Song and System: The Making of American Pop Music

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Description

From the first Tin Pan Alley tunes to todays million-view streaming hits, pop songs have been supported and influenced by an increasingly complex industry that feeds audience demand for its ever-evolving supply of hits.

Harvey Rachlin investigates how music entered American homes and established a cultural institution that would expand throughout the decades to become a multibillion dollar industry, weaving a history of the evolution of pop music in tandem with the music business. Exploding in the 1950s and 60s with pop stars like Elvis and the Beatles, the music industry used new technologies like television to promote live shows and record releases. More recently, the development of online streaming services has forced the music industry to cultivate new promotion, distribution, copyright, and profit strategies.

Pop music and its business have defined our shared cultural history. Song and System: The Making of American Pop Music not only charts the music that we all know and love but also reveals our active participation in its development throughout generations.

Reviews

[Song and System] expertly lays out the history of pop music . . . Rachlins informative and highly detailed narrative will resonate with music geeks and industry folks alike. * Publishers Weekly *
Anyone can now listen to any song at any time via streaming. How this came to be is the subject of Song and System. The prolific Rachlin (Manhattanville College) traces the history of popular song in the US and the behind-the-scenes development of the music industry . . . Popular music is an important part of American life, and aficionados will learn from this book. * Choice Reviews *
Opening with Tin Pan Alley and counting through years of rock and roll, disco, hip hop, rap, and many other genres and subgenres, [Rachlin] explores the often symbiotic relationship between music and its purveyors. . . . sure to be a hit with readers interested in music or pop culture. * Booklist *
Harvey Rachlin never ceases to amaze me. Even after recording my first hit song, Im still learning from this author. Thank you for writing this one. Its amazing! -- Tony Orlando
Harvey explains how it all happened and the evolution in the music industry as we know it today. This is a must read for music lovers! -- Bobby Rydell
Bravo! What an achievement! So insightful, educational, and informative of the history of our crazy, wonderful businessa must read for any and all music lovers. -- Sandy Linzer, composer, author, publisher/record producer
I always knew Harvey was a terrific editor; I had no idea he was such a brilliant researcher as well! -- Janis Ian
An amazing book covering all the history of popular music from beginning to end. Perfect for any music lover, history buff, or musician who wants to know the background of what theyre listening to or playing. -- Dutch Robinson, lead singer of the Ohio Players

Author Bio

Harvey Rachlin runs the Music Business and Music Internship program at Manhattanville College. Rachlin is the author of 13 books including The Songwriters Handbook and The Encyclopedia of the Music Business. The latter title won the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence in music journalism, was named Outstanding Music Reference Book of the Year by the American Library Association, and was recommended by composer Henry Mancini on the 1984 internationally-televised Grammy Awards. His music books have been praised by Elton John, Aaron Copland, Johnny Mathis, Pat Boone, and the Academy Award-winning songwriters Burt Bacharach, Sammy Cahn, Marvin Hamlisch, Henry Mancini, Richard Rodgers, and Jule Styne. He lives in Purchase, New York.