No 1 bestselling authors Stephen Breen and Owen Conlon have written an extraordinary account of a family business like no other.

Their cousin Alan was acquitted of the 2008 abduction and murder of Romanian girl Marioara Rostas on the streets of Dublin. Networks of promoters, many tied to the Mob, would lobby thru all means to get songs on the air and in heavy rotation.The shocking rise and bloody fall of Ireland's deadliest familyMeet the Wilsons - the deadliest family in crimeBrothers Eric, Keith and John Wilson, their cousin Alan, and nephew Luke shared a trade - assassination. Fredric Dannen was a co-recipient of the Overseas Press Club's 1986 Morton Frank Award for business reporting from abroad. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Institutional Investor, Rolling Stone, and Barron's. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Dannen casts a wide net in detailing the shady practice of goosing record airplay and sales — going back to the payola scandal of the ’50s and earlier — but mostly the book focuses on a ring of sleazy 'independent promoters' who racked up millions in the freewheeling late ’70s and early ’80s.

The book has a large cast of colorful characters (too large, to be honest), and everyone from thuggish bodyguards to pampered label execs gets a vivid portrait. Too in depth for me; this focuses on record executives over the past decades and there was just too many names and characters that I didn't really care about.An entertaining collection of anecdotes about an uproariously unsavory subculture of egomaniacs, sybarites, goniffs, and music lovers. This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use.

Indeed, reading this made me realize that Sean Parker, in his role as the inventor of Napster, is truly one of the most consequential figure in the history of recorded music. Actually, you'll be disappointed if you're expecting anything more than passing mention of actual musicians; here, they're little more than names on Billboard charts, or clients of superstar lawyers. But this book is about excess, and *really* it’s forced me to re-evaluate specific songs of my youth, now in terms of their corporate handlers, managers, lawyers, radio, and their relationships, with the artist and the content playing a very distant secondary role.

By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. What you will find is an involving story about the true power brokers of the record business - at least as far as it existed before Kurt Cobain came along and temporarily rearranged the rules of the game. With the rise of music streaming this book may not be as relevant as it used to be, but if you're interested in how the music business worked in the old days, it's a sobering read. 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.

RL, reluctant and struggling readers into the high school years will find themes that resonate and provide good conversations or writing responses for class work.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. 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. When Nolan finds out that a lot of things about Nate's new life in Calgary don't make sense—or might not even be legal—Nolan has to make some difficult choices that will affect him and his brother for the rest of their lives. Meet the Wilsons - the deadliest family in crime Brothers Eric, Keith and John Wilson, their cousin Alan, and nephew Luke shared a trade - assassination.