A&R: A Novel

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.

Being a huge fan of music and interested in the backroom dealings of the industry, I just had to read this book. After reading almost the whole thing in one sitting, it didn't disappoint.A & R is an intriguing novel of power-struggle and greed set against the backdrop of the cut-throat music industry. Not the usual story of up-and-coming bands getting taken advantage of by their record companies, but one of how record execs themselves fall prey to one another.Jim Cantone lands a once in a lifetime job as head of A & R at a major record label. Instead of just discovering and nuturing new talent, Jim quickly learns that alliances and loyalty play a bigger role in surviving. Having to deal with back-stabbing, conniving co-workers and attorneys to "out of touch" CEOs, Cantone himself starts to lose his own sense of self. With tales of how bands are used as pawns between record execs to the manipulation of musicians' careers just to feed egos, Flanagan writes with the conviction of an industry insider. Although the theme of the book is music and its business, anyone interested in an entertaining and captivating story should check this out. Musical interest is helpful but not a pre-requisite.

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.

I guess I'm one of those guys who knows a guy. I am a musician and have friends on both sides of the business (the artists and the labels) and have seen this book played out in reality several times. Flanagan is so dead on accurate with his hilarious portrait of the business he knows best. While this book has no shortage of satire, there is also a subtle plea for those who hold the pursestrings to remember the music.

Flanagan, a big-shot with VH-1, knows the music biz...So it is only fitting that he has created a very life-like scenario. Enter Jim Cantone, a music-biz "suit" trying to hold onto to his youth while making the world safer with good music. Trials and tribulations apart, we meet music mogul "Wild" Bill Degaul, who shares Jim's passion for good music. If you have ever been in a band or in the business, you know the characters Flanagan has created. His writing is great and the story-line doesn't conveniently collapse at the conclusion. Superb dialogue, scenes and characters make this one a keeper!