15 recent dance music books you should read this summer - Mixmag.net

Books documenting dance music and club culture are a rich source. There have been plenty of great reads on the societal and political aspects of clubbing in the past (we wrote about a few during lockdown ), and now feels like a good time for some more recommendations, with the last few years being fruitful on that tip. Books around the birth of entire genres, parties in their prime, existentialism on the dancefloor and studies on the future of dance music are all sitting on shop shelves, ready for you to get stuck into. To celebrate the continued output of these topical readings, we’ve compiled some of the best recently-released dance music books that you should read this summer. Check them out, in alphabetical order, below.

Jim Butler

A Disco Pogo Tribute To Andrew Weatherall, 2026 In this 350-page dedication to the late, great Andrew Weatherall , and a successor to the rare A Jockey Slut Tribute To Andrew Weatherall book, Disco Pogo looks behind the curtain at Weatherall’s extensive work and intriguing mind. Jim Butler compiles new oral histories, essays and interviews, ripe for any fan of the Guv’nor. Buy it here

Lauren Martin

Aftershock: The Seismic Impact of Dubstep, 2026 A detailed musing on the monumental fallout of South London’s dubstep scene of the ‘00s from music writer Lauren Martin, chronicling its rise and eventual global export. It’s a picture of a 21st century sound in ascent, charting the come-up of artists like Skream, Mala, and Coki, and parties like Hyperdub, Tempa, and FWD>>. Buy it here

DeForrest Brown Jr

Assembling a Black Counter Culture, 2021 From music writer and theorist DeForrest Brown Jr, Assembling a Black Counter Culture offers a critical lens to the changing shape of techno, tracing it back to its Detroit origins. Highlighting artists like The Belleville Three and Drexciya, this book is an insightful look at the Black pioneering talent who created and sent the sound of techno skywards. Buy it here

Holly Dicker

Dance Or Die: A History of Hardcore, 2025 After years spent immersed in the world of hardcore, Holly Dicker writes about its influence on “outsider youth”, the immense parties it spawned, and the generations of ravers who cease to let it die. It’s said to be the first critical study of hardcore, and the first fully detailed account of the sound and subculture surrounding it. Buy it here

Emma Warren

Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through the Dancefloor, 2023 In her most recent literary inspection of club culture and the spaces it occupies, Emma Warren asks the question: ‘Why do we dance together?’. Dance Your Way Home studies the social and cultural impact of dancing with others across the world, whether it’s on nightclub dancefloors, at the local youth centre, or at home in the kitchen. Buy it here

Duncan Dick

Destination Dancefloor, 2022 In this “global atlas” of dance music around the world, former Mixmag editor Duncan Dick documents the many scenes and micro cultures that make up a wider picture of global clubbing, with plenty of Mixmag journalism and contributors inside. Also featuring a foreword from The People’s Choice himself, Carl Cox, Destination Dancefloor is an excellent portrayal of electronic music on a worldwide scale. Buy it here

Harry Harrison

Dreaming in Yellow: The Story of the DiY Sound System, 2022 Telling the tale of one of the first house soundsystems in the UK, founding DiY Collective member Harry Harrison recounts the disorderly, anarchic early days of the Nottingham-born soundsystem DiY, from the infamous Castlemorton free party of ‘92 to the sunny shores of Ibiza's Café del Mar. It’s an “occasionally deranged” story of perseverance. Buy it here

Simon Reynolds

Futuromania, 2024 In something of a follow-up to his 2011 book Retromania delving into pop culture’s “addiction to its own past”, Simon Reynolds spins this idea into a story of innovation and new, more futuristic advances in pop and electronic music. Futuromania picks apart the new age of machine-music, compiling over 25 gripping essays and interviews. Buy it here

Ed Gillett

Party Lines: Dance Music and the Making of Modern Britain, 2023 Ed Gillett’s excellent book Party Lines documents a music scene at constant war with authorities, from the early acid house era and the anti-rave Public Order Act of 1994, to law-breaking parties during the COVID-19 pandemic and the continual fight for dancefloors to remain intact, tracing how dance music has moved through the UK on a political level. Buy it here

Kirk Field

Planes, Trains & Amphetamines, 2025 Rave New World author Kirk Field revisits tales of a debauched era as the “world’s first” club holiday organiser in this hilarious, riotous book. It recounts stories of avalanches in the mountains to storms on the North Sea, Ibiza folly and suspicious airport customs situations, all crammed into a joyful 335 pages. Buy it here

Graeme Armstrong

Raveheart, 2026 In a statement of resistance against the powers that be, Graeme Armstrong tells the hilarious fictional story of a DJ on a mission to save Scotland from the war on dance music. Raveheart is ultimately a celebration of liberated dancefloors, revolution, and rebellion, and all the best bits of dance music culture – a big fuck you to the draconian rulebook. Buy it here

McKenzie Wark

Raving, 2023 Australian writer and scholar McKenzie Wark delivers an earnest book on the state of raving in these trying times, focused around queer nightlife. Plunging into New York’s club scene, Raving questions the practice of dancing “in the ruins of this collapsing capital”, citing experiences of queer and trans nightlife that feel freeing and liberating. Buy it here

Ulrich Gutmair

The First Days of Berlin: The Sound of Change, 2022 After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, new Berlin resident Ulrich Gutmair witnessed a period of change and the ushering in of a new movement of creatives, ravers, and artists. He revisits that period in The First Days of Berlin, recalling the new possibilities that lay ahead and the blossoming of now world-renowned clubs like Tresor. Buy it here

Claire Manumission

The Motel: High Times in 90s Ibiza, 2026 Claire Manumission tells the lesser-known story of her MANUMISSION party off-shoot, The Motel, launched in Ibiza alongside her partner Mike McKay in the ‘90s. It’s a chaotic peek inside the brothel-turned-nightclub, across tales of drug-fuelled all-weekend-long parties, nightclub mafia, strip shows and hedonistic nights. Buy it here

Smokin Jo

You Don’t Need a Dick to DJ, 2024 Forget the high-flying DJ as you know her, Smokin Jo takes it back to the beginning of her story growing up in a children’s home where music was all but banned. You Don’t Need A Dick To DJ grapples with prejudices in the music scene, but also spotlights her many joyous moments along the way to becoming a global superstar. Buy it here Next Page