The Monkees: Made in Hollywood

Kemper (“Toy Story”: A Critical Reading) astutely explains how the highly integrated music industry created, developed, and eventually abandoned the Monkees, the manufactured pop group who sold millions of records and had a smash TV sitcom that aired from 1966 to 1968. The book begins with the interrelated parts of the Los Angeles music business—the songwriters, producers, studios, radio stations, recording engineers, television executives, and marketers—who conceived the made-for-TV band. The book successfully shows how the group was cast by television executives who wanted to replicate the success of the zany Beatles films. Kemper isn’t as successful at linking the concept of the Monkees to the pop art movement and the new wave of French cinema, and he too often hammers on his main theme. Still, the book does a good job of depicting the top-flight songwriters Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and Neil Diamond; many studio musicians, including Glen Campbell; and numerous producers, who helped shape the Monkees’ radio-friendly hits. The book ends with the implosion of the group by 1970.