‘90s club kids will love Mark Ronson’s new book

“Night People”
Written by Mark Ronson
Grand Central, around 2025
$29/256 pages

I can’t sit still.

The music starts and your hips sway to the beat, your shoulders bounce and your fingers tickle the air. The air guitar is precise, heads bouncing and toes tapping. That can’t be helped. Like a new memoir “Night People” Written by Mark Ronson, You just have to dance.

With a mother obsessed with rock bands, a father who founded a music publishing company, and a stepfather who founded the band Foreigner, it was natural for Mark Ronson to fall into some sort of music career. He says he realized the great power of music when he was only 10 years old.

As a pre-teen, he loved mixing music in his stepfather’s studio. As a teenager, he formed a band with Sean Lennon, but it was not very popular. In the fall of his senior year of high school, Ronson began sneaking into Manhattan clubs to listen to music, dance, and look for drugs. So he realized the alchemy that DJing had created and looked for someone to teach him how to do it. he was hooked.

But finding gigs in New York clubs wasn’t easy.

Ronson worked several semi-regularly around New York City to hone his skills, working at various private parties. His mother bought him the electronics he needed, a turntable and an amplifier. He made friends with people who told him where to get music demos and what to look for in distributors, and he was open to other DJs, club owners, and music artists.

That, and his rush when the dance floor was full, made the job appealing. But sometimes the attendance was low and the DJ booth was placed in an undesirable location, which completely spoiled the atmosphere.

He said some people were there, mostly during the day. But for others, sunlight is something to endure. Night is the time when they feel most alive.

Part arcane hip-hop discography, part biography, part SNL’s Stefan, And as a piece of cultural history, “Night People” likely has a narrow audience. If you weren’t into clubbing in the past, it’s okay to stop now. Thirty years ago, if you were between the ages of 15 and 30 and never missed a club night, keep reading. This is your book.

Written by author Mark Ronson, this story will appeal to anyone who knows the excitement of a crowded club or the thrill of being recognized for your turntable skills. It might be fun, but it might be too detailed. Mixology is very It’s a heavy topic here. Many of the songs he named were hits only in clubs and for short periods of time, and many of the people he named are long gone. Readers may feel that they don’t really care. A heavy sigh.

This isn’t a bad book, but it’s not for everyone. If you weren’t interested in the club, you can pass and you won’t miss anything. But if you were an avid club kid back in the day, “Night People” will make your eyes flutter.

Want to know more? Then check out “What doesn’t kill me makes me strange and hard to empathize with.” Written by Mary Lucia (University of Minnesota Press). This is the story of Lucia, a rock DJ in Minneapolis/St. Louis. Paul lived with a crowd of listeners, was stalked by deranged fans, and was not listened to by the authorities for more than three harrowing and terrifying years.

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