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plaidbrarian 's review for:
Kind of a mixed bag, because it's really three books in one.
The bulk of the book was devoted to the executive level stuff with the people who founded the network (and argued over credit for that) and the various corporate overlords who'd come later. These folks all led lives that were crazier and more rock star-like than any of the VJs ever did if the stories are to be believed, but after a while all of the boardroom stuff makes this indistinguishable from any other business history you've ever read (David Lee Roth coke binge stories aside).
Then there's the behind-the-scenes info on the VJs and programming, which was interesting but there wasn't nearly enough of that. All we really learn about the VJs is that the original 5 (except maybe JJ Jackson) were all pretty insecure about their jobs and their abilities to do them, Adam Curry and Downtown Julie Brown hated each other, Kevin Seal never even really wanted to be there (which, really, only makes me like the dude even more).
Then there's a TON of information about the music video industry a whole - how it went from something European artists did when they just didn't want to show up for Top of the Pops to people dancing badly in front of green screens to stuff like Thriller and beyond. And while that's great for context, I think there's a little too much of that, and maybe that could and should be a book on its own.
In the end, I wanted a lot more information about what I was seeing on my TV as a kid and a teenager, and a lot less about which execs bagged which women while partying with Rod Stewart.
The bulk of the book was devoted to the executive level stuff with the people who founded the network (and argued over credit for that) and the various corporate overlords who'd come later. These folks all led lives that were crazier and more rock star-like than any of the VJs ever did if the stories are to be believed, but after a while all of the boardroom stuff makes this indistinguishable from any other business history you've ever read (David Lee Roth coke binge stories aside).
Then there's the behind-the-scenes info on the VJs and programming, which was interesting but there wasn't nearly enough of that. All we really learn about the VJs is that the original 5 (except maybe JJ Jackson) were all pretty insecure about their jobs and their abilities to do them, Adam Curry and Downtown Julie Brown hated each other, Kevin Seal never even really wanted to be there (which, really, only makes me like the dude even more).
Then there's a TON of information about the music video industry a whole - how it went from something European artists did when they just didn't want to show up for Top of the Pops to people dancing badly in front of green screens to stuff like Thriller and beyond. And while that's great for context, I think there's a little too much of that, and maybe that could and should be a book on its own.
In the end, I wanted a lot more information about what I was seeing on my TV as a kid and a teenager, and a lot less about which execs bagged which women while partying with Rod Stewart.