Hit Factories

Hit Factories

Author: Karl Whitney

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2019-06-27

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 147460742X

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After discovering a derelict record plant on the edge of a northern English city, and hearing that it was once visited by David Bowie, Karl Whitney embarks upon a journey to explore the industrial cities of British pop music. Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol: at various points in the past these cities have all had distinctive and highly identifiable sounds. But how did this happen? What circumstances enabled those sounds to emerge? How did each particular city - its history, its physical form, its accent - influence its music? How were these cities and their music different from each other? And what did they have in common? Hit Factories tells the story of British pop through the cities that shaped it, tracking down the places where music was performed, recorded and sold, and the people - the performers, entrepreneurs, songwriters, producers and fans - who made it all happen. From the venues and recording studios that occupied disused cinemas, churches and abandoned factories to the terraced houses and back rooms of pubs where bands first rehearsed, the terrain of British pop can be retraced with a map in hand and a head filled with music and its many myths.


Hit Factories

Hit Factories

Author: Karl Whitney

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2019-06-27

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 147460742X

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After discovering a derelict record plant on the edge of a northern English city, and hearing that it was once visited by David Bowie, Karl Whitney embarks upon a journey to explore the industrial cities of British pop music. Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Glasgow, Belfast, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol: at various points in the past these cities have all had distinctive and highly identifiable sounds. But how did this happen? What circumstances enabled those sounds to emerge? How did each particular city - its history, its physical form, its accent - influence its music? How were these cities and their music different from each other? And what did they have in common? Hit Factories tells the story of British pop through the cities that shaped it, tracking down the places where music was performed, recorded and sold, and the people - the performers, entrepreneurs, songwriters, producers and fans - who made it all happen. From the venues and recording studios that occupied disused cinemas, churches and abandoned factories to the terraced houses and back rooms of pubs where bands first rehearsed, the terrain of British pop can be retraced with a map in hand and a head filled with music and its many myths.


The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory

The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory

Author: John Seabrook

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2015-10-05

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 0393241939

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"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


Vanda & Young

Vanda & Young

Author: John Tait

Publisher: University of New South Wales

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781742232171

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Harry Vanda and George Young put Friday on our minds, triggered Easyfever with the Easybeats, and harnessed the raw energy and power of Aussie pub rock to make superstars of AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, and the Angels. The day Vanda and Young met at Sydneys Villawood Migrant Hostel has been called the most significant moment in Australian music history. What followed, as members of the Easybeats, producers and mentors for Georges brothers band AC/DC, and songwriters of a diverse range of hits from Friday on My Mind, Shes So Fine, Yesterdays Hero and Love is in the Air to Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again, has provided the soundtrack to the last 50 years. Featuring revelatory interviews with Vanda and Young and members AC/DC and the other chart-topping acts they worked with, this is the inspirational story of Australias top songwriters, producers and starmakers.


Back to Black

Back to Black

Author: Donald Brackett

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-11-01

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1617136808

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Be a fly on the wall of sound: get the inside history and behind-the-scenes events in the making of a masterpiece. In this refreshing book – which focuses solely on Amy Winehouse's musical artistry, stylistic influences, and creative collaborations with great producers and musicians, instead of her personal problems – Donald Brackett explores pertinent questions about the importance of pop music in contemporary culture. In this incisive and fascinating study of Amy Winehouse's second, and last, album (released in 2006), Back to Black, he opens the door not only to the full experience of this great record but also explores the seductive sonic hook that pop artists always strive for and unearths what makes the record unique, influential, and unforgettable. He reveals the creative steps in its inception and production, the technical virtuosity that makes it special, and why it deserves to be considered a pop classic. In an album that continually strips down the branches of popular music to draw from its muscular trunk, Amy Winehouse (with significant help from producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi) used the deep longing of '60s girl-group pop, such as the Ronettes, to fuel the torch sound she perfected in her debut. Brackett fully considers Winehouse's legacy ten years after her multi-Grammy winning album – exploring the origins of a global cultural phenomenon by examining her roots as a storyteller; studying her swift arrival as a demonic pop diva; the crucially important creative role played by her gifted producers in the studio; the historical musical influences on her style; the soul magic of her superb backup band, the Dap-Kings; her live performance style onstage; and her magnetic public image as a video star. Back to Black is also explored song by song in an appreciation of its status as a true pop-art artifact. In the end, it's the songs that make up Back to Black which go far beyond our potentially prurient fascination with the unique singer's early demise five years ago and instead bring vibrantly to life the surprising pop majesty she personified.


The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music Production

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music Production

Author: Simon Zagorski-Thomas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2020-02-06

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 1501334034

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The Bloomsbury Handbook of Music Production provides a detailed overview of current research on the production of mono and stereo recorded music. The handbook consists of 33 chapters, each written by leaders in the field of music production. Examining the technologies and places of music production as well the broad range of practices – organization, recording, desktop production, post-production and distribution – this edited collection looks at production as it has developed around the world. In addition, rather than isolating issues such as gender, race and sexuality in separate chapters, these points are threaded throughout the entire text.


Hit the Road, Jack

Hit the Road, Jack

Author: Robert Burleigh

Publisher: ABRAMS

Published: 2013-01-15

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 1613124880

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In this delightful picture book, loosely inspired by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, a scat-singing, bebopping jackrabbit travels across the United States and marvels at all the wonders that the country reveals—from hopping on the subway in New York City to playing a jukebox in Chicago, and from gazing at Mount Rushmore to crossing the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Written in the rhythm and spirit of Beat poetry, Hit the Road, Jack is an exuberant story of experiencing all the country has to offer with wide-eyed awe.