Customer Reviews

The Rough Guide to House Music

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Finally, a book on house music capturing the pop sensibilities of the MTV generation, the historical coverage of the New York Times and the song significance of dance music magazines. With a cover graced by none other than Armand Van Helden, HOUSE: The Rough Guide breaks down this musical subgenre in small easily digestible doses.

In keeping with the MTV mindset of short attention spans, HOUSE provides synopses highlighting the salient points of significant contributions DJ's (e.g. Masters at Work, DJ Pierre), producers (e.g. Mood II Swing, Basement Jaxx) and labels (e.g. Nervous, Salsoul) have made to House music. Very much like a NY Times investigative story, Bidder's Rough Guide leaves no stone unturned, reporting on names both past and present in the house music game from Robert Owens to Adeva to Daft Punk to Bobby Konders. The book serves as an excellent resource and reference for beginners to gain knowledge about the genre, for intermidiate house lovers to further their education and for advanced house users as a reference tool to key people.

One added bonus, the book not only covers the people and the labels, but it also names the tunes that catapulted to stardom.

I take this little book with me everytime I go record shopping. Concise and accurate histories of all the DJ's and record labels that make house music what it is. If you're a house DJ, buy it! I guarantee you'll learn a thing or two, even if you've been a DJ forever.

The dance music industry changes so quickly as to make this book dated within a year or so from publication.

Sean Bidder's Rough Guide is the penultimate piece one can buy on this topic. It is well-written, provides more behind-the-scenes activity than any other source, and is one-of-a-kind. I wouldn't be without this book. It kicks!!