It reads like a textbook. | "You Better Work!": Underground Dance Music in New York (Music/Culture)

A cornerstone contribution to the exploration of underground dance music culture | "You Better Work!": Underground Dance Music in New York (Music/Culture) | Kai Fikentscher

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	• "You Better Work!": Underground Dance Music in New York (Music/Culture) Kai Fikentscher Wesleyan, 2000 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Accessible and Insightful

Kai's work is a rarity in ethnomusicology; it's accessible, entertaining, and enjoyable to read. His inclusion of 12 inch singles, top UDM charts, DJ and equipment photographs, in addition to his on personal exposes in relationship to the house scene in NYC make this study a rarity within a discipline full of bickerings over authenticity, theoretical concepts and musical hierarchies. "You Better Work!" is a rallying cry for aspiring musicologists and music fans alike. If you danced during this period, it'll bring back those sweet memories of Mr. Fingers, Frankie Knuckles, Ru Paul, Acid and the like.

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It reads like a textbook.

This book is informative, but it's a dissertation and reads like one.

I'm only 30 pages into it and it's a bit exhausting for me. If you don't mind the formality, then it's a good book. For example:

"Here, I am concerned with disco as a concept denoting a particular performance environment in which technologically mediated music is made immediate at the hands of a DJ, and in which this music is responded to via dance by bodies on the dance floor. "

He could have wrote that he is "interested in disco in terms of how the DJ's music makes people dance."

But it's a dissertation...so, it is what it is. I'm enjoying reading it. But I have to read some lines more than once.

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A cornerstone contribution to the exploration of underground dance music culture

Kai Fikentscher's evolutionary study and rounded presentation of New York's underground dance music and culture is a lonely triumph for a subject matter that desperately requires equal exploration of peer contributing U.S. cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Washington D.C.

"You Better Work!" is a straight edge to which much of what has been said about underground dance music culture should be realligned.

It's evident through well-crafted and intricately expressed text that the author has really done his homework. His book shines, especially when compared to similar historical efforts that clearly lack the consistent impact found in "You Better Work!".

Not only should those familiar with underground dance music absorb this essential reading, but the effort should be required academically, with particular regard to music, culture and art.

In addition to explaining fundamental concepts and techniques, Fikentscher details an often ill-reported but critical importance of UDM - the DNA of African, African American, Latino, Gay and a dejected segment of American society which defines the fabric of underground dance music culture.

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Great book

This is a great book. It is extremely accessible. I am using it with great success for an Introduction to Ethnomusicology course that I am teaching at a Liberal Arts College. The students like the book very much. It stimulates a good deal of in-class discussion. I would highly recommend this work for anyone interested in music, dance, ethnomusicology, urban studies, popular culture, popular music, American studies, and more... It is the kind of book that affords multiple points of entry. Bravo Kai Fikentscher

An Excellent Reference in Underground Dance Music

If you're looking for a book that's an excellent reference for Underground Dance Music in New York City, then "You Better Work!" by Kai Fikentscher is great reading!

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The first in-depth study of underground dance music.

reviews: page 1, 2

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