Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business

Twenty years later, still a fascinating and insightful read. Wow. If only you knew how treacherous the music business is. Read this and you'll know."Hit Men" confirms what many music lovers saddened by the boring state of commercial rock radio already suspected: hit records are bought and paid for by the promoters, not made by the fans. Don't allow yourself for one second to believe ever again that radio stations are pushing songs into heavy rotation because they are responding to what their listeners want. They are doing so because someone is paying a LOT of money to cram those songs down your throat. As bad as this was in decad. What a terrible state it's in today The music business is more about mob association then it is music What a terrible state it's in todayand now I clearly understand why we keep hearing the same damn 10 songs that I hate over and over again. Ron Simpson said HARD TO PUT THIS AWARD-WINNING MUSIC-BIZ EXPOSÉ DOWN. Dannen hit such a home run with this thoroughly researched book that he was honored from within the music industry (Ralph J. Gleason award) and without (national bestseller list). The topic here is unwholesome practices within the music industry, but the most passionate subtopic of Dannen's research is the system of independent promotion through which singles are "added" to radio station playlists and then moved through the charts. I almost think HIT MEN should be considered a must read for anyone in the music industry: artist, manager, songwriter or publisher. Since Da

Filled with horror stories that will confirm your worst suspicions about the toxicity of what my friends and I call "Planet CD Wood." . A nauseatingly honest and therefore controversial expose of the base beings that inhabit the higher levels of the music industry

Copiously researched and documented, Hit Men is the highly controversial portrait of the pop music industry in all its wild, ruthless glory: the insatiable greed and ambition; the enormous egos; the fierce struggles for profits and power; the vendettas, rivalries, shakedowns, and payoffs. Chronicling the evolution of America's largest music labels from the Tin Pan Alley days to the present day, Fredric Dannen examines in depth the often venal, sometimes illegal dealings among the assorted hustlers and kingpins who rule over this multi-billion-dollar business.