Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City

Capturing the music, characters, escapades, and energy of his DJ days, a profound memoir from seven-time Grammy-winning record producer Mark Ronson.

Lady Gaga, Adele, Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa, Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus, the Barbie soundtrack--behind some of the biggest musical moments in the past two decades is one man: Mark Ronson. Night People conjures the undeniable magic of the city's bygone nightlife--a time when clubs were diverse, glamorous, and a little lawless, and each night brought a heady mix of music, ambition, danger, delight, and possibility. It's about the beauty of what you can create with just two Technics and a mixer, in a golden era before Giuliani, camera phones, and bottle service upended everything. It's also about a teenager finding his way--stalking DJ Stretch Armstrong and biting his mixes, crate-digging in every corner of New York, grinding gig after gig through a decade of incredible music--and finding a community of people who, in their own strange, cracked ways, lived for the night.

Organized around the venues that defined his experience of the downtown scene, Ronson evokes the specific rush of that decade and those spaces--where fashion folks and rappers on the rise danced alongside club kids and 9-to-5'ers--and invites us into the tribe of creatives and partiers who came alive when the sun went down. A heartfelt coming-of-age tale, Night People is the definitive account of '90s New York nightlife and the making of a musical mastermind.

Author: Mark Ronson
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 09/16/2025
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 8.52h x 5.80w x 0.94d
ISBN: 9781538741115


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/01/2025 pg. 9
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2025
Publishers Weekly 08/18/2025
Booklist 09/01/2025

About the Author
Mark Ronson is a nine-time Grammy winner (with five additional nominations). He's won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, two BRIT Awards (with five additional nominations), and has been nominated for a Daytime Emmy. He performed at Super Bowl 50 in 2016 with Coldplay, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars, and has been a musical guest on Saturday Night Live three times since 2014, with Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus. In addition to his own albums, and writing and producing work with other artists, Mark has contributed to the soundtracks of HBO's Euphoria, the 2016 Ghostbusters, the 2018 A Star Is Born, Suicide Squad, Disney's 2016 live-action Jungle Book, and the Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig.