Bedroom Beats & B-Sides: Instrumental Hip-Hop & Electronic Music at the Turn of the Century

Product Description

The first decades of the 21st century saw dramatic changes in the music industry as technology transformed creation, communication, and consumption. Amid this turmoil one change occurred relatively quietly, almost naturally: so-called bedroom producers, music makers raised on hip-hop and electronic music, went from anonymous, often unseen creators to artists in their own right.

In Bedroom Beats and B-sides, journalist Laurent Fintoni details the rise of a new generation of bedroom producers at the turn of the century through the stories of various instrumental hip-hop and electronic music scenes. From trip-hop, downtempo, and IDM to leftfield hip-hop, glitch, and beats, the book explores how these scenes acted as incubators for new ideas about composition and performance that are now taken for granted.

Combining social, cultural, and musical history with extensive research and over 100 interviews, the book tells the B-side stories of hip-hop and electronic music from the 1990s to the 2010s. Using the format of a beat tape, it explores the evolution of a modern beat culture from local scenes to global community via the diverse groups of idealists on the fringes who made it happen and the external forces that shaped their efforts.

Before the uniformity of streaming services, always-on social media, and online tutorials for everything, this is a portrait of independence and experimentation amid historical change. It’s a story of obsession and dedication and how the fringes brought about a quiet musical revolution.

Review

“…an epic tome of information connecting the dots between many facets of electronic music. He writes similar to a DJ seamlessly transitioning from one point to the other, with visual vigor.” —
King Britt, Professor UCSD, music producer

“Finally a deep dive into one of the more interesting new musical trajectories of the modern era.” —
Sam Valenti IV, Founder of Ghostly Record Label

“The music industry was caught looking the other way, head in the sand, handing out golden parachutes. In the used bins we would marvel at their trash, what they couldn’t sink their teeth into, upcycling it in our way.” —
Daedelus, producer, Brainfeeder

About the Author

Laurent Fintoni has written about music and culture since the early 2000s. He began his career in London, writing about the turntablist, hip-hop, and drum & bass scenes for various UK and international magazines and websites that have long since disappeared into the cracks of history. Throughout the 2010s he was a regular contributor to FACT Magazine, The FADER, Bandcamp, and the Red Bull Music Academy Daily. He has also worked as a tour manager, label manager, and A&R for various independent labels and artists worldwide.