Bill Flanagan really must have some juice. Encomia on his novel A&R are provided by Elvis Costello, Lou Reed, Peter Buck, and Tom Petty. Someone more cynical than I might say that this constitutes a large portion of the literate throng among the rock community. I'm not saying that.
Flanagan, according to the dust jacket, is senior vp and editorial director of VH1. Evidently, he knows intimately about the business he is telling a tale about. And make no mistake: It is a business.
A&R could be turned into a movie (of the week) in short order, a roman a' clef always makes for the who-is-it? fascination.. There is the requisite number of interlocking and tangential narrative threads as it follows Jim Cantone, A&R man who, in order to get some bigger coin, leaves behind a smaller label to move to the modestly named WorldWide Music, where his belief in himself—and his music—is sorely tested. There is the head of WorldWide, "Wild Bill" DeGaul, who has done everything with everybody as he has created his musical empire. Musicians Lily Rope and Jerusalem. . . .Sex. Drugs. Travel. Rock and roll. And, oh yes, financial machinations.
OK. So it's a potboiler.
But Flanagan raises an interesting point. A financial guy takes control of the company and does a reorg of the WorldWide staff. And he says, "I think we have to address the reality that pop music now is R&B. That's not good or bad, it's just the truth. . . .I listen to what's getting played on Top Forty radio, it's pretty clear that rock and roll is no longer the center of the universe. Rock and pop are moving away from each other. . . Why should pop be a subdivision of rock?"
He goes on to say, "Rock and roll doesn't have to carry the bottom line anymore." (Remember: we're talking business here.) "It doesn't have to pay for everything else. Let hip-hop take that financial burden and you let rock flourish as an art form. It's a mature style now, like jazz."
So I ask all of you: Is this correct? Is pop R&B? Is rock mature? Does it matter?
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