LimeWire Music Blog

For those of us who love great, ambitious television and are obsessed with the state of the music industry, I can think of no better news than this: The creators of The Wire are producing a show based on journalist Steve Knopper’s Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. As someone who read that book cover to cover in under a week, as though it were a suspense novel, I can attest that it’s got great potential. The book takes us through the past three decades at the major labels, beginning with the emergence of CD technology, explaining how Thriller save the industry, delving into the teen pop goldmine and then exploring the bleak-looking 21st century. Featuring some of the music biz’s strangest and most powerful characters, from Tommy Mottola and Clive Davis to the Napster crew, you won’t find a more fascinating, corrupt or debauched group of people anywhere.

We don’t know many specifics about the project, except that playwright Victoria Stewart is said to already be at work on the adaptation, for HBO. Knopper had this to say to the BBC: “Since the book came out I have heard from some musicians who have liked it and I would think, philosophically, hopefully many would want to be attached to a project like this.” But the author warns us not to count on it. “Of course, you never know. Some of these guys already have labels and don’t want to burn any bridges. I criticise the record labels pretty harshly in my book.”

[via The Daily Swarm]