Music Book Review: Song and System: The Making of American Pop Music by Harvey Rachlin

Song and System: The Making of American Pop Music

by Harvey Rachlin (Music 781.64 Rac)

 

Author Harvey Rachlin has a proven track record for great writing about the music industry. Many of his books have been more practically focused, such as “The Songwriter’s Handbook” and “The Encyclopedia of the Music Business,” directly helping aspiring artists to improve their music and find ways to share it with the world. In “Song and System,” he has turned his attention to the modern history of the music business, showing how music, technology, and fandom have all evolved together over the last 100 years.

 

After a brief but informative introduction, in which I learned several new metrics for determining the relative value of a pop song, Rachlin starts to lay out the historical methods by which music could be distributed. Evolving technology takes us from publishing sheet music and attending concerts to purchasing records, listening to the radio, television, CDs, downloads, and the latest audio streaming strategies being used today. As the technology and revenue streams change, we see the industry change and adapt as well, although it seems that the industry often lags a little behind evolving technology in more recent decades. Along the way, even older forms of distribution evolve and create new kinds of music industry services. Take the distribution of sheet music: what was once fairly informal became much more structured with the advent of copyright law and music publishing, leading to the success of Tin Pan Alley and even publishing rights companies that still exist today.

 

Interestingly, music tech seems to work as an additive process: new technology in the world of music never quite replaces the old. Sheet music, radio, and records all still exist today with enthusiastic fans and users. And live performances remain a crucial part of the music industry. Whole new genres like hip-hop are born through performance. It’s a complex puzzle of factors, but “Song and System” puts it all into context.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music by Eric Weisbard, Switched-on Pop: How Popular Music Works, and Why it Matters by Nate Sloan or Love for Sale: Pop Music in America by David Hajdu.]

[ official Harvey Rachlin web site (also official site for Song and System) ]

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Library

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter.