American Popular Music Business in the 20th Century

David Sanjek, archive director at Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), here condenses and updates the last volume of American Popular Music and Its Business, a three-volume work written by his late father, Russell Sanjek, chronicling the course of the popular music business from the days when pianos were first installed in nickelodeons to the advent of VCRs, CDs and digital audiotapes. The book tells the complex story of technical innovations, endless machinations within the recording and music-publishing industries, the long history of the antagonism between ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI, the merchandising of superstars, battles over licensing and struggles for corporate control of the musical marketplace. Much information is packed into the dense text, but the book is written in such a dry, sometimes awkward style that it will hold little interest for anyone who is not a specialist in this field. (July)