The Soundtrack of Your Life

John Seabrook has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1993. The author of several books including Nobrow, Seabrook has taught narrative non-fiction writing at Princeton University. His latest book is The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory (W.W. Norton & Co.). Over the last two decades a new type of song has emerged. Today’s hits bristle with “hooks,” musical burrs designed to snag your ear every seven seconds. Traveling from New York to Los Angeles, Stockholm to Korea, John Seabrook visits specialized teams composing songs in digital labs with novel techniques, and he traces the growth of these contagious hits from their origins in early ’90s Sweden to their ubiquity on today’s charts. Featuring the stories of artists like Katy Perry, Britney Spears, and Rihanna, as well as expert songsmiths like Max Martin, Ester Dean, and Dr. Luke, The Song Machine will change the way you listen to music.