Deconstructing Pop Culture

There was a brief note in today’s New York Times by Michael J. de la Merced, “Suit Accuses Citigroup of Fraud in EMI Deal.” It states the private equity company Terra Firma has filed a lawsuit against Citigroup in connection with Terra Firma’s acquisition of EMI in May 2007 for $4.8 billion. The gist of the [...]

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Marc Cohn is a performing artist. Let me start off by saying it is not my intention to be disrespectful to him. He has had plenty of travails in his life, including being shot in the head. However he is a perfect illustration of what happened as the record business migrated from its former template, [...]

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An article in the December 7, 2007 New York Times by Patrick McGeehan, “Vinyl Records and Turntables Are Gaining Sales,” discusses the resurgence of vinyl long-playing records. They still however remain a miniscule fraction of the marketplace. The transition from LPs to vinyl started in the mid-1980s and had snowballed by the early 1990s. I recall [...]

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In support of a recent post at the musicindustynewsletter, here are copies of the three main agreements between the Beatles, Capitol Records and EMI Records.
1962 Agreement
1967 Agreement
1969 Agreement
[They are matters of public record having been filed in various litigations in New York and London.]
 

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In support of a recent post on musicindustrynewswire, here are the actual sales figures for the period 1964 – 1985:
Beatles Sales 1964 – 1985
This figure visually depicts the same information:
 

On the subject of Beatles’ bootlegs, see Charles Reinhart, You Can’t Do That – Beatles Bootlegs & Novelty Records (1981).  It has a total of 891 [...]

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Here is a selection of annual reports from CBS. I post these to support articles I have written elsewhere on the www and as part of my on-going project to make accessible earlier reports from influential entertainment companies. The same caveats that pertain to the Warner Communications reports also apply here.
CBS 1970 Annual [...]

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Here are the Annual Reports for Warner Communications; Time Warner; AOL Time Warner; and the Warner Music Group.  In some cases I have substituted what the Securities and Exchange Commission calls “Form 10-K,” which is a different version of the annual report (typically with more information).  Some of the ones from the 1970s are copies [...]

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One of the great things about being in the entertainment business is the multitude of innovative ways people think of to rip you off.  A good example is Robert Kardashian, late attorney for O.J. Simpson.  His ex-wife and children now have gained notoriety as a result of their stupid television show “Keeping Up with the [...]

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Amidst the decline and fall of the record business, there is one issue that has yet to be addressed, which is the problem of singers who do not clearly articulate their words.  More often than not, the singer in the band is the focal point for audience attention.  The singer ostensibly is charged with fronting [...]

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African-American spirituality has been expressed in a profound musical tradition dating back to the first days of slavery in the United States.  One of the genre’s consistent lyrical themes is the temporality of life, its transience and impermanence, the problem of evil, and the promise of a better world to come.  Jimi Hendrix explored these [...]

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