One day in 1967, the new Warner Bros. Records president Mo Ostin called his team together to share his grand strategy: stop trying to make hit records. "Let's just make good records and turn those into hits." His counterintuitive model suited the times, while his offbeat crew found outsider artists and gave them free rein, leading to legendary albums from performers like Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, Prince, Van Halen, Madonna, Tom Petty, R.E.M., and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Music journalist Peter Ames Carlin chronicles how Ostin and his team revolutionized the music industry.

"A sweeping and vital music history…. Carlin writes with authority, joy and detail. Sonic Boom will make you pine for a time when true artists were supported, whether they sold 50 albums or 5 million."—Washington Post