The manual
The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way) is a 1988 book by "The Timelords" (Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond), better known as The KLF. It is a tongue-in-cheek step-by-step guide to achieving a No. 1 single with no money or musical skills, and a case study of the duo's UK novelty pop No. 1 "Doctorin' the Tardis".
Stats for nerds
4recommend
5mentions
5people
2013–2024years
80% recommend20% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I knew (of) him first and best for the essay "Some of your friends are probably already this fucked" (aka "The problem with music") which I was introduced to at about the point in my life where some friends are in bands and a few of them try to go commercial, but fortunately these particular friends had all read The Manual† and this essay by Albini.
† https://www.amazon.co.uk/MANUAL-How-Have-Number-Easy/dp/1899...
- Life Beyond Earth by Feinberg & Shapiro. A really interesting examination of what alien life might look like, where and how it could arise. Explores fascinating concepts like life inside of a sun. Made me feel like alien life is most likely unrecognizable to humans as life. I think it's out of print, I got a second hand copy off Amazon (or maybe eBay).
The Manual by Cauty & Drummond. Funny, short, surprisingly insightful. A step-by-step method on making a #1 hit song. The authors had a #1 shortly before writing this book, and a few years afterwards. Can be found on archive.org.
- There is more money if the 98% monopoly cut is removed.
I cite Drummond & Cauty's The Manual, how to have a number one and make a million quid * as the KLF they did just this, repeatedly & using pseudonyms. That was in the 'bad old days', Cauty & Drummond proved that without a record company bleeding them dry artists could make a lifetime's cash with a single hit.
Todays 'problem' is everyone wants to create, sample, share, remix, transcode, &c but copyright maximalism largely prevents this.
I believe that a distribution scheme could pay creatives directly, just as a little extra, they can still sell stuff - my thesis is without the 98% loss due to the cartels this is workable and everyone can play & innovate. Ireland does this in reverse, artists don't pay tax there & get tax credits (~£50 per week).
Also restore copyright back to 20-40 years putting the 20th century in the public domain where it belongs and destroying the back-catalogue leverage the monopolists abuse.
* http://freshonthenet.co.uk/the-manual-by-the-klf/
Nearly anything would be better than suing fans & killing innovation.
- This reminds me of pop music.
There was a book of this sort written for pop music, too: The Manual, or How to Have a Number One the Easy Way by Bill Drummond and Jim Cauty, also known as The KLF.
It's brilliant and hilarious; at one point they describe "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley as the perfect pop song because it plays so deliberately into schoolgirls' fantasies.
- You're thinking of The Manual [1], written by Bill Drummond (one half of KLF); not by John Higgs who wrote the book I listed above.
Incidentally, Bill Drummond's 45 [2] is a great read too. Especially for the creatively minded person.
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