Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
by Bill Brewster & Frank Broughton
The official title of this book is Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey, and that extensive title frames this in-depth look at DJ culture appropriately. Upon picking this book up the first thing I noticed was that I didn’t recognize any of the people mentioned until about 100 pages in, where Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles first appear. The authors do a great job of digging for pioneers of the craft with sections on Christopher Stone, Martin Block, Douglas “Jocko” Henderson, Bob “Wolfman Jack” Smith and Alan “Moondog” Freed as highlights. The post-disco era DJs are covered as well, but contemporary music appears in only in the last quarter of this book, making this more of a proper history than a survey of modern DJs. This volume comes highly recommended for the extensive research and clever writing that makes for a fast read. The authors also regularly update the information in this book.
Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture
by Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds is often considered to be a godfather of sorts to the world of dance music journalism. He’s written for The New York Times, Spin, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, Village Voice, Melody Maker, The Wire, Mojo, and numerous other periodicals. In book form he’s produced a number of histories on electronic music, but the first (and often cited as the best) was Energy Flash: a Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture. Originally published in 1998, this book chronicles the rise of rave culture (mostly in England) and tracks the progression of different genres and scenes of music that erupted through the early 1990s. Some of Reynolds’ writing is biased (he seems to like some types of music more than others), but the book as a whole offers great insight into the how and why behind rave culture’s development.
Techno Rebels: The Renegades of Electronic Funk
by Dan Sicko
Dan Sicko’s Techno Rebels appeared in 1999 as a chronicle of early techno music. Like techno music itself, the book is technical, giving less emotion than facts in a play-by-play account of the early Detroit and European pioneers of bleak and banging music. While no book on EDM is perfect (this book only accounts for early 1990s techno), the information chronicled in this book is very accurate and well written. For fans of the dark and banging, this is a must read. Sicko also keeps the account of techno history running.
The Rough Guide to House Music
by Sean Bidder
House music has always been on the underground side of the spectrum and books dedicated to the subject are hard to come by. This dense book by Sean Bidder aims to deliver as much information on house music as possible in a very small format. The Rough Guide started out as a travel series but has evolved into other subjects that give detailed information in encyclopedia form.
The Rough Guide to House packs tons of notes on artists, labels, tracks, and releases into a handy volume that can fit in your pocket for record-digging sessions. The book is actually out of print at the moment, but copies can be found used. Highly recommended for house music enthusiasts.
Keyboard Presents: The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music
by Peter Kirn
Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn takes the helm as editor and guide to this collection of articles on electronic dance music that have been published in Keyboard magazine over the last 30 years. The beauty of this collection is that it comes from the producer’s perspective, with lots of tidbits on what pieces of gear were used to make some of your favorite tracks from back in the day. In an article on CDM, Kirn explains that part of what he enjoyed most about the project was “…getting to see through the eyes of the artists. You hear them talk in astounding detail about how they actually craft what they make. They curse their gear and long for more usable tools. They lament challenges in the scene that echo today. And they talk, musician to musician, about why they do what they do, what most personally they’re trying to express.”