The Style Bible: Guide to Youth Culture in the 90s Book

Alon Shulman, DJ, producer, journalist and managing director of dance promoters "Universe", has come up with a handy compendium of cool; thumbprints of the people, bars, music, fashion, film and places that define the world of the beautiful people today, or yesterday, such is the time-sensitivity intrinsic to such a guide. Want to know the most happening club in Mexico? Pervert Lounge, check it out. Feeling panicky about your name not being on the door? Guestlisteria is what you're suffering from. Based on an axis of London, Los Angeles and Tokyo the result is a slightly self-referential cosmos of terms, places and names who have contributed to late 90s hipness, many of whom you will recognise from the dead-weight glossy magazines at hairdressers, and all expressed in a punning Estuary English journalese that will catch you smiling and wincing at the same time (very flattering). If you are not familiar with Paul Oakenfold or Dick Bradsell, you probably don't want to be, and if you are, little in this book will be new to you; however, it is an infuriatingly addictive browse, perfectly suited to the modern attention span, and entertainingly contentious. The Style Bible, paradoxically, will endure, and undergo several metamorphoses. Read it now, and while you can still drop the names and speak the lingo when ligging. Then cringe, as it passes into naffness, signalled when the gonna-bees become the has-beens, and put it with your Kula Shaker CDs at the back of the wardrobe. And lo! A decade will arrive when your copy of The Style Bible will reincarnate as a kitsch retro icon, to be greeted with phrases like "do you remember ...?", "we thought they were SO cool", and "Mum, you still say that". Very clever, actually. -- David VincentRead More