From
the first time a record was played over the airwaves in 1906, to a
modern club economy that totals $3 billion annually in New York City
alone, the DJ has been at the center of popular music. Starting as
little more than a talking jukebox, the DJ is now a premier
entertainer, producer, businessman, and musician in his own right.
Superstar DJs, from Junior Vasquez to Sasha and Digweed, command
worship and adoration from millions, flying around the globe to earn
tens of thousands of dollars for one night's work. Increasingly, they
are replacing live musicians as the central figures of the music
industry. In Last Night a DJ Saved My Life, music journalists Bill
Brewster and Frank Broughton have written the first comprehensive
history of the mysterious and charismatic figure behind the
turntables -- part obsessive record collector, part mad scientist,
part intuitive psychologist of the party groove. From England's rabid
Northern Soul scene to the birth of disco in New York, from the sound
systems of Jamaica to the scratch wars of early hip-hop in the Bronx,
from Chicago house to Detroit techno to London rave, DJs are
responsible for most of the significant changes in music over the
past forty years. Drawing on in-depth interviews with DJs, critics,
musicians, record executives, and the revelers at some of the
century's most legendary parties, Last
Night a DJ Saved My Life
is nothing less than the life story of dance music. |