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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.
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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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Summary: A REAL FIND! A GEM!
Review: I almost give this clever book on the music industry five stars but held back only because it could use a little more depth. That being said I still think this is a great book, a really fun read. It gives insight into the corporate world of music making with insight and wit. The knives are out in a big corporate music firm and once started you won't want to put the book down! Besides a behind the scenes look of the music industry this novel has a likable fun side as well, there were passages & lines that made me laugh out loud. This book didn't have a lot of buzz about it when it got released but now that it's in paperback everyone has a chance to find a real gem of a read and enjoy the story it tells.
Rating: 
Summary: couldnt put it down
Review: i bought this book for a friend of mine in the music indsutry when it came out just because it had interesting musician reviews on the back. i picked it up a few days later and started reading it. i thought it was a great story, very entertaining especially to someone like myself that knows nothing of the inner workings or of the music industry. but once i picked it up i couldnt stop reading it. i even held off giving it to my friend a day so i could finish it.
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Summary: Fun read of fiction based on the music industry
Review: I picked this book up after reading great reviews by Lou Reed, Elvis Costello and Tom Petty. While this book was a quick and entertaining read, it lacked substance. The story was a nice take on the current situation of the music industry - profit over talent - and the integrity that is challenged by those involved. The characters were believeable and easy to relate to but there was something ultimately missing. The ending was very anti-climatic and left me a bit dissapointed. The book is a good satire on the current state of the music business. Read this now and you'll understand why the music industry will be completely different in less than 10 years.
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Summary: Stick to Television
Review: It was truly enjoyable subject matter that I'm sure only Bill Flanagan (and any other music industry person) could provide. What I could not get past was his ham-handed writing style that led me to think he started a short story for Rolling Stone and then decided to lengthen it to a novel. But maybe I'm not the right person for this book: I've enjoyed reading my entire life, from the classics to contemporary drivel that continously and surprisingly makes Best-Sellers Lists. If I only read Rolling Stone or music biographies, I'm sure this would be one of the best books I've ever read. I don't, and it wasn't. Pleasant, feel free to buy my used copy.
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Summary: Home truths from a music industry insider
Review: Let's face it, the music industry can be viewed as cash cow that relies on the passion of the masses to fill the pockets of the few. Flanagan paints an accurate picture of music business back biting ,creating strong characters to illustrate how easily dreams can be lost on the road to success. I suspect much of his own experience went into writing this entertaining and engaging book, it's great fun working out who might be the inspiration for some of the darker characters, I'm sure they know who they are! Well worth the shipping cost to the UK.
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Summary: rock and roll after-school special
Review: Mr. Flanagan is obviously an accomplished journalist and music executive. But a novel needs more than music industry insight and humorous one-liners to succeed. A&R is written in such a predictable, pedestrian style that I often thought I was reading a script for an ABC after school special. Given the nature of the characters and the industry which it depicts, A&R comes off as a tame tale of human ideals vs. the corporate giant, not the insider's view at the belly of the beast that the jacket copy would lead one to believe. Had his writing style actually been compelling and challenging, as opposed to the kind of bland writing that often passes for music journalism, this book would have been much better. In the hands of another writer, A&R could have been excellent.
Rating:
Summary: AR is OK
Review: Somewhat entertaining account of the music industry via fiction. Exaggerated episodes of deception possibly in a satirical attempt to illustrate the grandiosity of this business. Readable and entertaining at surface value.
Rating:
Summary: missed the mark
Review: This fictional insider look at the music industry is full of adventure, myth, back-stabbing, love, and death -- so where did it go wrong? The story itself is fairly interesting. At it's heart it's about the cold corporate machine that is replacing the soul of record companies: the people that love the music. This issue plays out in various forms, most notably through A&R president of WorldWide Records, protagonist Jim Cantone. The main flaw is that the characters are sorely underdeveloped. This lack of substance and the resulting lack of sympathy is the death of this novel. There are empty leading characters that do nothing to advance the plot, evoke nothing in the reader, and leave you confused as to why they were there at all. Perhaps the most irritating of the book's flaws, though, is the constant distraction of subplots that lead absolutely nowhere. Unfortunately, the little substance this book does have isn't given any time to shine. What could have been a thoughtful, interesting look at the changing music industry, ends up reading more like a comedy staring Bill Flanagan. A far better read is "The Mansion on the Hill : Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen, and the Head-On Collision of Rock and Commerce" by Fred Goodman.
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