Song Machine Inside the Hit Factory
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Average rating3.8
There's a reason hit songs offer such guilty pleasure--they're designed that way. Over the last two decades a new type of hit song has emerged, one that is almost inescapably catchy. Pop songs have always had a "hook," but today's songs bristle with them: a hook every seven seconds is the rule. The song machine explores what the new hits may be doing to our brains and listening habits, especially as music services use streaming data to gather music into new genres invented by algorithms based on listener behavior. Revelatory and original, this book will change the way you listen to music.
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A fascinating description of how top 40 hits are engineered: a handful of guys who figured out a formula and feed it to everybody through a variety of artists.
You'll never listen to contemporary hit radio the same way.
This is an interesting look at several of the major players who manufacture hits for Rihanna, Katy Perry, etc. I was expecting a more comprehensive overview of the current Top 40 music industry and instead came away with a sense of just a few of the pieces. It's amazing to me how scientifically and clinically a hit is created, more like a factory widget than a meaningful expression of the songwriter's feelings. It's Tin Pan Alley and the Brill Building taken to the next, chilling, almost robotic level. Left me wanting to know more and wishing the book had been more substantial.
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