Book Description
A sweeping, anecdotal account of the great sounds and voices of radio–and how it became a bonding agent for a generation of American youth
When television became the next big thing in broadcast entertainment, everyone figured video would kill the radio star–and radio, period. But radio came roaring back with a whole new concept. The war was over, the baby boom was on, the country was in clover, and a bold new beat was giving the syrupy songs of yesteryear a run for their money. Add transistors, 45 rpm records, and a young man named Elvis to the mix, and the result was the perfect storm that rocked, rolled, and reinvented radio.
Visionary entrepreneurs like Todd Storz pioneered the Top 40 concept, which united a generation. But it took trendsetting “disc jockeys” like Alan Freed, Murray the K, Wolfman Jack, Cousin Brucie, and their fast-talking, too-cool-for-school counterparts across the land to turn time, temperature, and the same irresistible hit tunes played again and again into the ubiquitous sound track of the fifties and sixties. The Top 40 sound broke through racial barriers, galvanized coming-of-age kids (and scandalized their perplexed parents), and provided the insistent, inescapable backbeat for times that were a-changin’.
Along with rock-and-roll music came the attitude that would literally change the “voice” of radio forever, via the likes of raconteur Jean Shepherd, who captivated his loyal following of “Night People”; the inimitable Bob Fass, whose groundbreaking Radio Unnameable inaugurated the anything-goes free-form style that would come to define the alternative frontier of FM; and a small-time Top 40 deejay who would ultimately find national fame as a political talk-show host named Rush Limbaugh.
From Hunter Hancock, who pushed beyond the limits of 1950s racial segregation with rhythm and blues and hepcat patter, to Howard Stern, who blew through all the limits with a blue streak of outrageous on-air antics; from the heyday of summer songs that united carefree listeners to the latter days of political talk that divides contentious callers; from the haze of classic rock to the latest craze in hip-hop, Something in the Air chronicles the extraordinary evolution of the unique and timeless medium that captured our hearts and minds, shook up our souls, tuned in–and turned on–our consciousness, and went from being written off to rewriting the rules of pop culture.
Customer Reviews:
An Absorbing and Enlightening Page-Turner, with Few Errors.......2007-09-30
I had to read this book twice. The first time I started with the Jean Shepherd section, then skipped around. After I made it through all the pages, I didn't want the book to be over, so I read it from beginning to end. That is how absorbing Something in the Air is; Fisher has put together fascinating strings of anecdotes and facts, well-cemented with narrative and a bit of his own opinion, and given us the evolution of radio as experienced by listeners, station owners, management, deejays, and other air personalities, and he's shown us all the angles--legal, commercial, esthetic, and ethical.
The book won't please everyone, and anyone who reads it is going to say "What about ____?" and "Why didn't he tell the story of _____?" The answer to that is, of course, that everything wouldn't fit into the book. Having written quite a bit on radio history, I can tell you that Fisher's research and interviews probably left him with half again as much material as he put into the book. That's always the burden of the competent author: what do put in and what do I leave out?
As other reviewers have pointed out, there are a few errors here and there. I won't dwell on those; the book is so valuable that they are of little consequence. It would be nice if the author posted an errata sheet at his blog, though.
And I have to say that the story of the WOR I, Libertine hoax that Jean Shepherd and Ian Ballantine perpetrated, aided and abetted by Theodore Sturgeon's ghost-writing, is worth the price of the book on its own. And there are other anecdotes that equal that one.
Fisher might have overdone some of the topics, falling at the feet of radio "gods," for instance. But I was pleased to see that he didn't harp on Don Imus or Howard Stern to please readers, nor did he haul out other celebrities the way some overly self-conscious writers feel obligated to do when writing about the famous.
Did I mention how good the writing is? Good enough to keep you turning the pages. Fisher is a good stylist. He also has a journeyman technique, as illustrated by the fascinating build-up to Rush Limbaugh's triumph. Among other things.
There's nothing more to say, other than this book does for radio what Michael Korda's Another Life did for book publishing.
--Mike
Absolutely riveting.......2007-08-27
This is less a review and more an enthusiastic recommendation. As a Brit, many of the presenters' names in this book (apart from, say, Stern and Limbaugh) meant little to me but I still found this book absolutely unputdownable. This is testament to a) my radio "geekiness" and - more importantly - b) Marc Fisher's skills as a writer, historian and storyteller. A fascinating history of radio in the US with many a good story tucked away in the endnotes. Highly recommended.
what an amazing book.......2007-07-24
Everyone should read this compelling book by Marc Fisher. It brilliantly uses radio to tell the story of Americans in the last several decades. Funny, powerful, commanding, and lyrical, Fisher is a beautiful storyteller.
This one's for the radio geeks.......2007-07-08
For anyone who's interested in the history & future of radio,look no further-Marc Fisher has written the ultimate history of the medium-Definitely worth your time & money.
All Hail Rock 'n Roll!.......2007-06-20
Simply stated, "Something in the Air" is the best book on Radio I've ever read. Congratulations to Marc Fisher on a wonderful skip through time without a single trip. Excelsior!"
Peter Cavanaugh
wildwednesday.com
Average customer rating:
- An intriguing read on iPod and its impact
- Insightful and Absorbing Read on iPods, Apple, Innovation and Marketing
- Cool Device: search wheel, no on switch, the LCD, video, iPhones, fireware, g4, and iTune
- Levy Nails It!
- Far From Perfect (But Still Pretty Good)
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The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness
Steven Levy
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ASIN: 0743285220 |
Book Description
On October 23, 2001, Apple Computer, a company known for its chic, cutting-edge technology -- if not necessarily for its dominant market share -- launched a product with an enticing promise: You can carry an entire music collection in your pocket. It was called the iPod. What happened next exceeded the company's wildest dreams. Over 50 million people have inserted the device's distinctive white buds into their ears, and the iPod has become a global obsession. The Perfect Thing is the definitive account, from design and marketing to startling impact, of Apple's iPod, the signature device of our young century.
Besides being one of the most successful consumer products in decades, the iPod has changed our behavior and even our society. It has transformed Apple from a computer company into a consumer electronics giant. It has remolded the music business, altering not only the means of distribution but even the ways in which people enjoy and think about music. Its ubiquity and its universally acknowledged coolness have made it a symbol for the digital age itself, with commentators remarking on "the iPod generation." Now the iPod is beginning to transform the broadcast industry, too, as podcasting becomes a way to access radio and television programming. Meanwhile millions of Podheads obsess about their gizmo, reveling in the personal soundtrack it offers them, basking in the social cachet it lends them, even wondering whether the device itself has its own musical preferences.
Steven Levy, the chief technology correspondent for Newsweek magazine and a longtime Apple watcher, is the ideal writer to tell the iPod's tale. He has had access to all the key players in the iPod story, including Steve Jobs, Apple's charismatic cofounder and CEO, whom Levy has known for over twenty years. Detailing for the first time the complete story of the creation of the iPod, Levy explains why Apple succeeded brilliantly with its version of the MP3 player when other companies didn't get it right, and how Jobs was able to convince the bosses at the big record labels to license their music for Apple's groundbreaking iTunes Store. (We even learn why the iPod is white.) Besides his inside view of Apple, Levy draws on his experiences covering Napster and attending Supreme Court arguments on copyright (as well as his own travels on the iPod's click wheel) to address all of the fascinating issues -- technical, legal, social, and musical -- that the iPod raises.
Borrowing one of the definitive qualities of the iPod itself, The Perfect Thing shuffles the book format. Each chapter of this book was written to stand on its own, a deeply researched, wittily observed take on a different aspect of the iPod. The sequence of the chapters in the book has been shuffled in different copies, with only the opening and concluding sections excepted. "Shuffle" is a hallmark of the digital age -- and The Perfect Thing, via sharp, insightful reporting, is the perfect guide to the deceptively diminutive gadget embodying our era.
Customer Reviews:
An intriguing read on iPod and its impact .......2007-06-27
Why do people ask for an iPod when they want an MP3 player? Other players hold as many or more songs, and play them just as well. Owning an iPod is more about music than about keeping up with the latest trends. That is why the iPod still holds the top spot in MP3 player sales. Author Steven Levy explores how the iPod came to be and how it earned its status as a cultural icon. Even the book's iPod-looking cover could evoke emotion from an iPod fan. We recommend this book to iPod lovers who will relish its story. Businesspeople, trend spotters and marketers also will gain insight into the way Apple made millions from selling music, machines and coolness.
Insightful and Absorbing Read on iPods, Apple, Innovation and Marketing.......2007-05-31
The iPod has that certain something that leads its users to adore it like nothing before. People want nothing but an iPod. No substitutes even when the non-iPod has more memory, comes in your favorite color and costs over $100 less than an iPod. So how did the iPod earn this special treatment and the ability to compel people to say, "Cool" when they hold one?
A book cover in the disguise of an iPod, albeit on paper, still manages to ooze coolness though it isn't the real thing. Scroll your finger over the cover's button and scroll wheel and you can feel the smooth button extend slightly above the scroll wheel. Apple has established itself as a company that goes all out when creating a product, but there's much more to the iPod story than people realize. The Perfect Thing explores many aspects of the story.
While reading The Perfect Thing, I couldn't help but order an iPod Nano straight from Apple's Web site complete with my name engraved on its beautiful red skin -- as a replacement for my stolen iPod video. I also bought a cover to protect the iPod as I don't like it when my gadgets get marks on them. But then I reached the part where Steve Jobs took offense to seeing Levy's iPod covered up. Because of that, the beautiful red color and the way the aluminum felt -- I took off the cover for good.
The chapters, like iPod's shuffle feature, are independent and don't go in a specific order except the first chapter. I don't know if that's true, as I haven't seen another hard copy of the book.
"Perfect," goes behind the scenes of iPod's launch in October 2001, not the greatest timing after 9/11. "Download" covers the revolution of downloading and digitizing music including codec, MP3s, WinAmp, Napster and the record companies suing. "What makes an item cool?" sets the tone for the chapter titled, "Cool." Can there be a formula for coolness? This chapter teaches great marketing lessons from Apple's design, packaging and advertising of the iPod.
"Origin" returns to the iPod's roots on its development and the things that came before iPod that affected the iPod's creation. There's a reason we use the word podcast instead of audiocasts when referring to audio feeds. "Podcast" visits the formation of citizen broadcasting from CB radio to podcasting.
People judge each other by the clothing they wear, they do the same by the playlists they carry in their iPods as "Identity" delves into the fashion statement of playlists. No one expected Apple to make a comeback, not even when Steve Jobs returned in 2000, and "Apple" touches upon the comeback and how Apple surpassed the market's expectations. The iPod attracts thieves and the earbuds send a message to the public "to leave me alone" as the "Personal" chapter looks back at the Sony Walkman, the white earbuds, hearing loss and how users personalize their iPods.
The shuffle feature scrambles music hence the name for the cheapest and smallest iPod Shuffle. The feature is simple, yet the chapter on "Shuffle" offers fascinating insight into the possibility of a conspiracy behind the shuffle formula. Some people swear that some songs, artists and whatnot get more attention than others do. But everyone at Apple, including the engineers, says shuffle works randomly. Intriguing stuff anyway.
Marketers, iPod lovers, Apple lovers, Mac lovers, business people, technology people, gadget people. The book will appeal to all of them. After all, Levy writes, "The iPod is a pebble with tsunami-sized cultural ripples."
Cool Device: search wheel, no on switch, the LCD, video, iPhones, fireware, g4, and iTune.......2007-03-08
1. iPod will encourage the creation of virtual bookselves: music, movies, and books.
2. When Apple leaders began working on the iPod they saw the project as an enhancement of the Macintosh computer. Apples G4 cube significant reduced the bulky space requirements for desktop computers.
3. iPod changed Apple from a computer company to a consumer electronics company in four years and represented 60 percent of the income from the music related business.
4. Type "iPod" in google and you'll get a half a billion hits
5. By the end of 2005, Apple had sold 42 million iPods from $99 to $599 and had capture 75% market share; iTunes sold more than a billion songs at 99 cents, representing 85 percent of all legal downloads. Apple's stock had increased 700 percent.
6. When people encounter a machine that is easy and fun to use, they like it. The cool factor. IPod is cool.
7. iPod's success is the result of an uncanny alignment of technology, design, culture, and media thrust in the center of the digital age. Ipod makes a dull day come alive.
8. iPod initial capacity astounded consumer providing a 1,000 songs in the pocket.
9. Steve Jobs initial reaction to iPod was, "I haven't picked up any MP3 player that has made me go, `Wow, okay, I want to carry this everywhere I go. OK'. Everyone is going to want to have one of these."
10. Apple dispatched a pair of couier too hand delivered the iPod to a few select technical writers. On launch day the Apple couriers reached Newsweek.
11. Jobs relied on Firewire transfer speeds to make iPod feasible. There were seven and half million Mac users with firewire. Jobs said, "iPod will be a landmark product." Five to six minutes to rip a CD into iTunes and a few seconds to load to load an albums worth of songs into the iPod.
12. Playlist represent the character of the listener. We seem to be immersed in an age of musical voyeurism and musical exhibitionism.
13. Status comes from cool music libraries. "Such libraries distinguish one as a thinking person, a discerning individualist, a lover of fun, a blender of high and low culture, and a bird dog in unearthing undiscovered gems."
14. Learning through accumulation: "The ability to easily compile one's favorite songs in one place may make it easier to accumulate a collection of dazzling obscurities but also increase the capability of those libraries that are less than stellar."
15. At iPod's download headquarters, you can find more than a hundred celebrity playlists.
16. Reformulation: iPod circular scroll wheel search interface allowed searching of large lists, fast. It made the complicated digital music collection, easy.
17. iTunes software from Macintosh was built into iPod. IPod would sync effortlessly with a music library. "It was a recipe for something, well, perfect."
18. Cool is a term that is strong linked to iPod. Levy tells Bill Gates Tablet PC, Microsoft pen-based laptop, in spite of the technical virtuosity of many brilliant people was not cool. Gates replied, "It sounds to me like you're saying volume equals cool." Levy replied, "Profits are not necessarily tied to coolness". Gates challenged Levy to come up with an example of something cool that didn't sell well. Gates said, "In a sense, to be cool, you've got to have high market share. High market share is something that comes after hard work and making the hard decisions." Levy previously had showed Gates the iPod and Gates at the time thought the iPod would sale, but Gates tells Levy, "I knew the music player devices would sell well. And I knew as soon as they got this high volume, you would declare it cool. As night follows day."
19. iPod gives you a feeling your in the tribe.
Levy Nails It!.......2007-01-25
I didn't hold out much hope for Levy's latest effort, "The Perfect Thing". I had found his last Apple-based effort, "Insanely Great", to be decidedly less than, and strongly suspected this would be nothing more than a shallow Apple PR effort. How very wrong I was - forgive me Steven.
In what I think is his most effective, tightly written book to date, Levy combines a strongly personal narrative with great bits about the history of music media. Along the way he offers up a pretty darned comprehensive view of the various facets of the wide and complex subject of digital music - while at the same time painting a vivid, yet objective portrait of the iPod. I actually had to restrain myself from popping over to the nearest Best Buy and shelling out money I don't have to spend on one.
His gimmicky-sounding "shuffle" of the chapters (there are several editions of the book with the chapters in differing order, in a nod to the iPod's shuffle feature) did not become a distraction or a turn-off like I'd feared - although, I can't say it added much. I was struck, however, by how smoothly the book flowed despite the shuffle - which simply emphasized to me how well written the various essay-style chapters were.
I'll freely admit that I'm a big (BIG) Levy fan - but please don't let that fact turn you off. I simply can't find a weak spot in the whole package - and I'm typically pretty hard to please. This is really a remarkable book, that I strongly recommend.
Far From Perfect (But Still Pretty Good).......2007-01-17
People looked at me in a strange way when I told them I was reading a 300-page book about the iPod. "No, seriously. It's a whole book about the iPod!" Steven Levy, author of The Perfect Thing is senior editor and chief technology correspondent for Newsweek magazine and the author of five previous books. Levy is a technophile and over the course of his career has seen many products, many technologies, come and go. But I doubt any new product has aroused his interest like the iPod. Levy is absolutely in love with the iPod and with Steve Jobs, the man responsible for overseeing its creation. This book often reads like a hagiography of the man and his little technological marvel.
Interestingly, the book is "shuffled" so that different copies of the book will have the chapters in different order. While this is a neat idea, and a unique one that fits well with one of the iPod's most popular features, it means that there is no flow from chapter-to-chapter and also that there is some repetition. I can only imagine the logistical nightmare this represented for those who had to edit and proof the book!
In some ways it seems silly to write a biography of the iPod since it is, after all, only five years old (having released on October 23, 2001). It seems akin to writing a biography of an actress like Dakota Fanning. Sure she's a fantastic little actress, is highly sought after in Hollywood, and has already made her mark in Tinseltown (and we loved her in Charlotte's Web), but the fact remains that she is only twelve and her career is only beginning. Surely it would be too easy to write her biography. And surely it is too early to write seriously about the iPod. Then again, the iPod is not going anywhere soon and seems to be gaining both acceptance and prominence so perhaps a book is in order.
Despite displaying more than a little bias (how is this for hyperbole?: "The iPod nano was so beautiful that it seemed to have dropped down from some vastly advanced alien civilization. It had the breathtaking compactness of a lustrous Oriental artifact. It wasn't really much bigger than a large mint left on your pillow at a fine hotel.") this is an interesting and even an important book. The iPod is a significant device that has been accepted and embraced by countless millions of people. It may well come to define a whole generation. And if not that, it will surely speak volumes about a generation. It also represents a technology that Christians would do well to consider. After all, when we listen to our iPods we tend to tune out the world around us. In some ways I think the iPod is representative of the self-centered, individualistic culture we live in. By parking the little white buds in our ears, we can enter a little world all our own. We can turn off and tune in. We can listen to what we want to hear while ignoring everything around us. We can easily allow this good invention to become destructive to our relationships and even to our faith.
I was disappointed that the author spent the vast majority of the book looking at the past and the present with very little time dedicated to looking to the future and attempting to understand what the iPod's long term effects will be. Maybe a philosopher or historian or sociologist would be more qualified to attempt to predict how the iPod will be remembered ten or a hundred years from now. Is it a piece of technology that will be lost to history or will it be remembered as groundbreaking and as a product that changed the world? In the absence of such analysis, the most interesting chapters are those dealing with the history and development of the iPod. Ones dealing with identity, coolness and the personal nature of the iPod are also well worth reading.
One awfully tedious chapter deals with the "shuffle" feature and whether or not it is truly random (the answer being yes and no - no because computers cannot be truly random because they need to have some kind of a starting point, but yes because the songs are chosen as randomly as is possible). Levy decides, and this is true, I'm sure, that the human mind just doesn't cope well with randomness. Thus when our iPods seem to favor a particular song or artist, it is really just our minds playing tricks on us (which, of course, rings hollow when we hear a song for the third or fourth time in a day!).
Despite a few less-than-stellar chapters which seemed to be little more than filler, this was a valuable read as I sought to understand the iPod generation. The Perfect Thing is far from a perfect book (you probably saw that line coming!). Still, it is interesting enough for the most part and raises some interesting questions and concerns. At the very least it helped me understand the incredible, growing phenomenon that is the iPod.
Book Description
Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train, widely acclaimed as the best book ever written about America as seen through its music, began work on this new book out of a fascination with the Sex Pistols: that scandalous antimusical group, invented in London in 1975 and dead within two years, which sparked the emergence of the culture called punk. "I am an antichrist!" shouted singer Johnny Rotten--where in the world of pop music did that come from? Looking for an answer, with a high sense of the drama of the journey, Marcus takes us down the dark paths of counterhistory, a route of blasphemy, adventure, and surprise.
This is no mere search for cultural antecedents. Instead, what Marcus so brilliantly shows is that various kinds of angry, absolute demands--demands on society, art, and all the governing structures of everyday life--seem to be coded in phrases, images, and actions passed on invisibly, but inevitably, by people quite unaware of each other. Marcus lets us hear strange yet familiar voices: of such heretics as the Brethren of the Free Spirit in medieval Europe and the Ranters in seventeenth-century England; the dadaists in Zurich in 1916 and Berlin in 1918, wearing death masks, chanting glossolalia; one Michel Mourre, who in 1950 took over Easter Mass at Notre-Dame to proclaim the death of God; the Lettrist International and the Situationist International, small groups of Paris--based artists and writers surrounding Guy Debord, who produced blank-screen films, prophetic graffiti, and perhaps the most provocative social criticism of the 1950s and '60s; the rioting students and workers of May '68, scrawling cryptic slogans on city walls and bringing France to a halt; the Sex Pistols in London, recording the savage "Anarchy in the U.K." and "God Save the Queen."
Although the Sex Pistols shape the beginning and the end of the story, Lipstick Traces is not a book about music; it is about a common voice, discovered and transmitted in many forms. Working from scores of previously unexamined and untranslated essays, manifestos, and filmscripts, from old photographs, dada sound poetry, punk songs, collages, and classic texts from Marx to Henri Lefebvre, Marcus takes us deep behind the acknowledged events of our era, into a hidden tradition of moments that would seem imaginary except for the fact that they are real: a tradition of shared utopias, solitary refusals, impossible demands, and unexplained disappearances. Written with grace and force, humor and an insistent sense of tragedy and danger, Lipstick Traces tells a story as disruptive and compelling as the century itself.
Customer Reviews:
a primer for the uninitiated.......2006-05-30
a close, "academic" reading of L.T. would render great many imperfections-factitious or otherwise. However, this is a freely associative account offered as post-structural fodder. When written in ('90) there was little stateside interest in situationism/lettrism/fluxus et. and scholars of the a.garde (i can only think of a handful) were slow to consider art/lit. movements beyond the hegelian arc. yes I had read "society of the spectacle" , knew of the lettrists work, dada, lautremont bla bla-all very predictable stuff for those in the "avant know"-but what I found alluring about L.T. was its anti-academic, messy essence- a welcome shift from hackneyed scholasticism.
A Catalog of Style Leaps........2006-02-11
I agree that this book is a page turner. A great balance of text and contexts. If you are intrigued by it's subject matter (Pistols/Dada/etc..) you'll have a hard time putting it down.
Reeling, heady, and fun.......2005-11-21
Don't start this one looking for a textbook - or anything bland, well-researched, and scholarly. The writing style fits well with the Punk idea - Marcus is clearly quite intelligent and well-read, but you can't possibly forget that he's a journalist at heart. The book is sensationalist at times, but that's allowed - I don't think he means for it to be read like a research paper. It's really long and free-associative, so it can be exhausting to read, but if you have the time and the interest it will certainly expand your view of the past century, and maybe change your ideas about the world in general just a little bit.
What do dada, the Orioles, and the Sex Pistols have in common?.......2005-09-13
Very little. But a sometimes interesting stroll through Greil Marcus's random brain farts.
"It's just a bunch of stuff that happened."
-- Homer Simpson
Brilliant, engaging take on a much-covered subject.......2005-07-09
Ludicrously dismissed by punks and academics alike (revealing something that links them: a profound lack of imagination), Lipstick Traces is the most audacious and brilliant book ever written about popular music, one that barely mentions its purported subject (punk rock). In his absurd attack on Marcus, Richard Meltzer quotes some critic's dismissal of LT as a failed version of his (Meltzer's) own The Aesthetics of Rock; in truth, that book itself is more like a failed version of itself, in which brilliant ideas are let down by virtually unreadable prose. What Marcus does is easy to miss at first, but it becomes obvious over the course of the book: he's not just trying to show us the Guy Debord in Johnny Rotten, but the Johnny Rotten in Guy Debord. And so a book devoted almost entirely to obscure artists, barely given a footnote in any "real" history of art or rock or whatever (the Pistols and the Clash aside, none of the punk bands Marcus admires - the Buzzcocks, the Slits, X-Ray Spex, Essential Logic, the Adverts, even Public Image Ltd. - will ever get much time on VH1) becomes unbelievably exciting and visceral.
Marcus doesn't bother writing much about the Sex Pistols themselves, though his descriptions of their records are almost more amazing than the records themselves. The first half of the book is a rambling screed, taking in subjects as unlikely as Adorno and Michael Jackson's Victory Tour. Marcus doesn't dumb down anything he takes on, and he shuttles back and forth between seemingly unrelated topics so often that some readers may be frustrated. Persevere, and you'll find that Marcus's writing, imposing at first, is ultimately vibrant, witty and illuminating. The second half is a much more straightforward account of the "heroes" of Marcus's vision - Tristan Tzara, Michel Mourre, Debord - though he still has room for a lovely meditation on the Orioles' 1948 "It's Too Soon to Know," which he considers the first rock'n'roll record. What's fascinating about this section is that Marcus either digs up information on people you'd never hear of otherwise (Mourre, a deadbeat sometime-surrealist who made headlines around the world by marching into Notre Dame Church dressed as a monk to proclaim the death of God, may be the most intriguing character here) or writes about them in an engaging manner that you wouldn't find in a more traditionally scholarly book. Finally, in the epilogue, Marcus brings it all home, revealing for the first time why he decided to write a book about revolutions that never happened.
There is little historical connection between any of these figures, but that's the point - all these would-be revolutionaries really shared was a certain tone, and Marcus takes on something of that tone himself. It's the voice of Charlie Chaplin's tramp at the end of "The Great Dictator": someone willing, even for a moment, to address the entire world, to refuse to censor oneself, and to accept whatever consequences may follow.
Amazon.com
Some musicians recoil at the thought that their band is a business. They believe that their music is their art, and don't want to sully it with commerce. That's all well and good--but wouldn't you give up your day job if you had the chance? Music Law can help you see your band as a business and turn it into a successful one. Musician and attorney Richard Stim has filled this useful book with helpful advice on solving disputes between band members, dealing with lawyers, managers, and record companies, and even the increasingly important matter of sample clearance. The advice is extremely thorough; for example, the chapter on band names includes information on researching your band's name to ensure it isn't already in use, what happens if two bands have the same name, and even how to register your band's name and logo. Because he advises getting all agreements in writing, Stim has provided dozens of sample agreement forms, both as blank hard copies in the book and as templates on the enclosed disk. Throughout the book, Stim provides important legal advice, all translated from stilted legalese into simple English. Both big and little names get into these difficulties sometimes; the book is peppered with cautionary tales of real musicians and their legal squabbles. Music Law can help you avoid such pitfalls and get your band's business running smoothly--so you might be able to quit that day job, after all. --C.B. Delaney
Book Description
The No. 1 bestselling business book for bands!
If you belong to a band and love the art of your job, but sing the blues when it comes to the business, you need Music Law. Composed by musician and lawyer Richard Stim, the book explains how to:
find the right manager
buy, insure and maintain equipment
get gigs and get paid
tour on a budget
use samples
do covers legally
protect your copyright
trademark your band's name
choose a recording studio
sell your music
manage your website
understand record contracts
deal with taxes
and much more
Music Law provides all the legal information and practical advice musicians need. The 5th edition -- completely updated to provide the latest in the law -- covers music downloads and other trends affecting the digital-music scene. It also provides up-to-date legal forms on CD-ROM.
Customer Reviews:
The Essential For ALL Musicians.......2007-08-23
Like all carpenters needing important tools to build a house, this book is the tool for all musicians. It covers all the important music business information and will help cut down unnecessary misfortune for musicians. Definitely a MUST BUY!!!
Solid law basics w/ clear presentation.......2007-06-01
This offers a great foundation to Music Law. It is clear & easy to read w/ room in the margins for notes. Richard Stim even mentions a few legal loopholes you can benefit from.
You can also recieve free book updates on the Nolo website, which is a cool perk.
Everything you'd need to know!!.......2007-03-20
I've been in the business for a while and I thought I knew a lot but this book opened my eyes to so many other facets of the music business that hadn't even crossed my mind!! The contracts on the CD are very helpful and because they are in a word format, it's easy to customize certain ones to fit what I need!!
From Copyrights to Publishing to Taxes to Lawyers, This book talks about it all in a very understandable way!!
I recommend this book to anyone who wants their music and band to be their business and want to do it right!!
It will prove that practical and popular a pick........2007-02-06
If you're a recording musician serious about entering the business, you can't be without the 5th updated edition of Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business. It covers all aspects of music protection and music making, whether you're budgeting a tour, making an album, protecting songwriting efforts, or entering into a partnership with band members. Here under one cover is everything you need to do it right, from sample contracts and explanations of legal issues to handling taxes and choosing a recording studio. Libraries from public to college collections who obtain this book will want to keep it in the reference section: it will prove that practical and popular a pick.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Good title.......2006-05-20
Running and taking care of the band's business could be a tough and demanding job! If you need help in managing your financials, contracts and especially legal stuff you may choose this book but music business isn't limited here! Apparently that is the aspect most of the people are focused on but that doesn't make a great record and great publicity and you need those before even thinking about managing your business. So if you really want to get to this point first you should read: "How To Make A Furtune In The Music Industry By Doing It Yourself: Your Personal Step-By-Step Guide To Having A Successful Career In The Music Business. ... To Sell Music, Book Shows And Get Noticed!" which teaches you everything from scratch not only parts of this amazing tough world.
Book Description
Henry Willson started off as a talent scout under Gone with the Wind’s powerhouse mogul, David O. Selznick. The starmaker-to-be was on the lookout for promising newcomers when he received an unsolicited photograph from a movie star hopeful named Roy Fitzgerald. The photograph of the handsome young man with bad teeth not only had a career defining impact for Willson but, more importantly, it redefined Hollywood’s concept of the male heartthrob. Roy Fitzgerald became Rock Hudson and, for the next twenty-five years, Henry Willson became the man behind movie “beefcake.”
The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson delves into Willson’s life in explicit, unsparing detail. Variety reporter Robert Hofler deftly chronicles Willson’s maneuvers to sidestep the FBI's investigation into Hudson's sex life; the agent’s use of off-duty L.A.P.D. cops and Mob ties to scare off Hudson's blackmailers; Hudson's "arranged" marriage to Willson's secretary, Phyllis Gates; as well as Hudson’s affair with a Universal Pictures vice-president to help secure starring roles. Additionally, the book discusses Willson’s other star clients, including Robert Wagner, Troy Donahue, Tab Hunter, John Derek, James Darren, Chad Everett, Mike Connors, and many others.
Customer Reviews:
WHAT A BOOK........SO MUCH DIRT TO FIT IN 1 BOOK !!!.......2007-09-06
THIS BOOK REALLY SURPRISED ME.THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT ROCK, BUT THE OTHER STARS THAT ARE IN HERE WAS A COMPLETE SURPRISE.
COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN........A LITTLE REPETITIVE AT TIMES- BUT WILLSON'S LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD IS A RARE ONE OF A KIND LOOK AT WHAT STRAIGHT MEN WILL DO FOR A SCREEN TEST
Between Light and Shadows: "The Rise and Fall of Legendary Hollywood agent, Henry Willson.......2007-08-31
Robert Hofler's "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson" is a magnificently written and searingly honest biography of actor's agent, Henry Willson.
Mr. Willson, a Hollywood reporter turned agent during the golden age of Hollywood (when the so-called "Dream Factory" was literally in full swing) emerges as a larger than life tragic and sympathetic figure.
Described as a homely homosexual man, with an expertly trained eye for spotting male beauty, he more than compensated for his paucity of good looks by elevating himself, by sheer will and talent alone, into one of the most powerful and influential starmakers in the motion picture industry.
Thought of by many as being a predator who sexually preyed upon innocent, naive, and unsuspecting young men - the opposite, actually, was quite true in retrospect.
While they might well have been naive in the ways of Hollywood, itself, these young men were certainly all well-enough versed in the ways of life to know exactly what it was they really wanted, and what they would be willing enough to submit to in order to achieve it. Nobody twisted their arm. Nobody forced them into doing anything that they, themselves, didn't voluntarily consent to do in the first place.
The question then arises - if Mr. Willson stands guilty of unfairly taking advantage of all the young men that he so carefully nurtured and fashioned into celebrities - why would he so strongly have felt the compelling need to always travel that extra proverbial mile in their behalf, fighting tenaciously, with every fiber of his being, to secure for them the very best of everything in their career and personal lives.
After he had used his very own money, invaluable amounts of time, and unique salesmanship skills in turning them into the successful commodity that they eventually became - they then proceeded to drop him like a hot potato when they no longer had any need for him. When the veritable truth of all these realizations come together, a disturbing, yet vitally important, thought is left to ponder. Who, indeed, appears to have been the most severely emotionally damaged victim (or victims) here?
The stable of "pretty boys" he had groomed for stardom? Or the desperately lonely man who, in a futile effort to belong, spent a lifetime trying to fit in by surrounding himself with beautiful people. It was almost as if constantly being in their presence, managing their careers, and sometimes even their personal lives, compensated, somewhat, for the good looks he had been denied, and had the intoxicating power to elevate and place him on an equal playing field with all of them. As hard as he tried, never truly did he ever belong. He was an outsider who always remained on the outside. A physically unacceptable outcast in a self-contained world of superficial beauty, with only looking-in privileges. Yet, his is the character of main focus here, and the driving force that literally propels this mesmerizing biography and sends it crashing clear through the roof.
Most of the so-called "stars" who appear in this biography emerge as rather vain, shallow, unfeeling people who can only be momentarily true to those who give them exactly what they think they need at the very moment that they think they need it. At least, Mr. Willson had feelings enough to show his deep hurt and devastation each time one of his boys (clients) dropped him and went on to someone else who they thought could do more for them. (As most of them later found out - changing wasn't always the better route - and their careers suffered bitterly because of it.)
That Henry Willson suffered immeasurably because of these betrayals, goes without saying. That he died alone and penniless, goes without saying. That he was the better human-being, definitely goes without saying.
With master strokes of an artist's brush, Mr. Hofler has vividly painted the unique and unforgetable portrait of a flawed, but generously big hearted man, who, at one time in motion picture history, cast a giant shadow across the make-believe landscape of Hollywood. A fairytale state of mind where much heartbreak, sadness, and the unsightly debris of wrecked and shattered lives, that can never be resurrected, are to be found haplessly scattered along the confection-laced, but treacherously dangerous, highway that runs directly through the very center of its heart and soul.
Robert Hofler's "The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson", is a stunning, skillful, and insightful biography that stands as one of the finest ever written. For a fascinating, in-depth, behind the scenes look at the shady workings and double-dealings of an unscrupulous Hollywood in the days of its early beginnings, this biography is a definite must read.
Highly recommended.......2007-03-26
The book is so entertaining! I was sad when I finished reading it. Henry Willson might've done a few dirty deals in Hollywood, but the story reveals he was hardly any worse than many others in that era of Hollywood.
Chronicling a Genius with a Unique Talent.......2007-03-06
Henry Willson came to Hollywood from the East Coast and became a part of a group called the Puppets, which consisted of young people seeking to become involved in the ever burgeoning field of talking movies.
Willson had sound instincts when it came to identifying with current tastes. He began as a stringer writing freelance columns about the New York stage while an undergraduate at Wesleyan College in Connecticut. With the Depression making stirring inroads he saw that Broadway was fading while public demand increased to see films.
Soon Willson moved into the agency field, discovering Lana Turner and Rhonda Fleming, but it was in the field of discovering young male talent where his fame and unique impact on the industry would be achieved. Discovering handsome male faces that brought audiences into the theaters and prompted young females to swoon was more than just a business to Willson. It was a labor of love borne of his strong attraction to them as a homosexual man.
He knew that caution needed to be employed in propelling to stardom's number one popularity position among actors a former truck driver from Winnetka, Illinois who gained international fame as Rock Hudson. Willson, a well bred man from a wealthy family whose father had been a leading executive at Columbia Records, assumed the role of surrogate father for Hudson as well as other stars of the Willson stable such as Rory Calhoun, Tab Hunter and Troy Donahue.
In addition to working hard to cultivate relations with those in the industry in positions to propel his clients toward stardom, the flamboyant and highly witty Willson played as hard as he worked, enjoying a good time and sex with many of the handsome men whose destinies he guided.
Since so much of promoting the young performers involved meeting people, Willson took them to local spots such as the famous nightclubs Ciro's and Mocambo as well as dining and drinking establishments such as Cock and Bull, Villa Frascati, Scandia and, at the end of his career, Panza's Lazy Susan, run by an acting client, and where he socialized with the likes of mobster Mickey Cohen.
Willson's excesses, particularly when it came to drinking, ultimately led to his demise, along with a changing studio structure. Within the wildly party atmosphere of Hollywood, along with the concurrent atmosphere of career tension, the Willson propensity for alcoholic consumption and drugs combined with voracious sex were traits he held in common with protégés Hudson and Donahue.
This is a work that captures the cinema capital in the same close-up fashion that Otto Friedrich's "City of Nets" with its focus on forties' Hollywood also did.
Reverse Side.......2007-03-03
A treasure trove of Hollywood reporting and insider peek into the post-war period. Anyone curious about why tv featured such a bland array of talent during the Eisenhower years should check out the story of super-agent Henry Willson. There's also his most famous star-creation, Rock Hudson, whose pretty-boy good looks left an even bigger stamp on movie-making during those pre-Vietnam years. Willson may not have been a studio mogul like a Darryl Zanuck or a Jack Warner. Nonetheless, his star-making talents were just as influential in shaping what appeared on screen. The fact that he was gay and exploited the casting couch is also important to the story, and, except for a blind item or two, author Bob Hofler pulls few punches in detailing that facet of Willson's career. Anyone interested in what closeted Hollywood was like during that repressive era should find this an appealing source. In fact, it's fascinating to follow Willson's ruthless tactics that kept Hudson's secret life secret all those years. It certainly wasn't easy. I don't know whether Willson comes across as likable or not. He seems equal parts lounge-lizard, father-figure, and control-freak However, his decline, as Hofler limns it, not only signals the end of an era, but iremains an oddly affecting one for such a master manipulator. Anyway, except for a sprinkling of obscure foreign phrases, this is an easy and compelling read. It's also the stuff of Hollywood legend, reverse side.
Average customer rating:
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Lyrical Protest: Black Music's Struggle Against Discrimination (Media and Society Series)
Mary Ellison
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0275927571 |
Book Description
In this powerful new study Mary Ellison demonstrates the unique role of black music as an articulation of black aspirations and fears, and as a reaction to a range of social, economic, and political realities. She reveals black music as a soundtrack for life in all its complexity. Through a very close examination of lyrics, musical style, and form in black music throughout history, Ellison brings to light a genre of music varied in its intentions and impact; a catalyst for activism and a stimulus for changing attitudes. The book is organized around topical issues and explores such themes as black power, revolution, socialism, black feminism, and world peace. One of the few books on music and social change to deal specifically with black music, this volume begins by tracing all black music to its African roots. In subsequent chapters, the author illustrates how these roots are evident in the lyrics of black music written in the United States, the West Indies, and West Africa. The book is organized around topical issues and explores such themes as black power, revolution, socialism, black feminism, and world peace. Students and scholars of popular culture, black studies, sociology, and political science will find Lyrical Protest a source of stimulating ideas.
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Russia Gets the Blues: Music, Culture, and Community in Unsettled Times (Culture and Society After Socialism)
Michael E. Urban , and
Andrei Evdokimov
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
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ASIN: 0801489008 |
Book Description
Michael Urban chronicles the advent of blues music in Russia and explores the significance of the genre in the turbulent, postcommunist society. Russians, he explains, have taken a music originating in the "low" culture of the American South and transformed it into an object of "high" culture, fashioning a social identity that distinguishes blues adherents from both the discredited Soviet past and the vulgar consumerism associated with the country's Westernization. While adapting the idiom to their own conditions, Russia's bliuzmeny (bluesmen) have absorbed the blues ethos encoded in the music by their American forebears, using it to invert their social world, thus deriving dignity and satisfaction from those very things that give one the blues.
Based on more than forty interviews with blues musicians and fans, nightclub managers, and others, Russia Gets the Blues reveals the fascinating history of blues in Russia, from the initial mimicry of British blues-rock to the recent emergence of a specifically "Russian blues." The gradual mastering of the idiom in Russia has been conditioned by the culture of the country's intelligentsia, a fact explaining why, on one hand, bliuzmeny feel compelled to proselytize on behalf of the music, to share with others this treasure of "world culture," while, on the other, they perform blues almost exclusively in English—which almost no one understands—and condemn any and all efforts to make the music commercially successful.
Book Description
In the 1960s, rock and pop music recording questioned the convention that recordings should recreate the illusion of a concert hall setting. The Wall of Sound that Phil Spector built behind various artists and the intricate eclecticism of George Martin's recordings of the Beatles did not resemble live performances -- in the Albert Hall or elsewhere -- but instead created a new sonic world. The role of the record producer, writes Virgil Moorefield in The Producer as Composer, was evolving from that of organizer to auteur; band members became actors in what Frank Zappa called a "movie for your ears." In rock and pop, in the absence of a notated score, the recorded version of a song -- created by the producer in collaboration with the musicians -- became the definitive version.
Moorefield, a musician and producer himself, traces this evolution with detailed discussions of works by producers and producer-musicians including Spector and Martin, Brian Eno, Bill Laswell, Trent Reznor, Quincy Jones, and the Chemical Brothers. Underlying the transformation, Moorefield writes, is technological development: new techniques -- tape editing, overdubbing, compression -- and, in the last ten years, inexpensive digital recording equipment that allows artists to become their own producers. What began when rock and pop producers reinvented themselves in the 1960s has continued; Moorefield describes the importance of disco, hip-hop, remixing, and other forms of electronic music production in shaping the sound of contemporary pop. He discusses the making of Pet Sounds and the production of tracks by Public Enemy with equal discernment, drawing on his own years of studio experience. Much has been written about rock and pop in the last 35 years, but hardly any of it deals with what is actually heard in a given pop song. The Producer as Composer tries to unravel the mystery of good pop: why does it sound the way it does?
Customer Reviews:
A Unique View of an Essential Creator in the world of Popular Music.......2006-01-06
I love this book! It finally brings to light for the average popular music consumer as well as the scholarly directed the vital function that has made the producer the king of the studio. We members of the business side of popular music have recognized the financial rewards that come to producers from the likes of Phil Spector and Leiber and Stoler on to the producers of more current rap, hip hop and other genres including disco. But this book finally brings a search light of musicology to show the skills that warrant the status of producers as a vital contributor to the music scene. It is a worthy tribute to each of the many producers whose contributions are analyzed with skill by an author who combines his role as professor and working musician.
Bill Krasilovsky ( co author of This Business of Music)
Book Description
We may be living in a material world, but Angela McRobbie pinpoints a "new materialism" in In the Culture Society. She provides a lively, incisive look at how different artistic and cultural practices develop in contemporary consumer culture, by examining the new populism of young artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin and the proliferation of underground forms of dance music. McRobbie explores how musicians such as Tricky, Talvin Singh, and Goldie have incorporated Black and Asian social history into a distinctive sound. She also investigates the relationship between cultural production and feminism through the new sexualities of teen girls' magazines.
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America's Musical Pulse: Popular Music in Twentieth-Century Society (Contributions in the Study of Popular Culture)
Manufacturer: Praeger Paperback
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From Art to Politics: How Artistic Creations Shape Political Conceptions
ASIN: 0275943062 |
Book Description
Popular music may be viewed as primary documents of society, and America's Musical Pulse documents the American experience as recorded in popular sound. Whether jazz, blues, swing, country, or rock, the music, the impulse behind it, and the reaction to it reveal the attitudes of an era or generation. Always a major preoccupation of students, music is often ignored by teaching professionals, who might profitably channel this interest to further understandings of American social history and such diverse fields as sociology, political science, literature, communications, and business as well as music. In this interdisciplinary collection, scholars, educators, and writers from a variety of fields and perspectives relate topics concerning twentieth-century popular music to issues of politics, class, economics, race, gender, and the social context. The focus throughout is to place music in societal perspective and encourage investigation of the complex issues behind the popular tunes, rhythms, and lyrics.
Books:
- Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism
- Surnames of Scotland : Their Origin, Meaning and History
- Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
- THAT EXTRA HALF AN INCH.
- The 100 Year Lifestyle: Dr. Plasker's Breakthrough Solution for Living Your Best Life - Every Day of Your Life!
- The Address Directory of Celebrities in Entertainment, Sports, Business & Politics, Second Edition
- The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus (3 Complete Adventures in One Volume, Vol. 1)
- The Devil's Notebook (LaVey, Anton)
- The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
- The Keepers: An Alien Message for the Human Race
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
- The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest
- Silent Film Sound
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- Runner in the Sun
- Valuation of Physician Practices and Clinics
- Main Hurdman and Cranstoun Guide to Preparing Financial Reports
- Painting Methods of the Impressionists
The Label: The Story of Columbia Records
Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus
The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music
Always Magic in the Air : The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era
