John Seabrook

The Song Machine is a fairly well written history of the deterioration of the pop song, the record industry, and the decline of artistry in all of it. I realize that I detest the music to the extent that it probably clouded my appreciation of the book a bit, but it is difficult to take serious an entire range of songs largely cloned (sampled is the clever word they came up with to hide their thievery) from every song that came before it, singers whose voices are so computer-enhanced that show more they sound more like alien robots than vocalists, and a stable of "producers" all going by silly, made-up names who largely serve more as experts at some software program (including Pro Tools) than as song-people. In the meantime, record companies continue to bite the dust, front-men (the "singers") are so interchangeable that no one can really tell them apart or even much care, and The Song dies a little more every day. show less

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

I enjoyed this book - in fact, I read it in one sitting. I feel a little bit like it was air, though. I would classify it as a "beach book" because it echoes my life in the way that I think "Sex and the City" must echo some other women's lives - it's my life in hyperdrive, my life as I kind of but not really aspire to be, my life in some alternate universe where I am more attractive, better at my job, an important person...The actual contents? Interesting riffs on David Geffen and Ben show more Kweller during the "Radish" era. A look inside the New Yorker, inside MTV, and inside the life of an American aristocrat of a type that I can't imagine. 1990s nostalgia. I may have found this book more interesting than I otherwise would have because I'm encountering the East Coast and the East Coast tastemaker world for the first time. Despite the title, there's very little in it about marketing, per se. There is a good deal about culture, however. show less

I heard Seabrook interviewed and I'm a fan of his NYer writing which led me to this tale of family business. It is a picture of an immigrant success story going from farming to big business in the early part of the 20th century. A colorful cast of characters with Eva Gabor and Grace Kelly also making an appearance. Seabrook delves into the darker sides of Seabrook Foods which include mistreatment of workers, Japanese internment camps and the Ku Klux Klan. Seabrook senior created his own show more fiefdom and ruled it as he saw fit. It was interesting to see how health issues played out during that time even among the privileged. show less