Why are DJs Popular?
Lots of people–models, hotel empire heiresses, reality TV show contestants–are famous for no good reason. I’d also number DJs among these. In the past ten or fifteen years, they appear to have achieved a celebrity status on par with musicians.
And yet, as far as I can figure, they’re just archivists with nice head phones. I’ve put this argument to several pro-DJ people, and they always offer some dubious rejoinder about the DJ’s amorphous skill set. Apparently DJs use their Jedi powers to gauge, affect and respond to the ‘audience’s’ groove. What a remarkable achievement. Musicians can do that, and play an instrument at the same time!
There’s also the questionable description of the DJ as an artist. Yes, the good ones mix and synthesize different source material to construct a new performance piece. However, they add no original material to this mix, and are rarely using their ‘art’ to comment on anything.
In short, I think DJs get more credit than they deserve. I was reminded of this line of thinking by Alex, who thinks a lot less of DJs than I do:
The point is, while I enjoy good music in the background when I’m out revelling, I think we can all agree to cut out the lame DJ worship. I mean, think of how many people you know who claim to be DJ’s. Everyone’s a fucking DJ. I’m DJing right now here in my cubicle. I just segued from Bloc Party’s “Banquet” into Kings of Leon’s “The Bucket” - isn’t that amazing?
May 19th, 2005 at 11:10 am
I guess you need to define “DJ”. If you use the term to mean someone who stands at the front of the club and puts on the next song, then yes, they’re overrated.
If you’re talking about anyone who claims the turntable as their primary instrument, then I’d have to disagree with you. Watch a group like the Beastie Boys or the Roots play live, and you’ll see that the turntablist is doing a lot of work. Have you ever tried mixing records? It’s not quite as easy as it looks.
As for DJs who construct new performance pieces, I’m sure there good ones and bad ones. Would you consider DJ Danger Mouse (creator of The Grey Album) talented? I certainly would, and though he added no new material to the mix, he most definitely used his art to comment on it.
I don’t know that much about DJ’ing, as I don’t really listen to any music that would work well with the DJ atmosphere. However, I’ve seen a few talented DJs that make me hesitant to declare all DJs overrated.
May 19th, 2005 at 1:00 pm
Ishkur makes some pretty good points on this topic in his post The #1 DJ in the World. I tend to (mostly) agree with him.
May 19th, 2005 at 1:10 pm
For a laugh, check out Alex’s quasi retraction :)
May 19th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
Darren,
any DJ worth his salt in todays underground scene also composes their own music that they mix with others during their sets. If you’d like to see DJing earn its kudos, I’d recommend picking up Sasha’s “Involver” and giving it an examination — ie: how did he get to this point? It’s a lot more complex than you might think..
further, arranging a set requires talent from start to finish. you can do a hasty job with no thought given to things like percussion, melody, key, overall energy flow, and more factors.. many dj’s ignore this and think DJing is about hitting play, crossfading, oh — and their greatest accomplishment, beatmatching. these are not great DJ accomplishments. so yeah, if a DJ is adding nothing new to the mix, then I’m not sure what they’re worth other than the time they spent searching for what is, in their opinion, good music.
gotta run!
May 19th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
I had a friend ask me if I’d heard anything about a set he played at an event I was at recently. It sort of surprised me. People talk about how good the guy playing the CD was? Huh. I barely paid attention to the music at all, I was way too busy doing other stuff. Music is… background noise to me. Good background noise — don’t get me wrong, I love music. But background noise all the same.
Who goes to a club just to hear what the DJ’s gonna play next? I don’t get it. Of course, I’m not really a club go-er under normal circumstances.
I can’t stop thinking about “DJ’s Girl” by Katalina. “Excuse me, Mr Bouncer. I’m with the DJ.” Right, this makes you special, how?
Hee. Next time I go to one of the clubs the boy I’ve been seeing works at, I’m going to play up the “I’m with the bus boy.” Whatever, they’re both employees, that should get me in, right? Hello? Anybody? Mr Bouncer?
May 19th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
Mostly rubbish Darren. The only DJ’s that are what you would call popular are ones who output Techo, House, Trance, R&B, Drumm/Bass sorts of music. And they aren’t really that well known outside their own circles. They play to massive clubs in certain parts of the world and deserve the recognition they get within those circles for doing what they do. Outside of these circles they are not popular.
May 20th, 2005 at 10:01 am
I don’t thing I agree! I attended a show last night by Armin van Buuren (read about it at http://blog.mastermaq.ca/archive/2005/05/20/4229.aspx) and I must say, I was rather impressed!
I think it’s more than just standing on stage with some headphones and equipment. To me, it really felt like he was judging the audience, changing the music appropriately up or down, fast or slow, loud or quiet. It wasn’t just mixing music together to get a unique sound, it was more like creating the overall experience. Maybe you had to be there?
May 21st, 2005 at 8:30 am
I fully agree. Give me real instruments with real musicians any day. I’d personally rather hear record scratching stuff than some dude rapping, but that’s for another day.
April 5th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
[…] In the past, I’ve been somewhat frustrated when DJs have enjoyed the status awarded to artists in our society. If they’re not composers then, in my mind, they’re not artists. […]
October 1st, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I know this is an old post, but as a dj it’s something I’ve thought about at least a few times. I guess I just don’t know where the line is drawn between artist and non-artist. I put my own beats and sounds into my mixes. Getting everything so it stays in sync while you are looping it isn’t exactly easy. And between scratching, effects with adjustable parameters which totally reconstruct the sound, spin backs, wind downs, and all that, I feel I am at least being creative. Most people don’t realize how much effort it takes to make two tracks not sound like garbage played together, there’s a lot of CONSTANT adjustment going on with the equalizer as well as the speed of the records. I promise you, no one can just get behind a couple of decks and play a good set. I don’t care if you call it an art or not, I have fun playing and others have fun dancing.