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The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)

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Published:
W. W. Norton & Company 2015
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description

"An utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music." —Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic


There's a reason today's ubiquitous pop hits are so hard to ignore—they're designed that way. The Song Machine goes behind the scenes to offer an insider's look at the global hit factories manufacturing the songs that have everyone hooked. Full of vivid, unexpected characters—alongside industry heavy-hitters like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Max Martin, and Ester Dean—this fascinating journey into the strange world of pop music reveals how a new approach to crafting smash hits is transforming marketing, technology, and even listeners' brains. You'll never think about music the same way again.


A Wall Street Journal Best Business Book

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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
10/05/2015
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780393241938
ASIN:
B00TIZFO2W
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

John Seabrook. (2015). The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. W. W. Norton & Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

John Seabrook. 2015. The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. W. W. Norton & Company.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

John Seabrook, The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.

MLA Citation (style guide)

John Seabrook. The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Grouped Work ID:
202aa71d-a239-2244-aec1-6707d3b01992
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 18:28:47
Date Updated:
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Last Metadata Change:
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      • bioText: John Seabrook has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1993. The author of several books including Nobrow, he has taught narrative nonfiction writing at Princeton University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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title
The Song Machine
fullDescription

"An utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music." —Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic

There's a reason today's ubiquitous pop hits are so hard to ignore—they're designed that way. The Song Machine goes behind the scenes to offer an insider's look at the global hit factories manufacturing the songs that have everyone hooked. Full of vivid, unexpected characters—alongside industry heavy-hitters like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Max Martin, and Ester Dean—this fascinating journey into the strange world of pop music reveals how a new approach to crafting smash hits is transforming marketing, technology, and even listeners' brains. You'll never think about music the same way again.

A Wall Street Journal Best Business Book

reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: Isabella Biedenharn;Entertainment Weekly
      • content: Through immersive anecdotes and witty observations, Seabrook explores questions of ownership and taste, and about the music business as a whole, as we learn it's not just the 'song machine' that's brilliant but also the people churning the gears.
      • premium: False
      • source: Touré;New York Times Book Review
      • content: Well researched.... Seabrook...takes us inside the troubled modern music business.
      • premium: False
      • source: Christopher Carroll;Wall Street Journal
      • content: Fascinating.... lively, entertaining and often insightful, of interest both to pop mavens and to those who couldn't imagine caring about the latest hits.
      • premium: False
      • source: Charles R. Cross;Seattle Times
      • content: Fascinating.... Copy editors will rejoice at Seabrook's well-written and deeply researched book. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker and his book fits into that magazine's penchant for telling very detailed stories about things you might not notice about pop culture.
      • premium: False
      • source: Kate Tuttle;Boston Globe
      • content: A fascinating history, one that encompasses everything from the Brill Building and Phil Spector to Afrika Bambaataa to 'American Idol.' Running underneath the human stories like a bassline is the inexorable flow of technology.
      • premium: False
      • source: Louis Bayard;Washington Post
      • content: Invaluable.
      • premium: False
      • source: Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
      • content: A revelatory ear-opener.
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        August 10, 2015
        Traveling from Sweden and South Korea to Los Angeles and New York for interviews with a wide array of songwriters, producers, and artists, New Yorker writer Seabrook tunefully delivers a soulful refrain on the multilayered process of building hit songs today. He profiles Soo-Man Lee, founder of SM Entertainment and architect of K-pop, who created a manual detailing steps necessary to establish a winning artist: which chord progressions to use in songs, which camera angles for videos, and when to import foreign producers or choreographers. Denniz Pop’s vision of making the hits involves using a factory of Swedish songwriters who would create hits for British and American acts, combining the beat-driven music people danced to in clubs with the pop music people listened to on the radio. Seabrook also profiles Lou Pearlman, who engineered the Backstreet Boys and mismanaged their careers, and Britney Spears and Rhianna, examining the formulas for their pop successes. Seabrook almost giddily explores the ways that hit songs hook the listener when the “rhythm, sound, melody, and harmony converge to create a single ecstatic moment, felt more in the body than in the head.”

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        September 15, 2015

        New Yorker staff writer Seabrook (Nobrow) presents an engaging narrative of modern pop music, documenting the highs and lows of the industry, its artists, and how hits become hits. With a focus on the American charts, he delves into songwriting teams and the way they--rather than artists--have driven creative vision. These hitmakers include Cheiron, Stargate, and Dr. Luke, as well as Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin, whose impact on the last two decades of pop music is indisputable (with over 20 U.S. Billboard No. 1 songs to his name). Seabrook also documents the rise of specific artists, such as Rihanna and Katy Perry, in fantastic detail. The scandals are there, too, including Lou Pearlman's troubles with the Backstreet Boys (their contract named him as manager and sixth member), the conflict between Kelly Clarkson and Clive Davis over her songwriting, and Ke$ha and Dr. Luke's falling-out (she accused him of sexual assault). It's big business as well--Seabrook notes that "ninety percent of the revenues in the record business come from ten percent of the songs." He further examines the evolving nature of singles artists as songs replace albums in importance; the still-important place of radio in hit making; and the future with streaming music. VERDICT This clever, lively, and well-researched book is essential for pop fans. [See Prepub Alert, 5/4/15; also featured in "Editors' Fall Picks," LJ 9/1/15, p. 32]--Amanda Mastrull, Library Journal

        Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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shortDescription

"An utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music." —Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic

There's a reason today's ubiquitous pop hits are so hard to ignore—they're designed that way. The Song Machine goes behind the scenes to offer an insider's look at the global hit factories manufacturing the songs that have everyone hooked. Full of vivid, unexpected characters—alongside industry heavy-hitters like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Max Martin, and Ester Dean—this fascinating journey into the strange world of pop music reveals how a new approach to crafting smash hits is transforming marketing, technology, and even listeners' brains. You'll never think about music the same way again.

A Wall Street Journal Best Business Book

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