Mol flies in your lungs

Pop Khitov production industry and musical non-fiction

One of the most striking music about music last year was John Sibruk’s “Song Machine”, dedicated to those who compose and produces hits that sound from each iron. Gorky tells what you can learn from this book about the musical industry. The book was published as part of the AD Marginem publishing program and the Garage Museum of Modern Art.

Unlike hip-hop and, in particular, rock, pop music does not attract musical journalists so much-at least books about it are written much less often. If they come out, then the authors usually either narrow the geography of the described or prefer to talk about the past - for example, as in “Love for Sale: Pop Music in America” David Haida or “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! " Bob Stanley. Others look at it from the point of view of business-as in “Black Vinyl White Powder” and “TA-RA-RA-BOOM-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-DE-BELL”, Fredrick Dunnel, Fredrick Dunnel. Still others pay attention to individuals - most often the really outstanding - characters, as in the Last Sultan Robert Greenfield. In addition, as you can see by names above, all these books are not translated into Russian.

In this sense, John Sibruk was lucky - the second edition of his book “Nowbrow” was popular enough to attract the attention of publishers to the next book, “Songs of Songs”. And unlike the authors of the aforementioned books, he writes about what is happening here and now (or was in the recent past): Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Rihanna are mentioned here on the radio over the past five years. Sibruka, however, is not interested in those who perform this music, but those who do it, that is, producers, songwriters and other equally important people, are not as successful businessmen, but as creators, creators of hits.

The main problem of Nobrow was the presentation of the book-Sibruk had an idea, but he was not going to reinforce it, talking mainly about how he spent time in New York in the late nineties. The “Song machine” favorably differs against its background: Sibruka is much smaller in the book. However, when it allows himself to appear in the narrative, sometimes it does not go out in the best way. Or he paces with excessive maliciousness through the heroes, such as in the chapter on Katy Perry: “It was part that her breasts became the fault. She prayed to the girl for a large breast, and when he awarded her such, once she even thought about a reduction operation. In the end, she decided to proudly demonstrate her from the stage (after all, this is his gift) ”(in Russian translation this passage sounds a little better than in the original). Or prefers not to pay attention to important moments in the history of his heroes or smooths them out: the participation of one of the Ace of Base musicians in the neo -Nazi party is mentioned in one line, and Keshi’s lawsuit against her producer Dr. Luke about possible rape is described so that it is not very clear on whose siberuver in general. Or he simply tells the reader about his mother’s favorite music-without a short chapter “My Holy Hit Parade” could have been clearly a dispensed with.

All this would not be so important, but Sibruka primarily worry people, their life, and not what they do and how. Of course, the process of creating some songs is described here, but the heroes are most interesting to him: such as the Swede Max Martin, who worked with a huge number of American pop stars, or Evan Rogers and Karl Sturken, people who found Rihanna. The best chapters here are devoted to those who are in the background even in the non -stellar world of producers - singer Esther Dean, whose work consists in writing Khukov (the main part of the song), and Bonnie McCay, less successful friend Katie Perry. Another luck of Sibruk is the chapter on Korean pop music, at the same time deprived of individuality and relying on the idol star (though none of them entered the American market). Other heroes of music are frankly lacking: for example, those who write the texts of Drake, or the singer of these, from the author of the texts of grown up to a full-fledged pop star; Beyoncé and Lady Gaga are also mentioned here.

“Song of the Songs” is not just a gallery of bright portraits: for a long time Sibruk published individual chapters of the book as articles in New Yorker. It is felt - and this, of course, is another problem of the book. At other moments, it is perceived only as a collection of articles united by the topic: the strongest part, perhaps, seems to be the story of the producer of Dr. Luke, told in several chapters with the help of those with whom he worked, from the co -producers and authors of the texts to his wards. It could be noted that the release of the book after articles is a common practice (here you can recall “how the music became free” by Stephen Witt, who squeezed one of the three stories of his book, by the way, the best - to Longrid at the New Yorker). However, the "Machine of the Songs" is not the most typical modern book about music. Perhaps the books that have been published last year will be the “Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me” by Stephen Hayden: she also resembled a collection and, unfortunately, reported much more about the author than what he writes. In fact, the most interesting books about music are now to consider a description of something not very famous-for example, “Sounds and Sweet Airs” about women-composers. But this is not the most popular and interesting genre in the musical non-fiction today.

There is something indicative in the fact that the last couple of years the musicians themselves write best about music or when critics write about themselves, not hiding behind music, as in the case of the autobiography of Sylvia Patterson “I'M Not with A Band”. The list of autobiographies that deserve mention can be very long - this is Fila Collins, and Porcelain, and “Tranny”, Lory Jane Grace from Against Me, and I Am Dogboy, Karl Hyde, and “Every Little” STEP ”Bobby Brown, and, judging by the reviews,“ Substance ”by Peter Hook from New Order. Perhaps their advantageous difference is that in autobiographies the musicians can tell about themselves much more than they would tell for a book in which they are only one of the heroes-however, the Sibroke tells about whom they will ever write a book about themselves, even with someone’s help: they, judging by the “Song Machine”, are not very interesting.

“Song Machine” as one of the main novelties of the translated non-fiction about music is rather a sad indicator of what local publishers are guided by when choosing books. Mobi's autobiography - ironic and complete jokes - is unlikely to be translated into Russian: if you look in the eyes of the truth, who wants to buy his book, and about what happened to him before his main album, “Play”? “Tranny”, an amazing story about punk rock and transgenderness, is also unlikely to fall into the local shelves. Judging by the sales of books about Joy Division, he can be lucky to Peter Huka - but so far we have to be content with the stories of journalists, more worried about what they write about, and in a notorious translation.