Here are 100 books that The Secret DJ fans have personally recommended if you like
The Secret DJ.
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Having started DJing at the age of 15 (my mum had to drive me to gigs!) and DJed professionally since 1991, I've seen and done most things in this game, from DJing at Privilege in Ibiza (at the time, the biggest nightclub in the world), to co-promoting an award-winning club night of my own in my home town of Manchester, England, for many years, to other types of DJing like playing on the radio, a stint as a mobile DJ, live streaming (in Covid), podcasting and—since 2010—running Digital DJ Tips, the world's largest online DJ school.
Definitely dated, UK-centric, and undeniably highly opinionated, this is nonetheless essential. It is a fascinating read, a historical document of the height of the 90s dance scene, and it's both honest and humorous to boot. If you want a pile of hints and tips about how to DJ well while at the same time finding yourself falling in love with how special dance music can be and what it can mean to those who dedicate their lives to it, add this one to your list.
Not one to leave lying around, though, as it is pretty honest about the underbelly of the dance scene in places—as is another book we're getting to later in this list.
DJs have gone from being underpaid live jukeboxes to becoming premier entertainers, producers, businessmen, and musicians capable of commanding admiration from thousands and earning serious money. Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton's Last Night a DJ Saved My Life was the definitive history of the DJ. Now they gather their mastery of the artistic and technical aspects of being a DJ into a clear, accessible, and entertaining guide. How to DJ is the perfect guide -- from the most basic keys to establishing a music collection and a distinctive sound, to elementary record-spinning, to the complex skills of scratching, hot-mixing, and…
Having started DJing at the age of 15 (my mum had to drive me to gigs!) and DJed professionally since 1991, I've seen and done most things in this game, from DJing at Privilege in Ibiza (at the time, the biggest nightclub in the world), to co-promoting an award-winning club night of my own in my home town of Manchester, England, for many years, to other types of DJing like playing on the radio, a stint as a mobile DJ, live streaming (in Covid), podcasting and—since 2010—running Digital DJ Tips, the world's largest online DJ school.
I have to declare an interest here as I was John's technical editor for the most recent edition of this book (which isn't that recent, to be honest—but trust me, a lot of this advice is timeless). Therefore, this book remains a great guide to DJing if you're more interested in learning how it was done before laptops, subscription music services, sharing your mixes online, and all the other bells and whistles that digital has brought to the table.
One of the central skills of DJing is being able to "beatmix" tunes effectively, and John is particularly good at teaching systematically how to do this without using any of the aids modern DJing affords the beginner. Dated, then, but still undeniably useful.
The bestselling guide to spinning and scratching is back! If you've ever spent hours in your bedroom with two turntables and an earful of tracks that sound off-beat or out of key, DJing For Dummies is the go-to guide for taking your skills to the next level. Inside, John Steventon, a successful club DJ, walks you through the basics of mixing, the techniques and tricks you need to create your own DJ style and how to make DJing work for you.
Covering both digital and old-school vinyl-based instruction, this guide covers all the…
Having started DJing at the age of 15 (my mum had to drive me to gigs!) and DJed professionally since 1991, I've seen and done most things in this game, from DJing at Privilege in Ibiza (at the time, the biggest nightclub in the world), to co-promoting an award-winning club night of my own in my home town of Manchester, England, for many years, to other types of DJing like playing on the radio, a stint as a mobile DJ, live streaming (in Covid), podcasting and—since 2010—running Digital DJ Tips, the world's largest online DJ school.
Rick has been the go-to expert in print on how to make dance music for many years, and while techniques and practices in music production change all the time, this book remains an invaluable reference on how to make music for yourself.
Nowadays, if you want success outside of your own town or city, it is practically essential that you make music as well as play it, so if being a "DJ/producer" rather than just a "DJ" is what you're gunning for, this is one you should definitely add to your bookshelf, which will give you the theory and background behind the skills that courses and videos can teach you when it comes to making music the modern way.
Dance Music Manual, aimed at the novice and seasoned professional alike, takes the reader through the software and hardware needed to create original, captivating, and professional sounding music.
Key features of Dance Music Manual include:
How to create compelling, professional-sounding original or remixed dance tracks.
The differences between different genres and how to produce them.
How to expose your tracks to their chosen audience and equip you with the skills to develop your career as a dance music producer and engineer.
Along with the book is a companion website, which provides examples of synthesis programming, compression, effects, MIDI files, and…
Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.
Having started DJing at the age of 15 (my mum had to drive me to gigs!) and DJed professionally since 1991, I've seen and done most things in this game, from DJing at Privilege in Ibiza (at the time, the biggest nightclub in the world), to co-promoting an award-winning club night of my own in my home town of Manchester, England, for many years, to other types of DJing like playing on the radio, a stint as a mobile DJ, live streaming (in Covid), podcasting and—since 2010—running Digital DJ Tips, the world's largest online DJ school.
It's a good book to own alongside the same authors' "how-to" guide listed above. I always recommend this one for my students when they want to understand a bit more about what it is actually like to DJ professionally and why people dedicate their lives to it.
The book is in the form of a series of interviews with DJs, many of whom are well known (or at least, were at the time it was written—it is quite old), but many of whom certainly weren't ever famous, and historically it covers a large timespan. Success in DJing means something very different depending upon your outlook, where you are in the world, and so on, and this book empowers the learning DJ to have confidence in their dreams by sharing a wide range of stories and experiences of the life of the DJ.
'Literally changed the course of my life' James Murphy
'The chapter on Larry Levan alone transformed me into wanting to be your favorite DJ' Questlove
'The original and still the best' Gilles Peterson
'We can't tell the story of dance music without speaking the names of Sharon White and Judy Weinstein, so I welcome this vital update' The Blessed Madonna
When someone says, 'You have to know your history...' this is it. This classic book is the whole unruly story of dance music in one volume. It recreates the dancefloors that made history, conjuring their atmosphere with loving detail and…
We all know Little Richard’s great hits like "Long Tall, Sally", "Tutti Frutti" and "Good Golly Miss Molly" and Little Richard’s life was as wild as his records. It’s excess all areas as Spencer Leigh tells the story of Little Richard in Send Me Some Lovin. It is a biography of someone who transformed popular music. Spencer Leigh was born in 1945 and hearing Little Richard for the first time in 1956 changed his life. He is a world expert on the Beatles and he has written a series of music-based biographies – Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel – all of which are full of facts and opinions.
A two-volume biography of George Martin’s work as a record producer, full of colourful detail.
You get a full account of George’s work with the Beatles. The sound effects which George had to create for The Goons’ records helped him deal with the Beatles. I also loved reading about George’s spat with his fellow EMI producer, Norrie Paramor.
George Martin - the man, the mind, the music. This is the story of the legendary Beatles producer.
The first of two volumes, MAXIMUM VOLUME traces Martin's early life, from an impoverished childhood, through WWII, to becoming head of EMI's Parlophone Records.
There, he made waves in British comedy and saved Parlophone from ruin with records from the likes of Spike Milligan. Then one day he discovered a scruffy beat band from Liverpool...
As this dramatic story unfolds, the book transports you into the studio with Martin and the Beatles, exploring how his musical genius shaped their incredible body of…
Richard Niles was born in Hollywood but grew up in London where his 50-year professional career as a composer, arranger, record producer led to work with some of the most acclaimed artists of our time, including Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, James Brown, Tina Turner, Cher and jazz icon Pat Metheny. He has worked on 20 Gold and 28 Platinum records. He has published many books on music including The Pat Metheny Interviews, The Invisible Artist, From Dreaming to Gigging, Piano Grooves, Songwriting – The 11-Point Plan, Adventures in Arranging, Adventures in Jazz Composition, What is Melody?, and How to be an Employable Musician. Dr. Niles' PhD is from Brunel University and he has lectured internationally.
Known as ‘the man who invented the ‘80s’, Trevor Horn is considered one of the most innovative producers of modern pop.
He revolutionized production from his group The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star to Band Aid’s Do they Know It’s Christmas?, to hits for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, ABC, Yes, Rod Stewart, and Seal. I can tell you this book is the real deal because I worked with him on hits for The Pet Shop Boys, Grace Jones, Frankie, and ABC.
This book takes you inside his unique process, and reveals his production concept - at once mind-blowing and surprisingly down-to-earth.
As a renowned recording-studio maven, Trevor Horn has been dubbed 'the man who invented the '80s'.
His production work since the glory days of ZTT represents a veritable 'who's who' of intelligent modern pop, including the likes of ABC, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Pet Shop Boys, Seal, Simple Minds, Grace Jones and Yes - among many others.
This book is Trevor's story in his own words, as told through the prism of twenty-three of his most important songs - from the ones that inspired him to the ones that defined…
This irreverent biography provides a rare window into the music industry from a promoter’s perspective. From a young age, Peter Jest was determined to make a career in live music, and despite naysayers and obstacles, he did just that, bringing national acts to his college campus atUW-Milwaukee, booking thousands of…
I’m a Professor of Cultural Sociology at Edinburgh, UK, and have written extensively on contemporary culture and particularly technological mediations of popular music. I have undertaken empirical research on cultures of popular music in places like Iceland, Japan, and the UK, and I have supervised around 25 doctoral students to successful completion. My work is widely cited in the field of cultural sociology, and I am regularly interviewed by national broadcasters and the press. I’m also an amateur musician, making homespun electronic music in my bedroom and releasing it under the monikers Sponge Monkeys and Triviax.
I wasn’t expecting this! One of the most gifted and quirky songsmiths of the age, the lead singer of art pop band The Talking Heads no less, turns his attention to the technological evolution of music.
I found profound insight and erudition on every page, but it’s not preachy or overly auto-biographical. Instead, Byrne limns out the changing shapes of music and how it comes into being in composition, performance, and education. He is as much at ease with Hume and Adorno as he is with scales, harmonies, and DJ culture, and the payoff is enormous.
Whenever I pick this book up, which is regularly, it takes me on unexpected journeys and provokes new ideas. My favorite quote on the creative process: “The idea is to allow the chthonic material the freedom it needs to gurgle up.”
How Music Works is David Byrne's buoyant celebration of a subject he has spent a lifetime thinking about.
Equal parts historian and anthropologist, raconteur and social scientist, Byrne draws on his own work over the years with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and his myriad collaborators - along with journeys to Wagnerian opera houses, African villages, and anywhere music exists - to show that music-making is not just the act of a solitary composer in a studio, but rather a logical, populist, and beautiful result of cultural circumstance.
A brainy, irresistible adventure, How Music Works is an impassioned argument about music's…
I’ve been a writer all my life in one form or another, and I love to observe the world around me and the people in it. I’ve had a fascination with dusk, in particular, since I was a child. I remember having the most adventurous time playing with my sister and our neighborhood friends after dinner in the summertime and soaking in everything that time of day had to offer—from the beautiful colors of the sunset to the croaking toads to the smell of the freshly cut grass. Each time of day—sunrise to midnight—offers a sensory overload if you are open to it. These books I have recommended dive into that delight.
If the title doesn’t grab your interest, then open the book.
This story focuses on the subtle and simple sounds that you may hear during the beginning of a day. The illustrations evoke all things sunrise and the words match with their lyrical flow and call to action. This book will encourage everyone, even late sleepers like me, to throw off their covers, jump out of bed, and see what the day has to offer.
This beautiful companion to What Color Is Night? helps children explore and celebrate their morning routines.
At the first morning light, everything is quiet. Or is it?
Listen.
Welcome the day by exploring the subtle wonders-and exciting sounds-of the morning with this lyrical and picturesque story.
In the first morning light, all might seem quiet. In this companion to What Color Is Night?
Grant Snider explores the sounds-and silences-of morning. Ending in an
inspiring call to action-to toss off the covers, throw open the window,
and fill the world with your song-this uplifting book is sure to help
families feel…
As children, my brother and I were constant playmates. He was an early riser and often woke me up so our day of play could begin as soon as possible. I have sight, and my brother is blind. Play for us was an all-senses experience. We felt the rumble of our bikes on the street, listened to the screech of the metal swing set, and guessed spices by their smell. We also devoured stories. We listened to audiobooks, he read to me in Braille, and I read to him. All of these experiences, and more, prepared me to be an author of numerous children’s books with sensory details to make stories come alive.
This other classic book was one of our well-worn favorites. My brother and I read it so many times that I still can recite it by heart.
The pages are filled with the various sounds Mr. Brown can make: “He can go like the rain, dibble, dibble, dibble, dopp. Dibble, dibble, dibble, dibble, dopp, dopp, dopp.” The text also asks the reader to make the sounds, and the bouncy language is so much fun to try.
Moo moo! Hoo hoo! Cock-a-doodle-doo! Oh, the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can do. Now see if you can do them too!
Oh, the wonderful things Mr. Brown can do! He can go like a cow. He can go MOO MOO. This fabulous and fun book from the one and only Dr. Seuss is ideal for teaching young children all about noises!
With his unique combination of hilarious stories, zany pictures and riotous rhymes, Dr. Seuss has been delighting young children and helping them learn to read for over fifty years. Creator of the wonderfully anarchic Cat in the Hat, and…
I grew up hearing jazz thanks to my dad, a big swing fan who allegedly played Duke Ellington for me in the crib. My father couldn’t believe it when I developed a taste for “modern jazz,” bebop, even Coltrane, but he never threw me out. Fifty years later I still love to play jazz on drums and listen to as much as I can. But along the way, I realized the world might be better served by me writing about the music than trying to make a living performing it. I had the great privilege of studying jazz in graduate school and wrote about big-band jazz for my first book, which helped launch my career.
Michael Denning was my dissertation advisor in grad school and one of the most impressive scholars of American culture that I know. What I like about Noise Uprising is that it gives us a whole new perspective on the beginnings of jazz. No longer is American jazz at the center of the universe. Instead, it’s a small piece of a larger mosaic of popular music that stretched from Havana and Rio to Seville, Cairo, Jakarta, and Honolulu. Before reading this book I had no idea that musical recording even went on in all these far-flung places, beginning in 1925, even before the great wave of recordings appeared from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Jelly Roll Morton. We learn about the origin and first recordings of such major genres as samba, son, tango, flamenco, tarab, kroncong, and hula. All of these styles were deeply embedded in the social and political struggles…
In a handful of years between the development of electrical recording in 1925 and the outset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the soundscape of modern music unfolded in a series of relatively unnoticed recording sessions around the world. These included the recording of tango in Buenos Aires, son in Havana, and samba in Rio; of hula in Honolulu, shidaiqu in Shanghai, and kroncong in Jakarta, and; of taraab in East Africa and marabi in Johannesburg. In this ground-breaking study, Michael Denning draws a global map of a musical revolution that had more profound consequences than the "modern"…
