Originally Posted by
Vekked
There's a lot of things, and I think it depends a bit from scene to scene as to what people value in terms of uniqueness.
Like in the DJ battle/turntablist scene I think it's on 1 extreme side where a lot of people place little value on track/sample selection, and more on what you do with it. So it's HOW you play, not WHAT you play
In club DJing often times it's heavily weighted towards track selection, reading a crowd, etc, and is more concerned with WHAT you play, not HOW you play.
I would say that it's all of the above that makes a DJ unique. In certain contexts certain things might not be valued as much so they're not necessary, but I think in terms of being the best DJ all around you need everything. If you can have original selection AND play them in a way that no one else could or would think of, then that's the goal.
So yea, track selection and technique are the basis of what separates a DJ, then you have all degrees of style differences and things that can still set you apart but aren't as valuable artistically such as stage presence and crowd interaction and live show skills. I don't think gear really sets a DJ apart from another in any meaningful way, after a certain point as long as you have decent quality gear it's not the gear that makes the DJ.
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