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

by Mark Ronson

From Mark Ronson, one of the most distinguished musical influencers of our time, comes a memoir that captures the music, characters, escapades, and energy of his DJ days in '90s New York. ​
 

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Memoir, Audiobook, Biography, Biography Memoir, New York

Audiobook

Published September 16, 2025

Reviews

[Jack Edwards]

Reads like a parody about privilege and nepotism – I just don’t think Mark Ronson is in on the joke.

[Kelly Foley]

This book is a hilarious and biting satire of nepo babies and gentrification.

I’m not certain the author knows that, though.

[mia]

love this man idgaf

[Lily]

This was one of my favorite reads of the year: a deep dive into 90s New York night life that reads like a love letter to a lost art of partying and the music that soundtracked it. Delivering it in a memoir format where we see Mark Ronson’s upbringing and working his way up the DJing ladder—before the success he is generally categorized by today—was all consuming; in the sense that I just wanted to keep living in the pictures Ronson painted with days worth of music to listen to with the record names dropped alone and the vivid imagery of every scene. The writing style was compelling, the story interesting, and the respect paid to the black and brown people who created the music Ronson was spinning and who were setting the trends of the scene was so artfully done, a refreshing integration into the narrative that was so deeply appreciated. There was no pretentiousness to the way Mark talks about music, there’s maybe my own insecurities about not matching his level of knowledge, nonetheless it was astounding to read the reverence held for the music of his youth; a sincerity that comes from being deeply enamored. I’d never considered DJing much of an art until this book; previously associating it with cross fading and playlist curation as opposed to the boundless knowledge of what pairs or works with what, the effort of carrying crates of vinyls that are marked up and practiced on hundreds of times over, reading a crowd and their energy levels and creating the atmosphere, resonates like a sommelier of sound. I was frequently considering the notion that older generations may actually love music more than we do; feeling geriatric in saying that we as a generation take for granted the relatively easy access we have to music through streaming nowadays, but it’s the truth! I’ll additionally add that we end up in echo chambers of sonic similarity, unless you’re actively seeking new music and pushing the bounds of what you know. It feels like there’s been a death of radio and other organic ways of discovering music, which for me added to the intrigue of reading about 90s club life through the eyes of a DJ. I don’t know, I think if I say more I’ll continue to talk in circles, I just really enjoyed this book and would like a playlist of every song and record mentioned curated for me immediately thank you!

[Ross]

is it cruel to give this book one star well i dont care i’m doing it anyway this was so bad

[Grace]

I don't know why I went into this sort of expecting not to like it - but even though yes, Mark Ronson is definitely not beating the nepo baby allegations, this book actually ended up being super charming and I enjoyed it a lot

[Sydney MacLeod]

I’m ready to party

[Cassidy]

it would be easy to write this off as the dreamy retelling of a privileged journey by a world famous nepo baby...

...if Mark didn't spend every other page sharing what an awkward poser he was at times.

This was fun, funny, and very human.

He talks about his writing process a bit at the end regarding how he interviewed a lot of people for this book, because although it is a memoir he wanted it to capture the era and the scene. I read this book because of my interest in the era, and I think he did a fantastic job bringing that world to life.

[Rebecca Gross]

What is this, name drop city?

[kira]

what an awesome memoir! i don’t have a single complaint about it, & after the last book i read, this felt like a breath of fresh air. ronson is brutally honest in such a captivating way where you feel like you’re right alongside him watching him put blood sweat & tears into his work!!! i love the way he spoke about music & the general idea of putting your body through so much wear & tear just to be apart of something you love. it was absolutely inspiring & the fact that it was set in 90’s new york was even BETTER, i got a glimpse of my favourite era! & how he spoke about people coming alive at night, just breathtaking. so many good stories, this was genuinely AWESOME i sped through it!!

[Heather Fischer]

There’s no way Dua Lipa wasn’t lying when she said she liked this

[Sophie Wood]

I love you Mark Ronson but this felt like a surface-level and shallow attempt at a memoir / history of nyc club culture. I feel similarly about this book as I did to Dave Grohl’s memoir.

[Mietta Yans]

“What musical lottery had I won to be here”

Don’t make us say it, Mark.

2.5

[Emily]

shoutout Rodrigo Corral, awesome cover design

[Vicky]

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an early copy of Night People

Mark Ronson is behind some of the biggest moments in modern pop history - producer on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, creator of Uptown Funk, co-writer of Shallow and the brains behind the Barbie soundtrack. But before that, he was a young DJ in New York City, spending years honing his craft night after night. We already know that Ronson can be considered a musical genius; now we can say he's also an outstanding writer.

Club culture and DJing have never interested me, but the way in which Mark Ronson brings this environment to life in Night People is extraordinary, immersing you in the heady lifestyle of DJs in 90s New York. The warmth and passion with which he speaks about this dying art form (DJing with vinyl, as opposed to modern software) will draw in any music lover.

As nepotism in the entertainment industry continues to be a hot topic, Ronson presents his privileged upbringing candidly, not shying away from the opportunities it brought him throughout his career, but without overshadowing the credit he's due for his own hard work.

Night People is an exceptional piece of music writing, crafted with pure joy and artistry from one of pop music's greatest minds. A vital read for music fans.

[Rachael Wehrle]

Deliciously nepo. I love nyc nightlife history. This was really cool.

[Kris]

I thought this was a memoir but unfortunately the title was too literal. A list of nights name dropping who is at each club and which songs were played. Dull as dishwater.

[Stella]

I....uh, am not a club kid and never was. Wait, that's a lie. There was a brief time in my 20s that I would frequent clubs but it was all an act.

Night People by Mark Ronson is the story of his life and New York City in the 1990s. Name drops include Sean Lennon and Yoko Ono. White privilege bleeds out across the page a bit thicker than nepotism.

The writing is a bit all over the place, but as someone who spent his youth at Limelight, I wouldn't expect anything else.

This is a fun look at the 90s club scene, but don't expect any life-changing advice.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Jillian Katz]

Overall I really liked this book but wish he spent a little more time on how he came to work with some of the greats to make some of the best songs. It was really interesting to hear his story and but we could have gone a tiny bit deeper

[Anna Oakes]

4.5⭐️ this memoir made me want to be a club rat in 90’s NYC soooo bad

[Kelly Pedersen]

Listened to this while I unpacked! Ty hottie Mark Ronson! This was fun and had great vignettes but I wanted the JUICE! Hearing about what NYC nightlife was like during that time was rly cool

[Stephen]

interesting autobiography of a 1990's DJ based in new york

[Annie]

what a dweeb (endearing)

[Cathoo Mathieu]

⭐3,5 - Ik schrijf nooit dingen op Goodreads, dit is ook geen recensie ofzo, maar gewoon een paar dingen waaraan ik dacht tijdens het lezen die ik wou bundelen 🙂

Voor ik aan Night People begon, kon Mark Ronson me eerlijk gezegd weinig tot niets schelen. In mijn ogen was hij vooral de producer van nummers als Uptown Funk en Nothing Breaks Like a Heart (en uiteraard ook het fantastische Valerie, maar dat ga ik niet bekritiseren dus laat ik even buiten beschouwing ;-)). Cheesy, groovy popnummers die ik als jonge tiener wel kon smaken, maar die iets fundamenteels misten en vooral aanvoelden als een imitatie van een muziekcultuur waar Ronson zelf niet echt deel van uitmaakte als popproducer??

Tot Florian mij dit boek aanraadde. Hij was ervan overtuigd dat ik het geweldig zou vinden, onder andere omdat het ook over sampling in hiphop gaat (een van mijn grootste muzikale interesses). Ik dacht in eerste instantie why the fuck schrijft Mark Ronson een boek hierover wat heeft flappie met hiphop te maken haha. Maar wat deze flappie niet wist, is dat Ronson nog vóór zijn carrière als producer, een hiphop-dj (en disco, en soul etc.) was in New York. En hij kent zijn canoooon #namedroppingking

Night People is een memoire waarin Ronson vanuit een persoonlijke invalshoek een inkijk geeft in de culturele tijdsgeest van de jaren ‘90 in New York, gezien door de ogen van een dj (maar dan wel vooral binnen de soul groove, hiphop discoooo scene aka mijn favoriete genres aller tijden). Ik las online reacties van lezers die het boek te niche vonden door de overvloed aan name drops van ‘onbekende’ artiesten en nummers, maar ik vond dit net fantastisch omdat dit volledig de muziek is die ik luister: de samplecultuur binnen hiphop, gebaseerd op obscure jazz-, funk- en soulplaten, vormt mee de soundtrack van het boek. Ik vond het ook heel markant om te lezen hoe zeldzaam sommige van die platen vroeger waren: nummers die vandaag als absolute klassiekers binnen de samplecultuur gelden, waarvan het ondenkbaar is dat ze ooit onbekend waren. Uit alles spreekt een intense, nerdy liefde en analoge muziekcultuur. En ik herkende me echt heel erg in zijn liefde voor muziek en de fascinatie ervoor.

Tegelijkertijd botste ik vaak met Ronsons persona. Omdat ik hem vooral associeerde met popproductie (maar dat ik door mijn eigen onwetendheid can’t blame him), vond ik het moeilijk om hem te zien navigeren als witte, geprivilegieerde nepo-baby binnen het DJ-landschap, en voornamelijk binnen genres die hun oorsprong vinden in de Afro-Amerikaanse gemeenschap. Zijn stiefvader is Mick Jones, gitarist en oprichter van Foreigner, wat maakt dat Ronson zich vrijwel nooit hoefde te bekommeren om financiële middelen en reeds binnen een scene opgroeide. De manier hoe hij spreekt hoe hij met opvallend veel gemak zich door de scene beweegt, wat voor velen gezien hun afkomst niet vanzelfsprekend is, getuigt van een zekere nonchalance en daar stoorde ik mij wel aan en maakte van hem meteen een unlikeable persoon vanaf bladzijde 1.

Tegelijkertijd viel me enorm op dat Ronson zich hier bewust van is en hier voortdurend de draak met zichzelf steekt. Hij portretteert zich vaak als een loser die regelmatig het deksel op de neus krijgt omdat hij denkt dat hij zich meer kan permitteren, maar hij loopt telkens met zijn hoofd tegen de lamp. Hij mythologiseert zichzelf niet (oké soms wel, maar welke artiest met een ego nu niet), maar toont ook op een zelfspottende manier hoe hij zich in een scene beweegt waar hij niet alles mag claimen als wit persoon. Dat zelfbewustzijn en de zelfrelativerende humor verzachtte dit gevoel ook erg voor mij. Florian heeft mij hier ook interessante dingen over bijgeleerd, omdat dit zelfspot-gedreven persona iets is dat Ronson in interviews bewust uitdraagt. Hij is nu eenmaal een beetje die stuntelige die vaak een dikke mep van karma krijgt.

Ik denk misschien dat het memoir-format (in dit geval) minder mijn ding is omdat het een vrij eenzijdig en weinig kritisch beeld geeft van de scene en tijdgeest. Tegelijkertijd was ik zoooooo jaloers dat ik niet bij al deze dansavonden was, niet al deze fantastische muziek op feestjes heb mogen horen, al die geweldige platen, en alle verhalen spraken echt tot de verbeelding.

Duuuus conclusie: great music great stories!!!! Ik heb een klein beetje meer sympathie voor Mark Ronson gezien zijn fantastische muziekstijl en liefde voor muziek, maar misschien moet ik zoals Florian zei meer interviews met hem kijken om zijn persona meer te begrijpen en te relativeren :)

[Alissa Winslow]

Marc Ronson is the correct type of nepo baby! LOVED this!

[Sophie Bloyd]

This book made me realize I don’t care at all about the 1990s New York club scene. It’s mainly name-dropping people I don’t know and unexciting stories. There’s probably a very specific person who would enjoy this book, but I’m definitely not that person.

[Kevin]

Heard about this book on a podcast so I listened to it! Mark’s narration was lively and his stories about the club scene back then were awesome. I learned a lot and I loved the cast of characters he ran into. Some stories painted him in a bad light and I appreciated him being honest to readers about his career. Oh how I long for a night on a 90’s dance floor…

[Maddywald]

Just discovered I can listen to kind of dumb audiobooks while I work so this was awesome. I like mark ronsons silly little accent. One of my fav nepo babies

[Natalie]

Foolish me, I should have known that a whole book about a man learning to dj and djing would be extremely dull…

[Brodie Groves]

a page turner for the gossip but not a huge amount else... this is a hard review to write cause my friend alice got me this book and i'm really grateful she did but i don't wanna seem mean cause i didn't love it ,... sorryyy..
it kind of fell into that memoir trap (like lena dunham ) where you allude to things that are really important to you and your mental health and story but never tap into them properly? like you don't owe anyone your life story but if your gonna write your memoir u kinda do ? like he kept alluding to a tough childhood expereince growing up a nepo baby with parents who party and also hig anxiety and stuff but always glossed over it? instead choosing to write a chapter on the best needles for technic turntables ? like baby lets circle back !!!
credit to him for acknoeldign his privilege and nepo vibes which made it a bit more palatable how much of his career was handed to him but still ... tough read at points in that regard.. also i know he chose to focus in on 90's new york and there was about 1500 songs mentioned in it but actually i would've loved to hear a bit more about his time with amy whinehouse etc. <3 anyway that's why i'm voting this book 3 stars