New HBO show Vinyl - Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business

Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business

  The record industry reaped huge profits from signing acts, but many went bankrupt and many acts were strangled under the weight of their contracts and faded into obscurity.  Heads of labels battled each other and their own ego.  Drugs, payola, sex, manipulation and mayhem ensued.   This would all make for great storytelling.   Now you can watch it unfold via the fictitious label, American Century Records, led by the fantastic train wreck of a man, Richie Finestra.  A new HBO show called Vinyl, written by Terence Winter of The Soprano's and Boardwalk Empire and is executive produced by Martin Scorcese and Mick Jagger.  Mick Jagger's son is even in a punk band called Dirty Bits, check out their kick drum which says Dirty Bitz.  A clever name either way.  Much of the music in the show is original and decent.  Some of the scenes are painful to watch and over the top.  Re-enacting historical events and using studio quality recording with audience chatter pumped in to emulate live sound while actor's lip sync can be a real downer.  The Led Zeppelin sequence is taken directly from a scene in Song Remains the Same and it is a big let-down.

I recommend reading a few books first to get an idea of how crazy the times were back in the 70's and 80's.

• Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business 

• Howling at the Moon: The Odyssey of a Monstrous Music Mogul in an Age of Excess

• Be Stiff: The Stiff Records Story

• The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun