The song machine : inside the hit factory

Resource Information

The work The song machine : inside the hit factory represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Menasha Public Library (Elisha D. Smith). This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The song machine : inside the hit factory

Title remainder

inside the hit factory

Statement of responsibility

John Seabrook

Creator

• Seabrook, John

Subject

• Music trade
• Popular music -- Production and direction
• Sound recording industry

Language

eng

Summary

There's a reason hit songs offer such guilty pleasure--they're designed that way. Over the last two decades a new type of hit song has emerged, one that is almost inescapably catchy. Pop songs have always had a "hook," but today's songs bristle with them: a hook every seven seconds is the rule. Painstakingly crafted to tweak the brain's delight in melody, rhythm, and repetition, these songs are highly processed products. Like snack-food engineers, modern songwriters have discovered the musical "bliss point." And just like junk food, the bliss point leaves you wanting more. In The Song Machine, longtime New Yorker staff writer John Seabrook tells the story of the massive cultural upheaval that produced these new, super-strength hits. Seabrook takes us into a strange and surprising world, full of unexpected and vivid characters, as he traces the growth of this new approach to hit-making from its obscure origins in early 1990s Sweden to its dominance of today's Billboard charts. Going beyond music to discuss money, business, marketing, and technology, The Song Machine explores what the new hits may be doing to our brains and listening habits, especially as services like Spotify and Apple Music use streaming data to gather music into new genres invented by algorithms based on listener behavior. Revelatory and original, this book will change the way you listen to music.--Adapted from book jacket

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

781.6409/051

Index

index present

LC call number

ML3790

LC item number

.S382 2015

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography