John Seabrook

New Yorker staff writer John Seabrook tells a fascinating story of creativity and commerce that explains how songs have become so addictive.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. Painstakingly crafted to tweak the brain’s delight in melody, rhythm, and repetition, these songs are industrial-strength products made for malls, casinos, the gym, and the Super Bowl halftime show. The tracks are so catchy, and so potent, that you can’t not listen to them.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.

The riveting saga of the Seabrooks of New Jersey, by one of the New Yorker’s most acclaimed storytellers.“Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldn’t bear to tell it himself.So begins the multigenerational story of a forgotten American dynasty, a farming family from the bean fields of southern New Jersey that became as wealthy, glamorous, and powerful as Gilded Age aristocrats. The autocratic patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the “Henry Ford of agriculture.” His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called “the biggest vegetable factory on earth.” But the carefully cultivated facade—glamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden cellars of world-class wine, and movie stars skinny-dipping in the pool—hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business. In a compulsively readable story of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge, John Seabrook explores his complicated family legacy and dark corners of the American Dream.

From John Seabrook, one of our most incisive and amusing cultural critics, comes Nobrow , a fascinatingly original look at the radical convergence of marketing and culture.In the old days, highbrow was elite and unique and lowbrow was commercial and mass-produced. Those distinctions have been eradicated by a new cultural landscape where “good” means popular, where artists show their work at K-Mart, Titantic becomes a bestselling classical album, and Roseanne Barr guest edits The New Yorker : in short, a culture of Nobrow . Combining social commentary, memoir, and profiles of the potentates and purveyors of pop culture–entertainment mogul David Geffen, MTV President Judy McGrath, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Nobrow high-priest George Lucas, and others–Seabrook offers an enthralling look at our breakneck society where culture is ruled by the unpredictable Buzz and where even aesthetic worth is measured by units shipped.

It seems like every year, the holiday season arrives earlier and earlier. Before Halloween’s ghosts and ghouls have even had their chance to come out of the shadows, sleigh bells and ribbons begin to materialize at the mall and towering tinsel-tinged trees appear in our living rooms. But the most telltale sign of the arrival of yuletide festivities is the unceasingly merry melody of the seasonal songbook, from "Silent Night" to "Santa Baby." Love them or loathe them, these holiday earworms are here to stay. But how do these songs endure for decades? And why are there so few contemporary Christmas carols?In this holly jolly Audible Original, New York Times bestselling author and New Yorker columnist John Seabrook uncovers the mysteries of the holiday music machine, exploring how these hits were made and why they’ve dominated the soundwaves each and every winter. From the mid-century reign of songwriter Johnny Marks ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") to the manufactured musical nostalgia of modern holiday hits like "All I Want for Christmas Is You," Seabrook, alongside a cast of singers, songwriters, and producers, reveals the untold stories behind the songs that have us rockin’ around the Christmas tree year after year.

Flash of Genius And Other True Stories of Invention by John Seabrook, staff writer for The New Yorker , is a collection of true stories about where great ideas come from, and is the basis for the Major Motion Picture starring Greg Kinnear releasing October 2008."John Seabrook is one of America's finest non-fiction writers….Fascinating, entertaining, beautifully written and often poignant…"―Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food NationWhere Do Great Ideas Come From?In Flash of Genius , John Seabrook explores the moment when inspiration strikes in an otherwise average life, and what happens when that idea moves out into the larger culture and takes on a life―and commercial possibilities―of its own. The title piece in this collection is the David v. Goliath story of Bob Kearns, a professor and inventor who came up with something we all use every chance we the intermittent windshield wiper. When Kearns' patents were infringed, he fought General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, and eventually prevailed in a classic American story of never giving up, never backing down.Seabrook has been fascinated by stories of invention and entrepreneurship since childhood, when he grew up with an uncle who invented something as ubiquitous as Bob Kearns' boil-in-bag vegetables. In Flash of Genius , Seabrook also writes about his family's invention and about thirteen other iconoclastic visions that turned into the stuff of every day.

With a winning combination of bemusement, frustration, and affection, John Seabrook takes us along on his personal journey from "newbie" to old hand in cyberspace. Along the way, he sheds light on the history of the Internet and how it evolved from a geeky hobby into an important part of mainstream popular culture, and in engaging, often hilarious descriptions he de mystifies this new, ever-expanding world. For anyone thinking about getting on-line, for computer hacks interested in comparing notes, and even for nodrivers on the information highway, Deeper is a one-of-a-kind guidebook, at once informative, evocative, and beautifully written.