What’s this guy thinking?
ignorance, its as simple as that
He’s not wrong. DJ’s DO get more credit than they deserve. Thing is DJ’ing makes a person accessible. Not many DJ’s make it these days unless they have put out some good tunes. There’s only so much touring you can do off the back of 1 or 2 tunes, so they play out to cash in on the fact that peolple LIKE those records and want to associate with that DJ by watching them play OTHER PEOPLES RECORDS AS WELL.
Of course, there are exceptions. Turntablists SHOULD get credit. They’re bloody clever people that have put a lot of work into each routine. Controllerists will go into this category in the future - but not until the boundaries have been pushed as far as they can go, then reigned back in a bit to keep the funk/groove alive.
DJ worshio will be short lived. It’s definitely already peaked.
Yeah you are right. I am a professional classical pianist and I think djing is not on par with what goes into being a instrumentalist. but that’s with people just playing records. Controllerists and scratchers really get my respect though. I’m starting to get into djing.
But djs aren’t just playing the records they are like a mascot. A good dj’s charisma, physicality, and stage presence, just like a “real musician”, makes people move, love, dance, and have the time of their lives. I think it’s half playing records half on stage presence.
+1
You guys are aware that you are commenting on a five year old blog entry by some writer that is neither a DJ nor a musician?
yeah
Oh. I didn’t realise that. Maybe in those 5 years he’s been to see Tiesto and has changed his mind?
He does have a point.
It looks a bit different from my point of view though, seeing the culture from the “inside”.
In my eyes, there is very little wall between being an electronic musician and being a DJ.
A lot of brilliant musicians who work primarily on electronic equipment, samples and synth, etc, started out DJ’ing in clubs and eventually started producing more and more. This led to a merger of genres, etc.
Then, on top of that, there is the deal of playing electronic music live.
With Ableton Live, live sets and digital DJ’ing, the cultures of beatmatching and the cultures of playing electronic music live have very much collided. I can easily see why it’s hard to distinguish between a play-pause guy with a pair of CDJ’s and a guy with a monome and a million synths.
Of course, in the end, it’s all about loving your craft and giving people a blast 
beat me to it. the date should always check the date.
i did check the date but its still relevant to me because its a topic people stil bring up. i am a classcal pianist, brought up my strict russian parents who are also professional musicians. they brought up the same thing i when i was talking how i want to do DJing more seriously. and so do a few of my other friends too. so i had to explain it to them. even though its 5 years old people still bring up the same topic
Where his point falls shallow is his inference that DJ’s to not incorporate any of their own material, and do not incorporate anything “new” or created “on the fly” in their performances.
Witch is UTTERLY untrue.
So your telling me a piss poor Pianist, who is still practicing his craft, HE is an artist.
But a self proclaimed DJ who produces his own music, across many different genres, as well as playing those production into other artists productions during his sets. And in such sets, if you actually pay atention to the vocals and sounds in the tracks themselves, it will take you on a journey through the DJ’s political views, religious inferences, the evolution of the human experience, and so many other things.
But he is NOT an artist?
He is NOT a musician?
He tells a story through the selection and manner in witch he plays the compilations he decides to play…
How about Bassnectar sampling the crowd noise in the middle of a set, then immediately replaying the the sound of the crowd back into the mains, let it play into an effect loop and then effect it down to a beat that then holds the bass-line for the the rest of a track, built completely on the fly.
But that is not musicianship?.
And that is not artistry?
The author of that blog post makes MANY generalizations about what a “DJ” is and what their performances consist of to back up his position.
And many of these generalizations are just flat wrong.
Sorry to get off topic here, but that is sick!!! really creative
Were you there for that?
can people stop getting producers and dj’s mixed up please?
whether someone produces or not is irrelevant to the discussion
Unfortunately no ):
But the video is rather epic, and demonstrates an idea I always had at desert parties of sampling wind gusts with a mic during a set and using that…
Art and musicianship is in the eye (or ear) of the beholder.
The author of that blog clearly states that he see’s music as a background form of entertainment. He doesn’t “actively” participate in the listening experience. He passively participates in it.
So he doesn’t have the contextual observational experience to be able to comment on the subject, in my opinion.
In order to form an objective opinion on ANY subject, you have to base your decision on actual observation, and even harder than that, unbiased observation. Making your decision based on the opinion and observation of others, or making your own observations with the bias of those opinions eliminates your ability to form your own objective opinion.
You are now merely a lemming, following the decision making processes of others, instead of forming you own.
How is this irrelevant to the discussion?
As soon as someone produces something themselves they cease to be a DJ?
Is that what you are saying.
Because that as well, is flat wrong.
A producer, in my mind, does not cease to be a DJ, until he, or she, or they arrange the pieces of their various “productions” on the fly, so they are playing their tracks from their component pieces in their live “show”.
So that it is no longer a DJ set.
It is a live performance.
And the author of that Blog post is implying that anything short of a live performance is NOT musicianship, and is NOT art.
And many on this forum have been quick to echo his sentiments. While I believe his fundamental statement is based on passive experience, and other peoples opinions.
In my experience the majority of DJ’s I have ever seen live don’t do anything inspirational. Mix one track into the next, and that’s it. This goes for some big name DJ’s too. I’d be hard pressed to label them artists. It’s for this reason that I am completely unsurprised when people hate on DJ’s. The arguments presented in this thread, whilst true for a small minority of performing DJ’s, does not reflect on the craft overall.
Don’t get me wrong, I love being a bedroom DJ and putting my mixes on an Ipod to listen to on the train into work, but I can’t pretend that the majority of ‘DJ’s’ aren’t bland and boring when it comes to performing (lights, video clips and dancers do not a good performance make). Some people will argue track selection and reading the crowd, but that’s not performing, that’s just (and should be) the bare minimum expectation for a working DJ.
There will always be the proverbial kernel of corn buried in amongst the crap, but don’t be surprised if people who put their opinions on blogs would prefer not to go digging for it.
Hardly any DJs do that kind of thing though. Most play 1 tune after another so people can dance to it or enjoy their drinks.
Where’s the crime in that?
None.
Most people who hate on DJs don’t listen to dance music or go clubbing. It’s like me hating on the Ballet, my opinion means f*ck all.
You’re comparing music to dance.. apples and oranges
I don’t like top 40 music, and I sure as hell don’t listen to it. Doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion on the over marketed and over rated “artists” that perform in the industry.
Same goes for the blog author.