One can be forgiven for assuming, by both cover and title, that APPETITE FOR SELF-DESTRUCTION: THE SPECTACULAR CRASH OF THE RECORD INDUSTRY IN THE DIGITAL AGE is about how Napster and iTunes effectively killed the old-school model of music delivery. Wrong. That battle comprises just a couple of chapters.
Thankfully, Steve Knopper’s book has far wider scope, detailing three decades’ worth of misbegotten moves and stupid steps taken by the industry, dating back to the death of disco. The record labels have dug their own grave, through both greed and shortsightedness, and APPETITE details how, in a narrative every bit as addictive as the three-minute, radio-ready single.
As the best works of nonfiction are, the book is full of stunning, real-life stories. For example, CD technology was created back in the 1960s, by a guy who feared his classical records would one day wear out. The record industry, however, continued to poo-poo the idea, thinking it would never catch on. (As we now know, it not only saved the industry’s ass in the 1990s, but made it bigger than ever before.) One of the labels’ major arguments against introducing CDs was that the public already had two choices — vinyl and cassettes — and besides, who wants to tell record stores they’ll have to reconfigure their racks?
Better yet is how the industry screwed themselves by phasing out the single, instead wanting to public to buy the whole album. This accounts for how one-hit wonders like OMC, Baha Men and Chumbawumba were able to move millions of units, but the downside is that it paved for the way for the likes of Napster to fill the single void … and we all know how that turned out.
Villains? There are plenty, but Walter Yetnikoff and Tommy Mottola, both presidents of CBS Records/Sony Music, stand out as prime examples of the worst the industry’s leaders: wasting money, making enemies, acting like babies, and more interested in their own bottom line than anything else. With guys like these, the reader wants to see them suffer defeat.
Knopper writes for ROLLING STONE, but I haven’t seen pieces like this in the mag of late. If there were, the periodical might be relevant again, because APPETITE serves as a solid piece of music journalism: factual but dangerous. It also works as a cautionary tale that one can’t stave progress. Trying to do so will only hurt you in the long run. Just ask all the laid-off music executives. —Rod Lott
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An excellent review of a very worthy book — especially for those of us who remember “classic rock” before it became classic, and wonder what went wrong. This book will help explain it.
Interestingly, though, vinyl records are making a comeback. For all the convenience of digital, there’s something about the warmth of the sound from vinyl that they can’t duplicate. I was dubious about the articles I was seeing about vinyl’s comeback, thinking that there would be probably be small, limited selections, but walked into a Newbury Comics and their vinyl recrod section was every bit as large as stores used to have 20+ years ago.
Thanks for the heads up on this one! After I read the review I went to audible.com and bought the audiobook (sadly my main form of literary intake these days). Can’t wait to give it a listen, especially after listening to Yetnitkoff’s alternately self-wounding/aggrandizing HOWLING AT THE MOON.
Newbury Comics…… sigh. I probably bought 500 CDs from that place in college.