Description
Book SynopsisLet legendary rock manager Simon Napier-Bell take you inside the (dodgy) world of popular music – not just a creative industry, but a business that has made people rich beyond their wildest dreams. He balances seductive anecdotes – pulling back the curtain on the gritty and absurd side of the industry – with an insightful exploration of the relationship between creativity and money. This book describes the evolution of the industry from 1713 – the year parliament granted writers ownership over what they wrote – to today, when a global, 100 billion pound industry is controlled by just three major players: Sony, Universal and Warner. Inside you will uncover some little-known facts about the industry, including: How a formula for writing hit songs in the 1900s helped create 50,000 of the best-known songs of all time. How infighting in the American pre-war music industry shut down traditional radio and created an opening for country music, race records and rock'n'roll. How Jewish immigrants and black jazz musicians dancing cheek-to-cheek created a template for all popular music that followed. How rock tours became the biggest, quickest, sleaziest and most profitable ventures the music industry has ever seen. After reading Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay, you'll never listen to music in the same way again.
Trade Review"The world’s highest-grade rock’n’roll gossip . . . Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay is a sharp, fast-moving and beautifully written popular history spanning three centuries of wheeling, dealing, horse-trading, cigar-chewing enterprise and skullduggery" -- Mark Ellen
"There’s music and there’s the music business. And there’s the relationship between the two. Simon Napier-Bell pulls no punches. He tells this roller coaster of a story like it is: engaging, amusing, heartbreaking, enraging and appalling with every turn of the page" -- Mark Knopfler
"One of the best music books I’ve ever read" -- Pete Paphides
"A fascinating, witty and optimistic music biz history, by one of its legendary insiders . . . An essential text" * Mojo *
"The only history of pop music you’ll ever have to read" * Huffington Post *
