that he ""made every effort to document his terrified and torn existence in his music."" Though Lanza is careful to detail the lives of his various subjects, his account becomes most interesting when he reveals the technical accomplishments of the singers and (especially) the engineers who helped make their sound. Producer Michael Tretow, for example, altered tape speeds to make ABBA sound bigger, ""imbued...with sonic ventilation."" Lanza is a real connoisseur of this music, and his knowledge and enthusiasm sometimes lend him the air of a preacher seeking to convert the masses: vanilla, he says, ""has all along been the preeminent flavor."" Most readers will wish for a little more criticism here and there, but in general, this is a surprisingly flavorful journey through an often-ignored musical landscape. 25 b&w photos not seen by PW.