Making the case for ‘anti-success stories’

Vivek Shraya discusses her autobiographical TV series, ‘How to Fail as a Pop Star’

Most music biopics follow the same format. A talented young singer from a small town follows their big dreams all the way to the big city. Then comes the record deal, the supersonic rise to fame, the drug problem, the relationship drama, then the final big reunion concert and, at last, redemption.

“How to Fail as a Pop Star,” however, is decidedly not your usual music biopic. As you might have guessed from the title, this new CBC Gem show — based on Vivek Shraya’s popular autobiographical play and book — doesn’t have the triumphant ending you might expect.

“It’s more ‘A Star Isn’t Born,’ ” Shraya joked.

The artist-musician-writer has taken on multihyphenate duty again; she wrote all the episodes, co-stars in the show and co-directed an episode, plus she’ll be dropping a soundtrack album as well.

She argued that the fact the hero doesn’t end up succeeding is exactly what makes the show special.

“It’s important in a culture obsessed with success and popularity to create room for anti-success stories,” she said.

“For every person who worked hard and knows all the right people and succeeded, there are hundreds of us that work hard and it doesn’t work out. The messaging that work ethic and talent are all you need to succeed is damaging.”

Billed as a coming-of-age story about a queer brown boy in Edmonton trying to achieve pop stardom, the story traces Shraya’s own frustrating yet entertaining attempts at pop stardom. It also gives a starring role to Edmonton, Shraya’s hometown.

“So many of the stories we hear and that get attention in Canada are quite Toronto-centric,” Shraya said.

When Shraya was growing up in Alberta, pop music inspired her, sustained her. Here, she shares the five pop albums that were her most influential.

“The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album”

“I grew up listening to my parents’ Bollywood music and religious music. When I heard Whitney’s voice for the first time, it was the first time I heard something in western music that felt … familiar. Something about the devotional quality in her voice, the notes she’s hitting, it felt similar to Indian music in a strange way. I credit that album and other monster power ballads that not only helped me find my voice in the context of pop music, but also ’90s R&B, which also had that devotional, sincere quality to it.”

“Janet,” Janet Jackson

“One of my first cassettes. What I loved about it is that it’s laid out like a story. What’s sad about Spotify is that the art of sequencing has been lost, that listening from track 1 to 10 and following the journey the artist has presented to you, with an interlude between each song, that really carries you from one song to another. ‘Janet’ was also very multigenre: there’s an opera singer, there’s house, there’s rock, it’s sexy and sultry. It offered a huge range of genres that you can’t really pin down and, as a multi-discipline singer, this was so influential for me. I don’t just want to be a pop singer, or rock singer, or electronic singer: I want to do all of it. And ‘Janet’ highlights that beauty of crossing genre.”

“Fumbling Towards Ecstasy,” Sarah McLachlan

“For me growing up, she was my favourite lyricist. Coming across this album and ‘Surfacing,’ it was around the time I was writing my own songs, and I was so inspired but also so uninspired as I was like, ‘I will never write lyrics like this!’ It’s like poetry. It’s a wonderful, wonderful album.”

“Monster,” R.E.M.

“The first time I came across R.E.M. it was 1994; I knew that they had been around but, for me, sometimes what influences you isn’t just the music. The narrative around (lead singer) Michael Stipe was very compelling. Around that time, they did a Rolling Stone article and it was the first time that he nodded to his sexuality being fluid. There I was in Edmonton, realizing, ‘Well, (there’s at least) me and Michael Stipe.’

There was also the video for ‘Tongue’; he sang the whole thing in falsetto and, in the video, he’s wearing eyeliner. There’s something about the album that I owe so much to in how emblematic it felt as a queer gesture, not just in the music, but in the larger story around that album.”

“Bedtime Stories,” Madonna

“My favourite Madonna album, and the most underrated in her discography … That album was the one that really stood out to me. After ‘Erotica’ had been considered such a flop, it created a space for Madonna to be the most experimental she has ever been on an album before. It really takes you on a journey and it’s a really beautiful winter album.”

ALL EPISODES OF “HOW TO FAIL AS A POPSTAR” DEBUT ON CBC GEM ON OCT. 13.