Rock On: An Office Power Ballad
by Dan Kennedy
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
music/office people
Did you know the average American reads 1-4 books a year?*
Given that I probably read 0-1 books last year (but probably 20,000 blog posts), one of my resolutions for 2008 was to read more books. In my quest to defeat mediocrity, I’ve conquered a few books in the past few weeks, most recently Dan Kennedy’s new music industry bio, Rock On: An Office Power Ballad.
The book is not so much a biography of Kennedy’s life as a whole, but a snapshot into the 18 months of his life as a creativ...more
Given that I probably read 0-1 books last year (but probably 20,000 blog posts), one of my resolutions for 2008 was to read more books. In my quest to defeat mediocrity, I’ve conquered a few books in the past few weeks, most recently Dan Kennedy’s new music industry bio, Rock On: An Office Power Ballad.
The book is not so much a biography of Kennedy’s life as a whole, but a snapshot into the 18 months of his life as a creativ...more
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Read in March, 2008
A part of me is amazed this "book" even got published, but then I remind myself that books about inspecting your own excrement get published, as do little business fables involving rodents and hyperkinetic dairy products. Not only that, but people buy them in large numbers. So who's to fault Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill for choosing to roll the dice on this one?
Oh, what the hell, I'll step forward and chastise them. If there was ever a book that really had no need to be published...more
Oh, what the hell, I'll step forward and chastise them. If there was ever a book that really had no need to be published...more
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Read in February, 2008
A memoir about a short-lived middle-management advertising job at a major record label in the early '00s; right as the label starts to suffer financially, probably because of downloading.
The author presents himself as this awkward screw-up who stumbled into a full-time job through a little freelance work and a lot of dumb luck. As soon as he gets the job, he sets himself apart from his coworkers, projecting an aloof attitude. Reading it, I got the feeling that he wanted to seem "cooler&...more
The author presents himself as this awkward screw-up who stumbled into a full-time job through a little freelance work and a lot of dumb luck. As soon as he gets the job, he sets himself apart from his coworkers, projecting an aloof attitude. Reading it, I got the feeling that he wanted to seem "cooler&...more
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Read in March, 2008
On Friday afternoon, while sitting in the choir room at my old high school where my mother plays piano as a volunteer, I finished up Dan Kennedy’s Rock On. It was an ironic setting to be reading this book - with so many students dreaming, as Kennedy did, of becoming a rock star - but the reading moment was stellar. As was the book. . .
Kennedy is funny, really funny. In this book about his semi-unexpected employment at a major record label where he has to make ads for Phil Collins and partici...more
Kennedy is funny, really funny. In this book about his semi-unexpected employment at a major record label where he has to make ads for Phil Collins and partici...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
aging rock stars.
Rock On: An office power ballad by Dan Kennedy is an unapologetic Gen-X book about the author's experiences inside a corporate record label that straddles the line between memoir and novel. It is wry, sarcastic, neurotic and self-referential in all the ways that we (as gen-exers and post gen-exers) have come to love in our media. There are lists and side notes on fake bands and real bands and almost-were artists and have-been artists, not to mention the casual references to real public figures...more
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Read in February, 2008
Having spent the majority of my 45 years working in the industry we call music I have always said that it was extremely backwards. Dan Kennedy proves this an more in this hilarious look at his time spent at Atlantic Records in 2002. It takes place right around the time Bronfman bought the Warner Music Group. His descriptions of fellow record executives were spot on. I think I also worked with Angry New Media Chick, Aging Robert Wagner look alike guy and of course the highest level executive and ...more
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recommends it for:
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Rock On
by Dan Kennedy
Does life in corporate America baffle you? Do you catch yourself theorizing regularly about how executives make 7 digits a YEAR? What is it they DO? Rock On doesn't explain any of this satisfactorily, but it does allow its reader a reprieve from the seriousness of it all.
When I picked up this book I approached it cautiously. I don't normally get excited about pop culture memoirs and I didn't expect this to be any different. I was very interested in reading a memoir...more
by Dan Kennedy
Does life in corporate America baffle you? Do you catch yourself theorizing regularly about how executives make 7 digits a YEAR? What is it they DO? Rock On doesn't explain any of this satisfactorily, but it does allow its reader a reprieve from the seriousness of it all.
When I picked up this book I approached it cautiously. I don't normally get excited about pop culture memoirs and I didn't expect this to be any different. I was very interested in reading a memoir...more
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Read in February, 2008
I’ve noticed an alarming trend in the want ads lately. It seems “rock star” is the adjective du jour when describing the employees that companies want to hire. Even Hell, Inc. is looking for “rock stars” now that they got rid of all of us mid-tempo balladeers.
It’s an interesting choice of words, and maybe only a nerdy copywriter would think so. When I think rock star I think moody, substance-user/abuser, works odd hours, doesn’t practice good hygiene or moral judgment. I fit th...more
It’s an interesting choice of words, and maybe only a nerdy copywriter would think so. When I think rock star I think moody, substance-user/abuser, works odd hours, doesn’t practice good hygiene or moral judgment. I fit th...more
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Read in March, 2008
Irritating. Kennedy got a job at Atlantic Records in 2001 or so, and the place was most definitely not rockin'. He works there 18 months, then gets let go when it gets bought out. Some good stories about office etiquette (great bit about how hard it is to talk to bosses' dogs with the correct marriage of friendliness and formality), but the whole attitude is really problematic: it's like he's too cool to really want to do a good job, so he has to mock the place; but of course that sort of irony ...more
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Read in March, 2008
Kennedy, a lifelong music enthusiast, finally realizes his professional ambition when he becomes a marketing director for a smaller music label that is part of the Time Warner Music Group in the mid-2000s. However, all is not just hanging out with musicians and writing great PR bits and receiving recognition when "your band" goes platinum. In fact, it becomes a game of survival and professional backstabbing in an industry where being able to say "I discovered Led Zeppelin" mi...more
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Read in February, 2008
I really enjoyed this book but I don't know that everyone will as I think it speaks to a niche audience - that of course being people who have seen the horrible inside of the music industry and at the same time have worked in a horrible corporate office environment.
I think this could still be enjoyable if you don't fall into that category, but if you do happen to fall into the niche you'll feel like everything Dan Kennedy is writing is what you've been thinking all along. Though my experien...more
I think this could still be enjoyable if you don't fall into that category, but if you do happen to fall into the niche you'll feel like everything Dan Kennedy is writing is what you've been thinking all along. Though my experien...more
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Read in March, 2008
The back of the book says it's a weird mix between This Is Spinal Tap and The Office. Uh, no. At least the people on the Office are likable. Imagine if Ryan Howard went to work at a record company instead of starting Dunder Mifflin Infinity. Yeah.
The thing is, Dan Kennedy is funny (especially his discussion questions at the end of the book) but everyone is sort of an ass in this book, even him. I got really sick of his, "Oh m god, I have no clue how to work a 9-5 or at a record c...more
The thing is, Dan Kennedy is funny (especially his discussion questions at the end of the book) but everyone is sort of an ass in this book, even him. I got really sick of his, "Oh m god, I have no clue how to work a 9-5 or at a record c...more
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Read in April, 2008
Dan Kennedy is a brave soul. Most people recently fired a reasonably high management position at a major record label would curl up into the fetal position for 3-6 months and re-access their career path. Instead Kennedy decided to write a witty expose on the music business that rightly captures the sad state that corporate music business has become. It's funny. Not Chuck Klosterman funny, but definitely worth reading. The honesty with which Kennedy approaches this effort is amazing. I was thinki...more
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Read in February, 2008
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recommended to Cale by:
New QP table.
recommends it for: Ryan Bergenthal
recommends it for: Ryan Bergenthal
I really enjoyed this book. This guy is really funny, but it never seems like he's trying too hard. That's important. I have to admit that I probably would have given this one about 4.5 stars, but then I found an email address embedded in the joke discussion questions at the back of the book, and what the hell, I emailed the author. (Supposedly.) I tried to be funny in my email. I tried to hard. But here's where the extra .5 star rating comes in. He emailed me back! And he was really ni...more
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Read in March, 2008
Hipster lit types will know from his work at mcsweeneys.net that Kennedy is first and foremost an absurdist. Secondly, a sort of Morrissey-meets-Sedaris type who spins miserablism into keen observation and laughs for the shoe-gazer set. This is bliss for some and a little bit like being drugged then robbed for others. One shouldn't enter into "Rock On" expecting a top-level executive shake down of the music industry. Instead plan to feel a bit like meeting a tortured and semi-neurotic...more
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Read in February, 2008
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The end of this book was great...really funny and very realistic if you've ever worked for a bloated company and suffered layoffs. But way too much of this book was loaded with Kennedy's snarky ironic humor, which was hard to take in such huge doses. When he mixes up the pot shots (and I understand there are so many places to take them when describing life at a major label) with a little humility the book flows well. When he doesn't, he's a smug writer offering little insight that those of us wo...more
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Read in May, 2008
I didn't enjoy Rock On nearly as much as I thought I would. Dan Kennedy lucked into a job at a major record label in 2002. So sure, it's a dying industry. And even under the best circumstances, learning how the sausage is made is never fun. And too bad he didn't feel qualified for this job he doesn't even really like. But guess what, Dan, we're all working in dying industries we thought would be glamourous at jobs we don't feel ...more
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Read in March, 2008
A funny quick read by McSweeney's contributer Dan Kennedy about his time working as a marketing executive for a major record label. At moments, it is hilarious, like when his boss brings a small toy dog to work with her and Kennedy imagines bringing his own rabid mangy dog named "taco" to the office. I was cracking up. At other times, it feels as though Kennedy is trying to hard to be funny, which drove me a little crazy. On a whole, I thought it was a good glimpse into the working of ...more
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