Go 'Inside the Hit Factory' With Author, New Yorker Writer John Seabrook

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 14, 2016) — John Seabrook, longtime writer for The New Yorker and author of the new book "The Song Machine," will speak at the University of Kentucky on April 21.

The talk, hosted by the UK Department of Computer Science, will be at 5:30 p.m., following a 5 p.m. reception, in the Davis Marksbury Building's James F. Hardymon Theatre. The Marksbury Building is located at 329 Rose St.

Seabrook explores the intersection between creativity and commerce in the fields of technology, design and music. In "The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory," he tells the story of a new type of hit song emerging and traces the growth of this new approach to hit-making over the last two decades. The book also goes beyond music to discuss money, business, marketing and technology.

"Seabrook spins a fascinating history, one that encompasses everything from the Brill Building and Phil Spector to Afrika Bambaataa to ‘American Idol.’ Running underneath the human stories like a bassline is the inexorable flow of technology," wrote Kate Tuttle at The Boston Globe in a review of the book.

Seabrook is also the author of "Nobrow: The Culture of Marketing — The Marketing of Culture," "Deeper: My Two-Year Odyssey in Cyberspace," "Flash of Genius" and "Other True Stories of Invention." He has been a contributor to The New Yorker since 1989 and became a staff writer in 1993.

The talk is free and open to the public. To learn more about Seabrook, visit www.johnseabrook.com/.

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how you can support continued investment in your university and the Commonwealth, go to: uky.edu/uk4ky. #uk4ky #seeblue

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Harder, 859-323-2396, whitney.harder@uky.edu