Acclaimed authors and music historians Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton
have spent years traveling across the world to interview the
revolutionary and outrageous DJs who shaped the last half-century of pop
music. The Record Players is the fun and revealing result--a
collection of firsthand accounts from the obsessives, the playboys, and
the eccentrics that dominated the music scene and contributed to the
evolution of DJ culture.
It started when, instead of a live band, someone turned on the record
player, and suddenly partygoers had more than one style of music to
dance to. In the sixties, radio tastemakers brought their sound to the
masses, sock hop by sock hop, while early trendsetters birthed the role
of the club DJ at temples of hip like the Peppermint Lounge. By the
seventies, DJs were dictating musical taste and changing the course of
popular music; and in the eighties, young innovators wore out their
cross-faders developing techniques that carried them over the line
between record player and musician. With discographies, favorite songs,
and amazing photos of all the DJs as young firebrands, The Record
Players offers an unparalleled music education: from records to
synthesizers, from disco to techno, and from small groups of influential
music lovers to arenas packed with thousands of dancing fans.
A history told by the visionaries who experienced the movement, The
Record Players allows a rare glimpse into the sound, culture, and craft
that developed into a worldwide industry.
