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As the original home of The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Radiohead, Britain’sEMI Records boasts a rich musical history. But away from the recording studio,the label has been a mess for at least the past two decades. In The Rise & Fall of EMI Records,former EMI director Brian Southall explores the company’s extraordinary declinefrom greatness (particularly since the mid-1990s) in the form of rejectedtakeovers, unsuccessful mergers, executive changes, profit warnings and massiveartist and staff cuts. Don’t expect much about the music, though; this is adetailed and often dry account of front-office politics and backroom dealsinvolving head honchos with no background or interest in music. EMI’s historydates back to 1897, not long after the founding of the phonograph, and it stillranks as one of the world’s “big four” record companiesdespite its consistentstruggle for success in the U.S. market and slow embrace of rock music, compactdiscs and finally MP3s. Southall relentlessly interviewed former executives andmanagers, music journalists, financial analysts and staff at rival recordcompanies to emerge with a distressing depiction not simply of one company, butof an entire industry.
