Inside The Music Business: The Power Players...Conversations With Eric Kline- Joann D. Ball

BOOK REVIEW: Inside The Music Business: The Power Players...

Conversations With Eric Kline (E. Kline Publications)

- Joann D. Ball

When you need to know the real deal, you've got to go straight to the source. And that's just what Eric Kline has done in Inside The Music Business: The Power Players... Conversations With Eric Kline. Kline is the former Senior Producer for The Box Music Network, and is now the head of E. Kline Productions, a South Florida-based video production company which has delivered videos for such superstars as Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette, Aerosmith and Gloria Estefan, and has also produced television programming for comedians Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and Denis Leary.

The innovative Inside The Music Business: The Power Players... Conversations With Eric Kline is the first offering from E. Kline Publications, which was launched in late 1999. A unique blend of audio and text, it covers a range of critical issues such as getting a record deal, working in and using radio and video, and the future of the record industry. In the lengthy book and 2-CD set which he calls "Infotainment," Kline has insightful conversations with over 40 power players from various sectors of the music industry. His interviews with recording artists, record and video company executives, media specialists, managers, producers, and others include brief biographical sketches and select portions from phone and in-person conversations. Kline's interview approach is straightforward, clear and direct, and he manages to get industry movers and shakers to share their experiences, knowledge, and expertise. And Kline also gets them to reveal just how they became power players, while also given them an opportunity to offer valuable advice for those breaking into the music business.

After a brief introduction of Inside The Music Business: The Power Players... Conversations With Eric Kline, Disc 1 starts with an in-depth conversation with pioneering rap and hip-hop power player Russell Simmons, conducted in 1998. "We had to create our own through the street," Simmons reminds listeners of the history of the format which reshaped popular music. Simmons' critical overview the development of this innovative sound and style sheds much light on issues and difficulties which are now taken for granted some 20 years after rap and hip-hop's emergence. Not surprisingly, Simmons offers the do-it-yourself approach as the best route to success for emerging hip-hop artists. And in so doing, his advice has more to do with the grass roots, up from the streets approach that has always been hip hop's foundation than with current trends in the developing Internet-based music business. In fact, when Kline asks him about the impact of the Internet on the music industry, Simmons responds matter-of-factly that "it will take a little longer than people think."

Also included on Disc 1 are conversations with Les Garland and recording artists Boyz II Men and Michael Bivins. Kline's 14-minute conversation with Garland, who moved from MTV after its first six years to international music channel The Box Music Network and now runs his own music entertainment company, provides a crucial historical context for the development of music video. And Kline's free flowing conversation with Boyz II Men generates this advice to new and developing artists: "surround yourself with positive people, surround yourself with people that truly care about you and have your best interest at heart and know what they're doing."

A conversation with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the only non-urban music artists included on the audio portion of the release, begins Disc #2. The band provides a brief overview of its history before explaining their sound as "definitely music made popular in the '30s and '40s which people know as swing." Big Bad Voodoo Daddy also reveals that fashion is so important to what they do because "that's the roots that this music was formed on." But the most important contribution of Kline's conversation with the ground breaking band is the acknowledgement of the level of dedication, perseverance and vision required to expose and advance a genre of music largely considered the antithesis of contemporary popular music.

"Keepin' it real" is the message DJ Kid Capri delivers in his conversation with Kline. The 13-minute interview with one of the industry's hottest DJs, follows interviews with BET's "Rap City" host Joe Clair, Bay Area hip-hop entrepreneur E-40 and Houston, Texas hip-hop entrepreneur J. Prince. DJ Kid Capri is honest and straight to the point as he urges wanna-be DJs to avoid payola and polish their skills in order to make it. "In order for a DJ to get known, to be out there, he has to do a lot of parties, he has to do tapes, he has to promote himself, get some pictures,and just make yourself known like anybody else."

The conversations featured in the book, which include artists Ice Cube and Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony and powerbrokers from across the music industry, are presented in an easy to read question/answer format. The conversations are also organized thematically, beginning with artist-related issues and covering management, public relations, DJ-related issues, music video, and general music business matters. And the interviews for each section are followed by an informative substantive list of essentials for that area of the industry, including "Essentials of Artist and Producer Royalty Computation" and "Essentials of Internships."

Inside The Music Business: The Power Players... Conversations With Eric Kline is a fresh approach to providing much needed information, context and advice for breaking into one of the most difficult but much sought after industries. Rather than focusing on the major companies and their internal structures, or offering a list of names, numbers and contacts, Eric Kline provides the real 411 that can make or break a music business career.

To criticize Kline's conversations from being too focused on power players involved in rap and hip-hop, however, underscores just how rock music centered the music industry has been and how rock, pop and rock/alternative music has often been considered the only genres warranting serious examination and attention. On the contrary, Kline should be praised for channeling his insider knowledge of rap and hip-hop, hard earned from his many years at The Box Music Network and his more recent ventures in his own video production, into a tool that can benefit those seeking a career in the music industry. And the fact that he focuses on breaking into the most difficult and still woefully undervalued part of the music business in Inside The Music Business: The Power Players...Conversations With Eric Kline proves that these particular hard knock lessons are really the ones containing universal value.