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A&R : A Novel

A&R : A Novel

List Price: $23.95
Your Price: $23.95
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Entertaining, Revealing Book
Review: "A & R" is a very entertaining and revealing book about the music industry. We see the corruption that often occurs in the leaders of the company, we see greed, we see everything that can and does occur in the music industry. I highly reocmmend it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Fast Paced and Fun look at the Music Industry
Review: A & R is a blast to read. It breaks no new literary ground, but keeps you interested from beginning to end. I've long been fascinated by the entertainment industry (both in fiction and non-fiction form). I had never been much interested in the music industry, but Entertainment Weekly recommended the book and who I am to disagree? More seriously, this comic look at life in the big corporate world of music is really interesting. I'm guessing that Wild Bill is based on Clive Davis or someone like him. Jim, our hero, is a sympathic guy and we pull for him. We also pull for Wild Bill and some of the music acts. The characters are not all that well drawn, but enough so that you are interested. As many satricial novels, that is beyond the point. Flangan casts a critical eye at an ever changing industry and tells a fun story along the way. It won't win any big awards, but is a good read for those who like the entertainment industry.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Fast Paced and Fun look at the Music Industry
Review: A & R is a blast to read. It breaks no new literary ground, but keeps you interested from beginning to end. I've long been fascinated by the entertainment industry (both in fiction and non-fiction form). I had never been much interested in the music industry, but Entertainment Weekly recommended the book and who I am to disagree? More seriously, this comic look at life in the big corporate world of music is really interesting. I'm guessing that Wild Bill is based on Clive Davis or someone like him. Jim, our hero, is a sympathic guy and we pull for him. We also pull for Wild Bill and some of the music acts. The characters are not all that well drawn, but enough so that you are interested. As many satricial novels, that is beyond the point. Flangan casts a critical eye at an ever changing industry and tells a fun story along the way. It won't win any big awards, but is a good read for those who like the entertainment industry.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun, Eccentric
Review: A decent portrayal of the music industry. Tragic, but reflective of the carefree side of this eccentric business. The music business certainly has evolved (or maybe "devolved") culturally. Listening to the radio and seeing the evolution of the new recording stars makes you wonder what's real and what "they" want to think is real. Ultimately, the consumer knows what they like; and so we find in A&R.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Insightful, but a little too gonzo
Review: A tragi-comedic parable about a well-intentioned, bright-eyed boy scout of a music man who gets lured from his comfortable job at a prestigious independent label (roughly modeled on late-'70s Island?), into a corporate position as the number four man at a mega-label (Sony, perhaps?). Disillusionment and moral compromise ensues. Everything starts off just fine, with our hero club-hopping in an effort to sign his favorite band. Flanagan's real-life experience (as VP of VH-1) lends the right feel to the subterranean backbiting between rival record label execs, and the routine backslapping and insincere ego-stroking that are the industry's life blood are deftly drawn. The book stumbles, though, as Flanagan forces his characters out of New York and into an overdrawn, Hunter S. Thompson-ish romp in Brazil, which ends in tears and provides a flimsy pretext for one character to pursue a corporate coup. Frankly, I would have found it more interesting if he had kept things on a more realistic level, and relied on the petty personality wars of the entertainment industry to propel events... I'm sure there would be enough unbelievable material right there, and it would have been ultimately more rewarding for the reader. All-in-all, though, the book is fine, and for plebes like me who are eager for a glimpse into the world of corporate culture-making this may be an instructive foray. Speaking through his characters, Flanagan gets off a few understated broadsides at the sad state of post-'60s corporate culture-making, and the way in which record producing has become strictly a joylessly cynical, money-making proposition. So is there a happy ending? Hey - read it and find out!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: High Fidelity's great music references - with a better plot
Review: All cliches of the music business are here: the coat-check girl who slips the demo tape to the big-wig; older A & R men trying to act cool in hip bars (and they are cool, 'cause they have A LOT of money and power); corporate jets; musical popularity without associated talent and much more. And the music references-just like High Fidelity, the musical detail is packed into every page. Without the deft pen of Bill Flanagan, this interesting soup of a subject matter could have fallen flat, or worse, got caught up in self-absorption. But Flanagan has written a novel that works terrifically as a novel-good characters, fast-paced plot, great settings. The combinations: great music detail, well-written fiction and funny/sleazy entertainment biz cliches make this book a must read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: High Fidelity's great music references - with a better plot
Review: All cliches of the music business are here: the coat-check girl who slips the demo tape to the big-wig; older A & R men trying to act cool in hip bars (and they are cool, 'cause they have A LOT of money and power); corporate jets; musical popularity without associated talent and much more. And the music references-just like High Fidelity, the musical detail is packed into every page. Without the deft pen of Bill Flanagan, this interesting soup of a subject matter could have fallen flat, or worse, got caught up in self-absorption. But Flanagan has written a novel that works terrifically as a novel-good characters, fast-paced plot, great settings. The combinations: great music detail, well-written fiction and funny/sleazy entertainment biz cliches make this book a must read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not just for music buffs
Review: Being a huge fan of music and interested in the backroom dealings of the industry, I just had to read this book. After reading almost the whole thing in one sitting, it didn't disappoint.

A&R is an intriguing novel of power-struggle and greed set against the backdrop of the cut-throat music industry. Not the usual story of up-and-coming bands getting taken advantage of by their record companies, but one of how record execs themselves fall prey to one another.

Jim Cantone lands a once in a lifetime job as head of A&R at a major record label. Instead of just discovering and nuturing new talent, Jim quickly learns that alliances and loyalty play a bigger role in surviving. Having to deal with back-stabbing, conniving co-workers and attorneys to "out of touch" CEOs, Cantone himself starts to lose his own sense of self.

With tales of how bands are used as pawns between record execs to the manipulation of musicians' careers just to feed egos, Flanagan writes with the conviction of an industry insider. Although the theme of the book is music and its business, anyone interested in an entertaining and captivating story should check this out. Musical interest is helpful but not a pre-requisite.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not just for music buffs
Review: Being a huge fan of music and interested in the backroom dealings of the industry, I just had to read this book. After reading almost the whole thing in one sitting, it didn't disappoint.

A&R is an intriguing novel of power-struggle and greed set against the backdrop of the cut-throat music industry. Not the usual story of up-and-coming bands getting taken advantage of by their record companies, but one of how record execs themselves fall prey to one another.

Jim Cantone lands a once in a lifetime job as head of A&R at a major record label. Instead of just discovering and nuturing new talent, Jim quickly learns that alliances and loyalty play a bigger role in surviving. Having to deal with back-stabbing, conniving co-workers and attorneys to "out of touch" CEOs, Cantone himself starts to lose his own sense of self.

With tales of how bands are used as pawns between record execs to the manipulation of musicians' careers just to feed egos, Flanagan writes with the conviction of an industry insider. Although the theme of the book is music and its business, anyone interested in an entertaining and captivating story should check this out. Musical interest is helpful but not a pre-requisite.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: its only rock and roll...
Review: but I like it.

Although the story is undeniably about the culture of popular music, thankfully the author doesn't go for the usual VHS "Behind the Music" plot of sudden fame/ band breakup amid drug problems and ego conflicts/ then triumphant reunion "for the love of the music." Instead, the main protagonist is an A&R (artist and repertoire) man and the plot is grounded in the business side of show business. Without giving away the plot, the narrative arc of the story follows the transformation of the recording industry from its music-loving visionary founders to the corporate bean counters who dominate it today.

This is not The Great American Novel, but it is an enjoyable read, which as Lou Reed correctly notes on the cover, it is, at times, "laugh-out-loud" funny. Despite the wildness of some of the antics recounted in the story they have an undeniable ring of plausibility, suggesting to me, at least, that this indeed more of a roman a clef than some would allow. Good reading for the airplane or the beach.


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