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Fredric Dannen
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Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business Paperback – July 2, 1991

by Fredric Dannen (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 277 ratings
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Copiously researched and documented, Hit Men is the highly controversial portrait of the pop music industry in all its wild, ruthless glory: the insatiable greed and ambition; the enormous egos; the fierce struggles for profits and power; the vendettas, rivalries, shakedowns, and payoffs. Chronicling the evolution of America's largest music labels from the Tin Pan Alley days to the present day, Fredric Dannen examines in depth the often venal, sometimes illegal dealings among the assorted hustlers and kingpins who rule over this multi-billion-dollar business.
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  1. Print length
    432 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Vintage
  4. Publication date
    July 2, 1991
  5. Dimensions
    5.2 x 0.95 x 7.94 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0679730613
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679730613
  8. See all details
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Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Previous page
  1. All You Need to Know About the Music Business: Eleventh Edition
  2. Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells
  3. Godfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy (American Made Music Series)
  4. The Operator: David Geffen Builds, Buys, and Sells the New Hollywood
  5. This Business of Concert Promotion and Touring: A Practical Guide to Creating, Selling, Organizing, and Staging Concerts
  6. The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, and Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Comm erce
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A nauseatingly honest and therefore controversial expose of the base beings that inhabit the higher levels of the music industry. Filled with horror stories that will confirm your worst suspicions about the toxicity of what my friends and I call "Planet CD Wood."

Review

Praise for Fredric Dannen's Hit Men:

"A sobering, blunt, and unusually well-observed depiction of the sometimes sordid inner workings of the music business."
—Billboard

"It's a good book—read it!"
—Sinead O'Connor

"An entertaining collection of anecdotes about an uproariously unsavory subculture of egomaniacs, sybarites, goniffs, and music lovers. . . . Mr. Dannen has a knack for the telling quote and a healthy appetite for the juicy story."
—The New York Times Book Review

"Anyone with more than a passing interest in the inner workings of the [music] industry will be enthralled by the juicy tales [Dannen] has to tell." 
—The New York Times

"A knowing and unsentimental glimpse into the inner workings of the music business . . . Dannen got the inside story, and he got it right." 
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

"The most revealing look yet at the 'characters' who run the rock-music business."
—Entertainment Weekly, Top 10 Best Books of the Year

"No one, insider or outsider, has ever grasped the basic concept of power in the pop-music business better than Fredric Dannen in Hit Men. . . . Hit Men has enough dramatic juice to drive half a dozen fictional bestsellers."
—Newsday 

"The no-holds-barred tale of showbiz's most flamboyant branch strips away the inpenetrable sheen of some of the industry's weightiest names."
—Variety

"Hit Men brings to life the most compelling gang of thugs since The Godfather. The stories of this smarmy bunch are part delicious, part appalling."
—USA Today

"Anyone who has even a passing interest in the music industry will be intrigued by Hit Men. The two basic themes are mob involvement and music executives' dalliances."
—Chicago Tribune

"A detailed profile of the handful of individuals who control the Top Forty. . . . Dannen's triumph is his ability to reduce the complicated problems and issues of the music industry to precise, personal situations."
—Rolling Stone

"Dannen's thorough, sure-footed investigation . . . create[s] a lucid and understandable account of the modern music business."
—Philadelphia Inquirer

"Dannen . . . mixes the skills of an investigative journalist with the gifts of an expert storyteller in an expose that will intrigue and appall readers with its disclosures."
—Publishers Weekly

"Well researched and chock-full of juicy tidbits, [Hit Men] imparts a vivid sense of the record industry's slimy side."
—Business Week 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (July 2, 1991)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679730613
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679730613
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.95 x 7.94 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 277 ratings

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Fredric Dannen

Fredric Dannen

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
277 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

John S Harris
5.0 out of 5 stars Twenty years later, still a fascinating and insightful read.
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2010
Verified Purchase
Wow. If only you knew how treacherous the music business is. Read this and you'll know.

"Hit Men" confirms what many music lovers saddened by the boring state of commercial rock radio already suspected: hit records are bought and paid for by the promoters, not made by the fans. Don't allow yourself for one second to believe ever again that radio stations are pushing songs into heavy rotation because they are responding to what their listeners want. They are doing so because someone is paying a LOT of money to cram those songs down your throat. As bad as this was in decades past, I dare say it is even worse now (in 2010).

"Hit Men" pulls back the curtain on the major players and activities in the record business over a period of several decades and reveals some extremely ugly and disheartening truths about how that business operates. I doubt anyone reading this book will regard the music business or the radio business with anything other than contempt from now on.

Want to know why certain songs become hits? It's because someone paid for it to happen. It has nothing at all to do with consumer preference. Well, at least not primarily.

Are you a fan of The Who? Want to know the REAL reason their 1981 album "Face Dances" tanked? Read this book.

Want to know the REAL reason artists on certain labels get massive amounts of airplay while artists on other labels struggle to get heard? Read this book. But here's a hint -- it has nothing to do with the quality of the music.

Educated readers will probably make the logical assumption that there are a great many industries that operate as the music business has and does. Welcome to the real world, folks. It's all about the money. In any battle between commerce and art, commerce has the advantage. Get used to it.

Fascinating, fascinating reading. Just as relevant today as it was when it was published in 1990.
35 people found this helpful
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Virginia Buck-Kelly
5.0 out of 5 stars The music biz A to Z......
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
Fredric Dannen and his loyal staff did a bang up job covering the various label bosses and their excesses....The research in this book is outstanding, and is a must read for all music lovers....
2 people found this helpful
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Greg Ball
4.0 out of 5 stars I appreciated the updated chapter on the business (2010) and would like to see a 2018 update chapter
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is a well written book - that and my interest in the subject kept me going even though I started to loath some of the characters. You can't blame the author for that in non-fiction :) But what started as a light and interesting read on the plane became fairly dark. Maybe because I can relate it too much to some of other business politics I've seen? As a silver lining - I now don't mind at all the current changes in the industry, challenging though they are. I appreciated the updated chapter on the business (2010) and would like to see a 2018 update chapter.

Its especially interesting (and balancing) to read this book after you've read other opposing points of view, as say Tommy Mottola's own book on his career as President of Sony Records. Its also interesting to see how SMALL the record business was even at its peak - the number of employees and income were tiny compared to size of companies you routinely deal with in other industries, especially one spending as the record companies did!
3 people found this helpful
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Know better 2 do better!
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent job in naming all the players.
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2022
Verified Purchase
Great comprehensive study of the music industry and the corporate cannibalism that killed the creativity and variety of styles that used to be so mainstream just fifty years ago. Wish there was a follow-up through 2020.
One person found this helpful
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JD
5.0 out of 5 stars The quintessential book on the American music business
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2021
Verified Purchase
Fredric Dannen's Hit Men chronicles the music business in America from the invention of the phonograph all the way to the introduction of the CD. He devotes a great deal of attention to the influence of organized crime and independent promotion but never bogs down the story with extraneous detail. It's a riveting read and the new epilogue continues the story into the 21st century.
2 people found this helpful
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Candace Rayburn
3.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2013
Verified Purchase
It gives you a lot of history on some of the major hit makers of the 70s and 80s. I think a must read for someone who is interested in the industry. Understanding the past helps you to avoid issues in the future.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Still good today
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2021
Verified Purchase
It’s copyrighted 1990 but it’s still a good read today. It has details about the horrendously terrible Sony takeover of Columbia pictures and CBS records whose ripples are still being felt today.
One person found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars What a sleazy business!
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2015
Verified Purchase
This was a long and depressing read for a guy who grew up loving recorded music and who naively transferred his love of records, cassettes and CDs into love for the whole industry that provided these things.. I loved to watch the Grammy's every year and I loved weekly trips to the music aisle or to the record store at the mall. In short, by buying and re-buying the music of the artists I loved, I supported these monsters who ran it all! And they are all despicable people. Every man character in the book from Clive Davis to David Geffen to Irving Azoff to especially Walter Yetnikoff were cut throat capitalists with a capital C. That is their right but it is hard to read about their greed without getting a little upset about it.
The main thrust of the book is the mob connection and I think that case is made pretty clear here though the government never managed to win the case and all the names mentioned still deny it or dismiss it to this day. As you get to the end of the book, you start to be really happy that Napster happened and that this industry slipped a great deal. Capitalists like Davis and Azoff managed to find a new place in the new business model. Others, like Yetnikoff, went other directions.
It is probably the definitive book on the subject and still stunning. Nice updated epilogue from 2012. Glad I read it but I am done with this particular subject.
13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Paul Alexander Rusling
5.0 out of 5 stars A Who's Who of the US music biz
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2020
Verified Purchase
This is a really good Who's Really Who guide to the American music business of the 80s and 90s; some excellent stories here, especially those covering Payola and how the main perpetrators managed to keep it all legal. All students of the music business should read this, at least once.
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Paul Q
5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing chronicle of the players in the music industry and ...
Reviewed in Canada on August 5, 2016
Verified Purchase
An amazing chronicle of the players in the music industry and the effects they had on artists careers. A must read for music enthusiasts.
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Dennis Garces
4.0 out of 5 stars History of the way the music biz WAS...
Reviewed in Canada on August 1, 2014
Verified Purchase
Great book - must have for anyone who works or wants to work in the music biz to see how it was - NOT how it is today...
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Deanano
5.0 out of 5 stars A really captivating book about the egos and posturers in ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2014
Verified Purchase
A really captivating book about the egos and posturers in the 20th Century music industry. A must-read for anyone with a broad interest in how the industry got to where it was before the digital era.
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brian ingram
4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and worthwhile. Part of a genre.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2020
Verified Purchase
A very interesting subject and a good informative read - if perhaps just a little dry and sometimes academic.
It is not always a page turner or unputdownable. (Were there Libel issues?) Having said that do buy it -I will reread it later. How would this book read if rewritten today? With all the media changes?

I am not sure why being Jewish from a poor background is so interesting to the author. This is not a WASP industry or the Army. Even more interesting anecdotes and in depth examples of personality issues and successes would be appreciated. Upwardly mobile people are entrepreneurs and take chances.

My next read will be The OPERATOR by Tom KIng. (about David Geffen)
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