A book covering the history of the music industry over the past 130 years.
Record Man: The Magnificent History of the Record Industry

The book begins with a story about how technological advancements, starting with sound recorders and leading to phonographs and turntables, formed the foundation of the music industry, and how records, as recordings of sound, evolved from cylindrical records to the "side-cut" records we're so fascinated by today.
Great inventors such as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, and Emile Berliner appear one after another in this story.
Among them, the story of the birth of Columbia Records and the LP is particularly interesting.

Behind every great musician, there was an equally great record producer.
This book focuses on the lives of about 50 pioneers who shaped the lineage of the music industry.
Behind the curtain of success for Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Doors, Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2 and others, there were legendary producers, record label heads and managers who were more convinced of their talent than anyone else.
Through raw stories told by John Hammond, Quincy Jones, Chris Blackwell, Phil Spector, George Martin, Brian Epstein, and Andrew Rugg Oldham, readers can encounter episodes never before introduced in Korea.
Without them, the success of these great musicians would have been non-existent, or rather, quite modest.
As the author writes, great artists with a firm sense of their own destiny tend to choose their own midwives.

Record Man: The Untold Story of the Record Industry concludes with a profound reflection on the music landscape of the 2010s, a decade dominated by streaming.
It also provides insightful analysis of why the indie label model is once again gaining traction across the popular music industry.
Indie has always been around since the 1950s.
For example, Sam Phillips' Sun Records, which discovered Elvis Presley in the 1950s, was the indie of its time.
Seymour Stein, the great record man who introduced Madonna to the world, says:
"God bless the indie! They've been introducing every new trend since rock 'n' roll, and even before that.
“Everything else, everything came from indie,” says Rick Rubin, producer of the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers. “There’s definitely a sense within the major labels today that we need to go back to a more indie model.”
Meanwhile, record man Martin Mills, at the top of the indie community, discovered Gary Numan, Pixies, Prodigy, White Stripes, Bon Iver, Cat Power, and The Libertines through Beggars Group, the world's largest indie collaboration.
And above all, there's Adele, the artist who has sold more albums than anyone else since the 2010s.

Most of the music translations introduced in Korea to date are centered around musicians.
Record Man: The Untold Story of the Record Industry, on the other hand, covers both the musicians and the producers/labels, giving the reader a much broader perspective and more diverse perspective.
By the end of the book, readers will feel as if they have read a grand epic.
The author also emphasizes in the preface, “We will set out on a great voyage.”
I am convinced that the emotion that the last sentence gives, in particular, cannot be compared to that of any other music-related book.