John Seabrook

Fascinating, utterly fascinating, if you're interested in: John Seabrook; John Seabrook's family; the sophistication of John Seabrook and his family; the old wealth (deserved, of course) of John Seabrook's family; did I, John Seabrook, mention that I went to Princeton; and, of course, John Seabrook.

If you're not interested in those things, this book, which is purportedly about the melding of high and low culture but which is actually about, yes, you guessed it, John Seabrook, is pretty much show more a waste of paper. I have no idea why he didn't just go ahead and name it I, JOHN SEABROOK -- maybe his editor wisely drew the line. Not that it helped. show less

Jingle Bell Pop is worth the short listen if you’re interested in the origins of Christmas songs and “behind the scenes” of how some of the “modern” era songs were written and recorded.

This is a fun short listen about the history of Christmas and Holiday music. It starts with Silent Night, and includes explanations for songs like Jingle Bells. It has some really interesting interviews with songwriters of songs like Santa Baby and All I Want For Christmas Is You. They try to answer show more the question of why some songs “stick” and come back every year. They don’t really have a definitive answer of course, but there are some interesting theories. show less

Don't Believe Everyone Who Says They Write Their Own Songs

John Seabrook does a great job pulling the veil back on the music industry and how hits get made. It's astonishing to read that today's hit songs are produced, written, and created by teams of people and that the "factories" have their hands on 90% of the hits out there.

You'll never look at an artist or listen to music the same way after reading this book.

A straightforward and fairly interesting look at what goes on behind the scenes of the modern pop song. This book held my interest and I breezed through it in two days, but after finishing I can't help but feel there was something missing. It was breezy and vaguely informative in that New Yorker profile sort of way (Seabrook is a staff writer there and a few chapters first appeared there), but like many of those types of pieces, when it comes time for the author to make some sort of show more conclusion or fashion a story arc, nothing really happens. Still, it's not a bad book at all, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, as long as you know you're essentially getting a long New Yorker article. show less