Sonic Boom

The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince

By: Peter Ames Carlin

Narrated by: David de Vries

The most compelling figures in the Warner Bros. story are the sagacious Mo Ostin and the unlikely crew of hippies, eccentrics, and enlightened execs who were the first in the music business to read the generational writing on the wall in the mid-1960s. By recruiting outsider artists and allowing them to make the music they wanted, Ostin and his staff transformed an out-of-touch company into the voice of a generation. Along the way, they revolutionized the music industry and, within just a few years, created the most successful record label in the history of the American music industry.

Ostin ushered in a counterintuitive model that matched the counterculture. His offbeat crew reinvented the way business was done, giving their artists free rein while rejecting out-of-date methods of advertising, promotion, and distribution. And even as they set new standards for in-house weirdness, the upstarts' experiments and innovations paid off, to the tune of hundreds of legendary hit albums.

It may sound like a fairy tale, but once upon a time, Warner Bros Records conquered the music business by focusing on the music rather than the business. Their story is as raucous as it is inspiring, pure entertainment that also maps a route to that holy grail: love and money.

©2021 Peter Ames Carlin (P)2021 Tantor

Van Dyke Parks v. Van Halen

I was surprised to find almost no mention of some of the big acts like Van Halen, yet more than an entire chapter, was devoted to the unknown Van Dyke Parks. Barely a mention of one of their biggest producers Ted Templeton, who produced the Doobies, Carly Simon, Aerosmith, Clapton, Van Halen etc. So much rich history with the WB label that went unexplored. But hey, now I know who Van Dyke Parks is. I found some his songs, and the music was flat out boring. Too bad. This could have been a great book.