Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ - Hardcover

readable and engaging. (Thomas Kelly, Sunday Business Post)

This excellent book draws on 10 years of interviews with some of the key figures in hip hop's emergence and development ... a gripping study. (James Wilsdon, Times Higher Education Supplement)

[Katz's] book manages to be both lively and academic - some achievement. (Susan Elkin, The Stage)

DJs, researchers working in various areas (popular musicology, cultural studies, American studies, etc.) and the casual reader with an interest in hiphop will all find much to engage them in this book. Katzs fanatical enthusiasm permeates the works scholarly tone, producing an informed narrative which remains vigorous at all times and leads the reader through almost 40 years of musical evolution with great momentum yet careful control. In his introduction to the book, Katz says that DJ Cash Moneys response on being told of the project was that we [the hip-hop DJ community] need you to get this right (12). It seems that in writing Groove Music he has done just that. (Rowan Oliver, Journal of Music, Technology & Education)

Groove Music is a well-researched historical account of the legacy and cultural influence of hip-hop DJs that will prove useful to any scholar or student of popular music. Not only is Katzs book a compelling contribution to hip-hop scholarship, it is witty and accessible enough to serve as inspiration for future turntablists and current practitioners discovering their own roots. (Michael Lee Austin, College Music Symposium)

Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip Hop DJ should be considered a foundational reading for anyone wanting to understand the context for the hip-hop DJs historical emergence, evolution and contemporary position in American musical culture ... Groove Music is to be lauded for supporting the legitimacy of hip-hop DJ culture―something that hip-hop DJs have struggled to educate music listeners about since hip-hop's beginnings. (Stephen Bischoff, Journal of Popular Culture)

A thoroughly researched, comprehensive, and well-written narrative history of [hip-hop's] practices ... Katz's book is an important contribution towards our understanding of the many facets of hip-hop culture ... Groove Music's insightful and intelligent consideration of the world of the hip-hop DJ will be a landmark for years to come. (John Paul Meyers, Notes)

It's all about the scratch in Groove Music, award-winning music historian Mark Katz's groundbreaking book about the figure that defined hip-hop: the DJ.
Today hip-hop is a global phenomenon, and the sight and sound of DJs mixing and scratching is familiar in every corner of the world. But hip-hop was born in the streets of New York in the 1970s when a handful of teenagers started experimenting with spinning vinyl records on turntables in new ways. Although rapping has become the face of hip-hop, for nearly 40 years the DJ has proven the backbone of the culture. In Groove Music, Katz (an amateur DJ himself) delves into the fascinating world of the DJ, tracing the art of the turntable from its humble beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s to its meteoric rise to global phenomenon today. Based on extensive interviews with practicing DJs, historical research, and his own personal experience, Katz presents a history of hip-hop from the point of view of the people who invented the genre. Here, DJs step up to discuss a wide range of topics, including the transformation of the turntable from a playback device to an instrument in its own right, the highly charged competitive DJ battles, the game-changing introduction of digital technology, and the complex politics of race and gender in the DJ scene.
Exhaustively researched and written with all the verve and energy of hip-hop itself, Groove Music will delight experienced or aspiring DJs, hip-hop fans, and all students or scholars of popular music and culture.