The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory

by John Seabrook

Overview

"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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393353280
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	10/18/2016
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	444,472
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating look at how the catchiest pop hits are manufactured…You’ll never hear Katy Perry the same way again."

People

"Fascinating…lively, entertaining and often insightful, of interest both to pop mavens and to those who couldn’t imagine caring about the latest hits."

Wall Street Journal - Christopher Carroll

"Well researched…[Seabrook] takes us inside the troubled modern music business."

Touré

"Revelatory. This thorough dissection of the anatomy of a hit belongs on any listener’s bookshelf."

FADER

08/10/2015
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.” (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"Eminently readable and important…. Seabrook's in-depth interviews with an army of songwriters, producers, performers and others make for series of profiles that document a revolution in the music business."

Shelf Awareness

"Invaluable."

Louis Bayard

"Brilliant."

The Guardian - Michael Hann

"An immersive, reflective, and utterly satisfying examination of the business of popular music."

The Atlantic - Nathaniel Rich

"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."

Seattle Times - Charles R. Cross

"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."

Entertainment Weekly - Isabella Biedenharn

"Seabrook spins 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."

Boston Globe - Kate Tuttle

★ 09/15/2015
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

Library Journal

One might not think of the wondrous deep voice of Dion Graham in the context of the shiny pop world of Britney Spears, Katy Perry, the Backstreet Boys, and The Weeknd. However, he IS the perfect guide for an exposition of an industry that is under fire from several fronts: the digital world, consolidation into a few labels, and automated instruments that have made session musicians obsolete. The most startling revelation is that the Billboard pop charts are littered with songs written and produced by a few middle-aged Swedes! Graham is always enthusiastic and stylish as he introduces a diverse cast of characters, including Swedish pop-maker extraordinaire Max Martin, the legendary Clive Davis, and corrupt manager Lou Pearlman. It might be dispiriting if it weren’t for the brisk pacing and sly amusement of Graham. A.B. 2016 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2016 - AudioFile

★ 2015-06-17
New Yorker staff writer Seabrook (Flash of Genius: And Other True Stories of Invention, 2008, etc.) examines the seismic shifts in the music industry. There are plenty of good books that have shown how "hits are the source of hard dealings and dark deeds." If it's no surprise that the music industry can be a dirty business, the author shows just how radically the business has changed, with power shifting from the American-British axis to Sweden (and Korea and China on the horizon), with album-oriented rock eclipsed by contemporary hit pop and with streaming undermining not only the sales of CDs and downloads, but the future of the music business as we know it. Even those well-versed in the trade might be surprised to learn that a South African native named Clive Calder, through his Jive label, "is and for the foreseeable future will be the single richest man the music business ever produced." Those riches accrued from his involvement with the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, and Britney Spears but even more from his visionary focus on producers rather than performers and publishing rights rather than record sales. His story intersects with that of the notorious Lou Pearlman, now imprisoned for "a giant Ponzi scheme" but formerly involved in manufacturing those acts and more. But some of the freshest and most fascinating material concerns the way that Swedish musical masterminds whose names are little-known to American music consumers have been able to dominate over decades and genres by bridging pop hooks and dance-floor beats. Max Martin, for one, has enjoyed a string of Billboard chart-toppers extending from Spears' breakthrough and Bon Jovi's comeback through recent work with Taylor Swift. Seabrook goes deeper into the career developments of Rihanna and Katy Perry, but most of the artists hold insignificant power within the international behemoth that this industry has become and even less control over their own musical progression. A revelatory ear-opener, as the music business remains in a state of significant flux.

Kirkus Reviews