Books

A&R

by Bill Flanagan

Publisher: Random House ISBN 0-375-75830-5 $ 12.95 Paperback

In "A&R", by Bill Flanagan, the hot A&R man Jim Cantone lands a head position at industry giant WorldWide Records, founded and still run by the legendary maverick Wild Bill DeGaul. It dawns on Jim he's just walked into the viper's nest and must either go against DeGaul in a conspiracy to oust him, or risk his job by standing by his new friend and mentor.

The character of Jim Cantone is caught between representing the heart of music and the capitalistic bottom line. When Jim wants to sign the aging folk singer Paul Slocum to do a new album, his boss J. B. Booth tells him he's selfish and presumptuous to think the rest of the world wants to listen to what he likes. Booth tells him to go out and find a "hootie," meaning the next mainstream pop star that will make him rich and help him retire early.

But in the same breath readers learn how making a pop star is about as predictable as roulette. The lesbian rock band Black Beauty do the exact opposite of everything their A&R rep Zoey Pavlov--who grudgingly works under Jim Cantone-- suggests; and, as a result, start a new craze called hip-hope, making record retail sales upon their release. Meanwhile, the band Jerusalem, nurtured and groomed by Jim Cantone, wined and dined by DeGaul, is making recordings on a luxurious beach in the tropics, acting in MTV videos, sacrificing their art just to get radio play and aren't coming close to touching a hit or landing on the billboard charts.

Flanagan brings tears to your eyes when telling of Zoey Pavlov's erratic, depressing climb to the big time, but he's also capable of the witty pop culture tricks we're all used to. In one chapter Cantone faces the decision of getting a new wardrobe to help him fit in at work. Proud of himself, he buys several new suits on sale at an imitation designer store. Thinking he'll blend in with the Gucci crowd, his zipper falls off in the bathroom right before an important meeting. The moral? Why men in the music business wear $3,000 suits from Prada.

The most intriguing thing about "A&R" is how it follows out the shirttails of rock and follows in the dawn of Britney Spears and hip-hop. At one point Zoey turns on MTV and watches a teenage female singer with fat injected in her lips and breast implants gyrate next to some men in a choreographed dance routine. Zoey is left asking herself what the music world has come to.

Bill Flanagan, senior vice president of VH1, where he created and still oversees the series Storytellers and Legends, comes across as an authority on pop music and today's music industry. At times one can't help but think the honest family man character Jim Cantone carries himself through these fictitious chaotic business issues (and even a few rock staresque tragedies) the same way Bill may have experienced them in his own career.

For people who really want to know what goes on behind the scenes of mainstream pop, but want to be entertained instead of lectured to, "A&R" is a great window to that world.

Evan Hundhausen

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