Hi. My name is Michael Tullberg, and I’m one of the longest-running electronic music photojournalists in North America. During the 1990s and 2000s, I was writing and photographing for most of the major dance music magazines in this country, covering the hottest and most controversial music scene in the land: the rave scene.
That’s right, the rave underground. The secret dance music network. The parties that were so intense, they became instant classics as their growing legion of fans raved joyously well into the morning on a regular basis.

I was smack in the middle of the most cutting-edge music scene to be found anywhere, at the heart of the American rave nation: Southern California. For a grand period of several years, this underground phenomenon changed the face of American dance music culture, growing from a disparate band of musical outsiders into the mammoth success story that today we call EDM. It was a nationwide grassroots movement that built its own success and its legacy—one amazing, incredible and outrageous party at a time. It made possible the dance-dominated pop of the likes of Lady Gaga and David Guetta, and paved the way for today’s electronic heroes like Skrillex and Deadmau5.

DANCEFLOOR THUNDERSTORM: Land Of The Free, Home Of The Rave is my new book about the glory days of the American rave scene (1996 through 2002), as it exploded nationwide like wildfire. It contains hundreds of my very best photographs from the formative years of epic parties like Electric Daisy Carnival, Nocturnal Wonderland, How Sweet It Is and others. It gives you VIP access to legendary DJs like Paul Oakenfold, Moby, Fat Boy Slim, Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Christopher Lawrence and more. It also contains DJ interviews, some of my best vintage magazine articles and live reviews, along with rave fliers and memorabilia as well.

Make no mistake, folks: DANCEFLOOR THUNDERSTORM is going to take you back, to the warehouses, deserts, mountains, beaches and Hollywood clubs where rhythmic magic was made. In other words, it’s a rave hot tub time machine.

DANCEFLOOR THUNDERSTORM is going to be the very first book of its kind in the U.S., the first book to show the visual record of a critical era in not only dance music culture, but pop culture as well. The first book to show what it was really like, as opposed to the nearly continuous anti-rave vitriol that was spouted forth by the mainstream press.

There have been many books of this type published in Europe and the U.K., but not here in America. In fact, DANCEFLOOR THUNDERSTORM was turned down by more than twenty major publishing houses, which is why I’m here on Kickstarter, looking for your help so that I can publish this book myself, under my own independent publishing house, 5150 Publishing.

This isn’t just another vanity project, either: I plan an initial print run of 10,000 copies, and possibly a larger one if the electronic music community responds with support like it has so many times in the past. The book will be available directly to the public on the DANCEFLOOR THUNDERSTORM web site in the Spring of 2014 and will be shipped directly to the customer from its automated warehouse and distribution center, in a swift and professional manner. And you never know, you just might find us setting up shop at a festival or two in the future, who knows…?

WHAT ARE YOU PAYING FOR?
Mostly the printing of the book. Getting 10,000 photo books of 300 pages or more made on high-quality paper isn’t exactly cheap, as you might expect. Thus, this is where most of the money is going—the making of a high-quality product meant to last a lifetime on the shelf or coffee table of any electronic music or pop culture fan. A lesser amount is for paying the great people who have worked so long and hard on this book alongside me, including my Editor and my Graphic Designer. These veterans from the classic URB magazine have done a fantastic job and they deserve to be compensated properly for their efforts.

And as you can see on The Kickstarter page, we’ve got a bunch of cool rewards for those who choose to support this project.  Of course, the biggest reward is the book itself, which you can basically pre-order with a donation of $60.00.  You’ll be avoiding the shipping costs that are normally included in shopping online, and California residents get a special bonus: NO SALES TAX!  And that’s not all!  You can also receive CUSTOM PHOTO PRINTS of several of the images appearing in “DANCEFLOOR THUNDERSTORM”, in 5″x7″, 8″x10″ and 11″x14″!  Yes, you can hang some of the dynamic photos from the glory days of the rave scene right up on your own wall!  Plus, we’ve got exclusive VIP tickets to one of Hollywood’s hottest nightclubs, thanks to the one and only Danny B, L.A. club promoter extraordinaire.  And you can even get a Skype photo seminar with yours truly, where I’ll tell you the secrets of creating fantastic nightlife photography–at a rave, or anywhere else!”

AND…if that’s not enough for you, then try this on for size: YOU CAN APPEAR IN THE BOOK!  Yes, that’s right, YOU can ensure that your name–and even your face, if you feel generous enough–appears in the book right alongside electronic music legends like Paul Oakenfold, Fat Boy Slim, Christopher Lawrence and more!  How cool is that?
If we exceed our target donation amount, we’re certainly open to stretch goals.  We definitely want to meet the demands of the fans of the music, so if we take in enough to expand the initial printing beyond our planned total of 10,000 copies, that becomes a distinct possibility.

So come take part in electronic music history, by contributing to “DANCEFLOOR THUNDERSTORM: Land Of The Free, Home Of The Rave”!  Yes, it really is all good.

LINK: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1524062987/dancefloor-thunderstorm-groundbreaking-american-ra