That's how Vanity Fair described the record business turmoil of the 1990s, which moved the Warner Music Group -- the world's number one record company -- from the entertainment pages to the front pages. Suddenly, decades of riotous fun and booming business went splat. Top music executives got evicted from their offices, some escorted by company guards. Why? The answers are in Exploding -- the most insightful and delightful book about the record business ever written. In the rock explosion of the Sixties and Seventies, Warner Bros., Atlantic, and Elektra Records dominated the business as the Warner Music Group. But by the Nineties, the success of WMG was shaken by egos and corporate politics that left the company struggling for identity in a dramatically changing industry. This is the story of that long, strange trip. Your host is the ultimate insider: Stan Cornyn, a key creative force behind the Warner Music Group's stunning rise. During more than thirty years at the company, Cornyn went through what the news media could never uncover. In a freewheeling, vastly entertaining narrative, Cornyn takes us behind the scenes, seats us in the conference rooms, and shows us the interactions between the stars and the suits -- using the same irreverent wit that produced the marketing campaigns that helped put Warner on the map. Exploding is populated by music stars like Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Lil' Kim, Dr. Dre, the Grateful Dead, Queen, Madonna, Ice-T, Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, Neil Young, Alice Cooper, and dozens more, even the legendary supergroup Scorpio. (Never heard of Scorpio? You'll find out why.) And it introduces you to the most colorful businesspeople ever: hyperintense record sellers who shave their heads; throw doves off a roof; send pig heads through the mail; provide the money, meds, and mammaries -- anything -- to get their records on the air. Here is the music business as you've never seen it: at its wildest, in its wackiest fifty years, bursting with hits and cash, until, by the end, it's just plain Exploding. A creative executive at Warner Bros. Records for 30 years, Cornyn presents a provocative, witty, and engrossing insider's story of that label and the cutthroat machinations of the record industry. Beginning with the takeover of Warner Bros. Pictures by the despicable Jack Warner, he charts the rise of Warner Records in the late 1950s with Mike Maitland, who first brought success to the label. He then moves to the merger of Warner Bros. Records with Frank Sinatra's Reprise label, its absorption of successful independents Atlantic and Elektra, and the buyout of Warner by Steve Ross of Kinney National, who created Warner Communications. Cornyn continues with Warner's assimilation of Asylum Records, its merger with Time, and its eventual union with Ted Turner's communications empire. Giving little emphasis to the artists except as fleeting commodities, the author graphically reveals the transition of Warner from a fledgling record company dedicated to unearthing the newest music trends to a corporate conglomerate obsessed with greater market share and escalating profits. Fans of record mogul tell-alls will enjoy this. Highly recommended for popular music collections. Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. If anyone knows the whole story of the Warner Music Group, which in its heyday included the high-flying Atlantic, Elektra, and Reprise pop labels, Cornyn does. He started working there in the '50s, stayed, and prospered, writing liner notes before progressing to greater responsibilities and winning more Grammys than the Singing Nun. Of course, this book isn't as much about music as about the corporate machinations anent packaging and merchandising music, so there is way more of David Geffen and Mo Ostin than of Sinatra and Zappa in it. So what? Sleazy business practices in the recording industry have made fun reading before, and they still do. On the other hand, Cornyn includes plenty on what the likes of James Taylor, Led Zeppelin, the Dead, and the Stones are really like, so stargazers can't grouse too much. Meanwhile, Cornyn's deposition will seem absolutely essential to those who still would like to know why grown-ups consistently give such ludicrously lucrative deals to adolescents with guitars. Mike Tribby Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved “A provocative, witty, and engrossing insider’s story.” (Library Journal) “Terrific. . . one of the most authoritative books on the now-past golden age of the music business.” (Miami Herald) “Cornyn’s dead-on history...will delight music-biz enthusiasts.” (Blender) “Captures well the humorous sidelights of a business that is part magic, part hucksterism.” (Los Angeles Times) “As fly-on-the-wall tomes go, Exploding rates five flies, thanks to the plethora of dish.” (Entertainment Weekly) Two-time Grammy Award winner Stan Cornyn be