Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and Hustlers of the Warner Music Group

The single most-missed aspect in most articles, reviews and books about popular music, and particularly about the period of the 60's and 70's is the fact that it was a business. There are many excellent pieces written on the music and cultural changes of the era, but the details and even the existence of the business that underlay the entire thing gets barely a mention. Yet the business side of music controlled who was signed, how they were promoted, who got airplay and how it was distributed in a way that made it almost a co-creator of the whole phenomenon. In studying this vital period, it is as important to know the business history as it is any other aspect of it.In a way, the "record business" was almost too successful, in that the songs seemed to appear before you out of nowhere, and just as miraculously, the record would be in the bins to be purchased; the work of hundreds of people, the big organizations, the payola, the agents and the deals all hidden away, unnoticed.Stan Cornyn was uniquely positioned as one of the original employees of Warner Brothers Music from its founding in the Fifties, through its heyday as the world's biggest music label group in the Seventies and Eighties, to its later decline. Not only that, but he became a major executive within the company but was a creative, music person and not a 'Suit". I first noticed him as a writer of Frank Sinatra's liner notes (for which he won Grammy awards) and also of delightfully over-the-top notes for Petula Clark's LP's. He went on as head of Warner's advertising and promotion to be a major creator of a label whose atmosphere appealed to the new crowd of singer-songwriters and rock stars who wanted to sign with this label and not its stodgy competitors.Warner-Atlantic and later Asylum and others of the group became so big largely because of this perceived hipness during a period when almost all the other labels were completely out to sea about what was going on in music and often survived only because of a lucky signing of a Bob Dylan (Columbia) or Beatles (Capitol). And Cornyn was there it the thick of it, observing everything from the days when it was smaller than some of the independents to the Time-Warner merger and beyond. This is what makes the book so vital; that he found himself in the middle of the most signifigant label of the era, and not some also ran like RCA or Capitol.It's telling that the early part of the book is focused on artists and creative, music-involved executives like the Erteguns and Mo Ostin and that the later part reads like a history of the Borgias as corporate suits take over and launch plots and counter plots against each other. Throughout it all Cornyn presents a keenly observed story in a witty and enjoyable way.Let's deal with the problem that readers like reviewer Terry Saundry had. If you're looking for a book about the lives of rock stars full of stories and interviews, this is not it. Nor is it a work of aesthetic criticism of the music or a cultural history of the rock revolution of the mid Twentieth Century. It is indeed, a business history, but an important and vital one if one is looking to understand that era and what happened to subsequently change it: like Sallust says of Rome, it got too big and rich for its own good, and then the money-men moved in.It might have been advisable to include a mention of the business nature of the book in the title because Mr. Saundry's complaint is a valid one. Also, as one gets later on in the book when the cast of corporate characters are not exactly well known music-associated names like David Geffen, a glossary of names and who they were would have been helpful. As it was, I took notes to remember just who these names were. Otherwise we are very lucky that Mr. Cornyn was where he was for so long, and had the talent to produce such an excellent and necessary book.

Great book!

Let me start by saying that I'm a 20-year veteran of rock 'n roll radio in the 80s and 90s, and a lifelong devotee of rock music, beginning in the decades prior. Some of these tales I'd heard during my years on the air as industry scuttlebut; many I'd never heard before, but one thing is clear: Stan Cornyn is the man to tell them.Cornyn worked his way from an anonymous liner-note jockey in the '50s, during Warner's formative years, to its Communications Director in the '70s and '80s, to head of the Warner New Media division in the '90s. He was there when Jack Warner nearly pulled the plug; there when Mo Ostin got the big chair, there when Atlantic, then Elektra came into the WEA fold. He saw it all firsthand, and as a talented writer should, weaves a tale that any rock music fan, record collector or follower of the Hollywood machine will find absolutely spellbinding.I guarantee: when you're done with this, you'll want more. Luckily, you can cruise over to the Rhino Records website and get it, where Stan is now writing a twice-weekly column that fills in the gaps and gives many, many personal recollections of everyone from Dick & Dee Dee to Neil Young.Recommended highly for music lovers - vinyl lovers especially - and anyone who looks back with fondness on the days when you could happily spend an afternoon of discovery pawing through the bins at your local record store, staring at cover art and reading liner notes, charting your own path through the universe of pop music. A+++. An easy 5 stars.

Stan Cornyn could write. For proof of this, simply check the liner notes on the back cover of the fabulous 1967 album Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Thankfully, he wrote for a living, and then he wrote about that. There is no better, more entertaining read on American pop culture than this book. Booksellers jacked up the price for decent-quality used copies of "EXPLODING" when Stan died in May of 2015 to $300 (no, no decimal point---three hundred dollars), hoping the effusive obits in the Timeses (New York and Los Angeles) would create demand.Nope.They gradually ratcheted down the price over the last year and a half and now they're back to under $20 for a like new copy---$10 or so for a good-condition. Buy it.

Not only is this a wonderful and ambitious book by Cornyn & Scanlon, but it is also a great tool for young musicians because this book takes the mystery out of the record business. Cornyn has a wonderful appreciation for great stories, but he's also bright and is able to recount the stories behind the signings of artists and the whys in great detail. He also captures the energy and team effort of all of those Powers-That-Be (Were) at Warners because it was for the love of the music.The turning point in the book is when after an exhaustive 8-10 hr meeting about sales units, how to change the corporate structure Cornyn got into this car to drive home and realized that during the whole 8 - 10 hr meeting, no one mentioned music. These guys were from the streets and got into the industry because of their passion for music.The pace of the book is terrific, starts at the biginning of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Studio, builds up to the peak, then the reader is slowly let down when Cornyn starts talking numbers instead of artists.It's a fun ride thru the "inside track"....enjoy!

What you expect is an insider's view of rock stars based on the promotion of the book and even its cover. What you get is a celebration of the excessive salaries, perks, and benefits of record company executives, the writer himself being one of them. Nothing new here. We already knew Mo Ostin was a revered figure. We already knew all these jerks snorted cocaine non-stop. We already knew they screwed over artists. I never return books, but I returned this one.

Ever wondered how the record industry changed from a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs to today’s massively leveraged corporations?That’s the (possibly unintentional) sub-text of this wonderful work by the highly readable author.Stuffed full of insight into the heady days of Warner Brothers & Reprise Records during the 60s & 70s when it seems like every day was an adventure, and helps to explain how the record industry has been reshaped into the beast it is today.Worth reading alongside Follow The Music, by Jac Holzman which tells a similar story, this time from the heart of Elektra records.

Anybody who has, or is interested in working in the music industry should read this book. It's highly nostalgic in tone, recalling an era when melding business with creativity and art meant something, when execs could tell the difference between an E-flat and an email. However, you can probably find hints to what is wrong with the record business of today, with its lagging sales and factory-line output of 3-minute singles that sound the same. At the end of the day it's all about the quality and boldness of the music itself, the artists who create the music, and of course, having the ear to discover them.