Looking for the Perfect Beat: Remixing and Reshaping Hip-Hop, Rock and Rhythms

by Arthur Baker

For fifty years as DJ, producer and remixer, Arthur Baker has been at the pioneering forefront of hip-hop, rock, and electronic music. His unique and genre-defying sound can be heard on tracks by legendary artists like New Order, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, the Rolling Stones, Al Green, Pet Shop Boys, Quincy Jones, New Edition, Hall & Oates, Neneh Cherry, Mogwai and Fleetwood Mac.


Starting as a club DJ and disco producer at the start of the seventies in his native Boston, Baker moved to New York City in 1981. Through his early disco and hip-hop productions, he came to the attention of the most influential names in a music industry at the height of its powers. This would begin a career that would take him from the sweaty dancefloors of NYC to late-night studio sessions with Bob Dylan and to his celebrated anti-apartheid album Sun City, created with Little Steven Van Zandt.


From the underground to the mainstream, Looking for the Perfect Beat is the unique story of an artist with a need to discover new sounds and new ways to move an audience -- and who has influenced the sound of popular music for half a century.

480 pages, Hardcover

Published October 7, 2025

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always admired the production and remix work of Arthur Baker and even bought the albums he made with his kind of band / collective project, so this was an obvious book to buy when I spotted it. Nice short chapters, chronological, interesting... it's a decent music biography. If you want to read about the era where 12" versions were a swanky new concept, learn about popular drum machines and the early days of rap, read about New Order visiting NYC in 1983, or find out about the Roland 808 documentary (I remember enjoying that!) then I recommend it.

[Mads · Rating 3 out of 5]

not bad

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fan since Planet Rock, I found his anecdotes and insights surprisingly candid and honest. Recommended.