Overview

How do you make a song a global smash hit that is guaranteed to make $millions? Read The Song Machine, and find out How do you make a song into a global smash hit that is guaranteed to make millions? Read The Song Machine and find out! From Tin Pan Alley and Motown to Rihanna and Taylor Swift, manufactured music has existed since the record industry began. But who are the hit-manufacturers that can create a tune that is so catchy, so wildly addictive, that it sticks in the minds of millions of listeners? In The Song Machine, John Seabrook dissects the workings of this machine, travelling the world to reveal its hidden formulas, and interview its geniuses - 'the hitmakers' - at the centre of it all. Hilarious and jaw-droppingly shocking, this book will change how you think and feel about music, as well as how you listen to it. 'Revelatory, funny, and full of almost unbelievable details', Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation 'As addictive as its subject' Sunday Times

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9780099590453

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Reviews

Revealing, frightening, funny and unsettling - John Seabrook's account of the men and women who create the songs that poke at our ears all day really is terrific. -- Roddy Doyle This is a fascinating tale about an amazing phenomenon: how hits get made. John Seabrook combines a love of music and an appreciation for personalities to take us on a starry journey from Stockholm and London to New York and Orlando showing how creativity gets discovered, polished, and packaged. His book is a triumph of great writing and reporting, and the lessons reverberate far beyond the world of music. -- Walter Isaacson, author of 'The Innovators' and 'Steve Jobs' In The Song Machine, John Seabrook tells of a cutthroat and fascinating industry, where readers discover the gifted musical maestros who orchestrate hit after hit but rarely get their name in print. The narrative shows not just how technology has upended the music business but of how - despite prattle about the long tail - just one per cent of artists generate 80 per cent of the industry's profits. This is a story with as many surprises as Game of Thrones. -- Ken Auletta, author of 'Googled: The End of The World as We Know It' Beneath the surface of today's pop music lies an industrial process as rigorous and bizarre as the one perfected by McDonald's. Seabrook shows what it takes to make a hit in a book that's beautifully written, revelatory, funny, and full of almost unbelievable details. -- Eric Schlosser, author of 'Fast Food Nation' and 'Command and Control' Anyone who wants to understand how the clash of cultures has shaped what we listen to should read this important book. John Seabrook has a marvelous ear for language - and perfect pitch when it comes to music journalism. -- Bob Spitz, author of 'The Beatles: The Biography'

Revelatory, funny, and full of almost unbelievable details -- Eric Schlosser, author of 'Fast Food Nation' As addictive as its subject * Sunday Times * A gripping investigation of modern hitmaking... Seabrook's writing is as sleek and swift as a dolphin * New Statesman * This is a fascinating tale about an amazing phenomenon -- Walter Isaacson, author of 'Steve Jobs' Seabrook subtly explores not only the insides of a song, but how a song gets inside us * Observer * Revealing, frightening, funny and unsettling -- Roddy Doyle Seabrook's book takes the reader into a hidden world behind some of the most high-profile cultural products of the era * Guardian * A highly engaging narrative * Economist * Weaving its way through two-and-a-half decades, one of The Song Machine's greatest achievements is to situate the pop song within a shifting matrix of technological evolution, diminishing revenue streams, and warring egos * Independent * Seabrook takes us on a lucid and well-researched tour of the places where modern hits are created -- Peter Clark * Literary Review *

Author Information

John Seabrook has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1993. The author of several books including Nobrow, he has taught narrative non-fiction writing at Princeton University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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