The Song Machine: How to Make a Hit

How do you make a song a global smash hit that is guaranteed to make $millions?

Who are the hit-manufacturers that can create a tune that is so catchy, so wildly addictive, that it sticks in the minds of millions of listeners?

And who are the powerful few that have the capacity to transform, say, a young Barbadian woman called Robyn Rihanna Fenty into the global megastar that is Rihanna?

In The Song Machine, John Seabrook dissects the workings of this machine, travelling the world to reveal its hidden formulas, and interview its geniuses – ‘the hitmakers’ – at the centre of it all. Hilarious and jaw-droppingly shocking, this book will change how you think and feel about music, as well as how you listen to it.

“This is a fascinating tale about an amazing phenomenon” – Walter Isaacson, author of ‘Steve Jobs’

“Seabrook subtly explores not only the insides of a song, but how a song gets inside us” – Observer

“Revealing, frightening, funny and unsettling” – Roddy Doyle