The Beat, the Scene, the Sound

A thrilling and tumultuous, behind-the-scenes account of house music in NYC.
The Beat, the Scene, the Sound follows DJ Disciple and his behind-the-scenes account of how DJs, promoters, fans, and others transformed house music from a DIY project into an international sensation—dive into the glitzy clubs, underground parties, and the diverse communities who made up the scene amidst the tumult of 1980s/90s-era NYC—between the fall of disco and the rise of EDM. The book unearths many untold stories of the era. When house first rose to prominence in the 1980s, it brought people together—Palladium, Paradise Garage, Tunnel, Zanzibar, Studio 54, and other clubs were going strong. But as DJ Disciple established himself in the scene, he witnessed it shatter. During the crack-cocaine epidemic, he literally dodged bullets bringing his records to and from clubs at night. HIV/AIDS and homophobia threw up fear-based partitions. Then, mayors worked to close the clubs. House music was pushed underground and then abroad to the UK and Europe. Disciple and many other DJs sought to regain a footing in the United States, but that only became possible with the rise of commercialized EDM. With dozens of interviews and historic photographs, The Beat, the Scene, the Sound shows what is possible when you bring people together and what can unravel when you split them apart.
DJ Disciple is a Black artist, DJ, radio host, producer, and community advocate and has toured the world over a forty-year career, playing venues such as Studio 54 in New York, Ministry of Sound in London, and Cream in Ibiza. His GRAMMY-nominated track “Caught Up” reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 2002 and was later featured in the Showtime series Queer as Folk. He won an ARIA music award for his remix of Steven Allkins’ “The Bass Has Got Me Movin.’” His website is http://djdisciple.net/ and he is based in Brooklyn, New York. Henry Kronk is a freelance journalist who has covered a range of subjects over the course of his career. His non-fiction work has appeared in Exclaim!, the Burlington Free Press, International DJ, Vallum: Contemporary Poetry, and more. In 2018, he produced the investigative radio program and podcast Code Burst. He lives in Burlington, Vermont.

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