Howard Bloom | |
---|---|
Born | Buffalo, New York, U.S. | June 25, 1943
Occupation | Author |
Nationality | American |
Subject | Sociology, evolutionary psychology |
Website | |
howardbloom |
Howard Bloom (born June 25, 1943) is an American author. He was a music publicist in the 1970s and 1980s for singers and bands such as Prince, [1] Billy Joel, [2] and Styx. [3] [4] He has published a book on Islam, The Muhammad Code, an autobiography, How I Accidentally Started The Sixties, and three books on human evolution and group behavior: The Genius of the Beast, Global Brain, and The Lucifer Principle.
Bloom was born to a Jewish family in Buffalo, New York. [5] He became interested in science, especially cosmology and microbiology, [6] as early as the age of ten. By age sixteen Bloom was working as an assistant researching the immune system at the Roswell Park Memorial Research Cancer Institute. [7] Bloom graduated from New York University and, at the age of twenty-five, veered from his scientific studies to work as an editor for a rock magazine. Bloom would go on to found one of the largest public relations firms in the music industry. [7]
In 1974 Bloom was made the head of public relations of ABC Records. [8] He also was briefly head of Gulf+Western's music publicity department. In 1976, he founded The Howard Bloom Organization. [2] In 1980, Bloom suggested to Prince and his management that he "aggressively pursue the rock and new wave audience ... Consequently, Prince's management put together a series of performances designed with racially mixed audiences in mind". [1] He tutored the band Styx in how to appeal to "more staid magazines" such as the Wall Street Journal and People and so make them mainstream. [3] He was hired by Columbia Records to make Billy Joel "more media friendly". [2]
Bloom was also a publicist for Michael Jackson, [9] [10] Cyndi Lauper, [10] Talking Heads, [10] Lionel Richie, [11] [12] ZZ Top, [13] Bette Midler, AC/DC, Simon & Garfunkel, [14] John Mellencamp, [15] [16] Earth, Wind & Fire, [17] and Kiss. [13] He handled Bob Marley during his Uprising Tour. [18] [19]
Bloom has been described in a biography of Billy Joel as "the public relations spinmeister to have on your payroll in the seventies and eighties if you were a musician and your image needed to be authenticated to the masses". With his company he had successfully transformed and launched the careers of many rock stars including John Mellencamp, KISS, Hall and Oates, AC/DC, and Run DMC". [2] He has also been described as "one of the most successful publicists of his generation, a star maker whose client list was a Who's Who of rock and roll ... [whose] ... interest in rock and roll had more to do with the study of mass psychology in action than furthering the aggrandizement of spoiled rock stars. He approached PR as an applied science". [3]
In 1979, New York Magazine put him in the "Hot 100 plus" as one of its "Big Dealmakers" and observed, "His brain is a vinyl storage system: the most thorough and efficient". [20] According to Derek Sutton, manager of the Styx, he was "probably the greatest press agent that rock and roll has ever known." [3] In 1986, the Howard Bloom Organization was reported to be "one of the most successful independent public relations firms in the music business. [In 1985], his acts grossed $333 million." [21]
Bloom has written a number of books, including: The Genius of the Beast, Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, and The Lucifer Principle . His books discuss ideas ranging from human nature to what makes rock and roll artists successful. According to Bloom: "Everything from the wolf-pack behavior of music business executives to the lemming-like conduct of hypocritical journalists helped shape my insights" and that "[t]he real magic of rock happens at a concert, where if the performers are successful, individuals ... merge in a pulse of common emotion ... This consolidation mirrors the force that create much of both human good and evil". [22] He founded the International Paleopsychology Project, an Internet group "to study the development of the universe from its conception to the present". Individuals crediting him with inspiration include the scientist Peter Corning [23] and science fiction writer Greg Bear. [24]
His fourth book, The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates, was issued August 24, 2012. [25]
His memoir, How I Accidentally Started The Sixties, was published in 2017. [26]
Bloom developed chronic fatigue syndrome in 1988, which left him housebound. The 2007 book Chronic Fatigue Syndrome For Dummies lists Bloom as one of the ten most famous people with CFS. [14] In 2001, the New York City Clerk's Office refused to issue him a marriage license in his home, though marriage licenses can be arranged for those unable to attend its office, for those confined to hospitals, nursing homes and prisons. [27] After this decision was publicized, a personal visit was made by the city clerk to Bloom's house to issue the license. The New York Times observed that regulations in regard to obtaining licenses at the city clerk's office were likely in breach of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. [28]
Bloom considers himself a non-militant yet "stone-cold atheist" [5] and lives in Brooklyn, New York. [27] In 1986, Bloom joined with Bob Guccione, Jr., Ted Nugent, John Waite and Sheena Easton to form Music in Action, an organization protesting the censorship against rock music being advocated for at the time by religious fundamentalists such as Jimmy Swaggart. [29] [30]
An article by Bloom published in Omni magazine, "The importance of hugging", suggested that "Islamic cultures treat their children harshly, they despise open displays of affection ... the result is violent adults", and as a consequence, "An entire people may have turned barbaric for the simple lack of a hug." [31] This claim led the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to organize a sit-in at Omni's New York head office. [32] His article has been described as "not unlike some forms of religious anti-Semitism", [33] and together with similar comments in his book The Lucifer Principle, "an example of Orientalist (and racist) literature". [34] Bloom has written that "Arab pressure groups asked ever so politely ... that nothing that I write be published again. They offered to boycott my publisher's products — all of them — worldwide. And they backed their warning with a call for my punishment in seventeen Islamic countries." [35]
William John Clifton Haley was an American rock and roll musician. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and million-selling hits such as "Rock Around the Clock", "See You Later, Alligator", "Shake, Rattle and Roll", "Rocket 88", "Skinny Minnie", and "Razzle Dazzle". Haley has sold over 60 million records worldwide. In 1987, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
REO Speedwagon, or simply REO, is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. Its best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US Top 40 hits and sold more than ten million copies.
"Love Is Strange" is a crossover hit by American rhythm and blues duet Mickey & Sylvia, which was released in late November 1956 by the Groove record label.
Styx is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1972. They are known for blending melodic hard rock guitar with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established themselves with a progressive rock sound during the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s.
Lejzor Szmuel Czyż, best known as Leonard Sam Chess and simply Leonard Chess, was a Polish-American record company executive and the co-founder of Chess Records. He was influential in the development of electric blues, Chicago blues, and rock and roll.
Pieces of Eight is the eighth studio album by American progressive rock band Styx, released in September 1978.
"Mr. Roboto" is a song by American rock band Styx, released as the lead single from their eleventh studio album, Kilroy Was Here (1983). It was written by band member Dennis DeYoung. In Canada, it went to #1 on the RPM national singles chart. It entered the US Billboard Hot 100 on 12 February 1983, reaching No. 3 in April.
Dennis DeYoung is an American musician. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was the band's most prolific and successful writer, having been credited as the writer of more Styx songs than any other band member. DeYoung penned seven of the band's eight Billboard top 10 singles as well as a solo top 10 single.
Cornerstone is the ninth studio album by the American rock band Styx, released in 1979. Styx's third straight multi-platinum selling album, Cornerstone was Styx's first album to earn a Grammy nomination, which was for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group. Like the four previous Styx albums, the band produced the album themselves. Styx recorded the album at Pumpkin Studios in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
Kilroy Was Here is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band Styx, released on February 22, 1983. A concept album and rock opera about a world where rock music is outlawed, it is named after a famous World War II graffiti tag, "Kilroy was here." It was the last album of original material to be released by the "classic" lineup of Dennis DeYoung, Tommy Shaw, James "J.Y." Young, John Panozzo, and Chuck Panozzo.
Jeff Godwin is a Christian fundamentalist preacher and author from Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He is best known for his numerous books critical of both secular and Christian rock music. Godwin is a former drug addict and rock musician. He claims that he survived the stampede that claimed the lives of 12 fans of The Who at their Cincinnati concert on December 3, 1979.
Louis Andrew Grammatico, known professionally as Lou Gramm, is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Foreigner from 1977 to 1990 and again from 1992 to 2003, during which time the band had numerous successful albums and singles.
"Lady Madonna" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. In March 1968, it was released as a mono single, backed with "The Inner Light". The song was recorded on 3 and 6 February 1968 before the Beatles left for India, and its boogie-woogie style signalled a more conventional approach to writing and recording for the group following the psychedelic experimentation of the previous two years.
Marc Spitz was an American music journalist, writer and playwright. Spitz's writings on rock and roll and popular culture appeared in Spin as well as The New York Times, Maxim, Blender, Harp, Nylon and the New York Post. He was a contributing music writer for Vanity Fair.
The Love Gun Tour was a concert tour by Kiss, in support of Love Gun.
The Lucifer Principle is a 1995 book by American author Howard Bloom, in which he argues that social groups, not individuals, are the primary "unit of selection" on genes and human psychological development. He states that both competition between groups and competition between individuals shape the evolution of the genome. Bloom "explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture" and argues that "evil is a by-product of nature's strategies for creation and that it is woven into our most basic biological fabric". It sees selection as central to the creation of the "superorganism" of society. It also focuses on competition between individuals for position in the "pecking order" and competition between groups for standing in pecking orders of groups. The Lucifer Principle shows how ideas are vital in creating cohesion and cooperation in these pecking order battles. In the book, Bloom writes: "Superorganism, ideas and the pecking order...these are the primary forces behind much of human creativity and earthly good."
Peter Salvatore Fornatale was a New York City disc jockey and author of numerous books on rock and roll. He is considered a "pioneer of FM rock", who played an important role in the progressive rock era of FM broadcasting. He was the first person to host a rock music show on New York City's FM band, commencing November 21, 1964, on WFUV. By broadcasting progressive rock and long album tracks, he was noted for introducing a musical alternative to Top 40 AM radio in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Billboard called his station "a legend, affecting and inspiring people throughout the industry."
Harold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
"Let Me Be" is a song by the American rock band the Turtles. It was released in 1965 as the band's second single, following their successful cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe". In the United States, the single peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1965. It reached number 14 on Canada's RPM chart.
Lucifer on the Sofa is the tenth studio album by American rock band Spoon, released on February 11, 2022, through Matador Records. Spoon began work on the album in late 2018 after the conclusion of their tour supporting Hot Thoughts (2017), their ninth studio album. Recording sessions began in late 2019 and took place in studios between Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, California. They primarily recorded the album with Mark Rankin, with Justin Raisen and Dave Fridmann, the latter of whom co-produced the band's previous two albums, each producing one song. Recording sessions continued until March 2020 but had to be postponed after the COVID-19 pandemic began severely impacting the United States. After completing the album in 2021, the band released the album's lead single, "The Hardest Cut", in October of that year.
SO I GOT INVOLVED IN COSMOLOGY AND MICROBIOLOGY AT THE AGE OF 10.